Welcome back to The Weekend Press! Today, Suzy Weiss reacts to Meghan Markle’s “unhinged and unintentionally hilarious” Christmas special. And if you’ve ever worn slippers to the airport, Elliot Ackerman wants to have a word. But first: Has divorce stopped being a tragedy?
The right to end an unhappy marriage has always been associated with feminism and freedom. But until quite recently, it wasn’t a right you exercised lightly. Divorce was something serious and sad.
In the years since, something strange has happened. Though divorces have fallen, the culture has shifted to treat them as something worth celebrating. There’s been a glut of movies and shows and books about fortysomething women having delightful sexual awakenings after leaving disappointing husbands. Female celebrities are celebrated for getting divorced. Separation is now a triumphant path to self-actualization. It’s almost more taboo to say, “I was miserable in my marriage back then, but I stuck it out.”
But that’s exactly what Larissa Phillips is saying, today, in a beautiful personal essay. She looks back at the time she considered breaking up with her husband, then didn’t. “When I listen to people who stay married for decades, I hear the same thing over and over: ‘Back then, we didn’t know if we’d make it,’ ” she writes. No one ever said it was easy. No one says you have to stay. But for her, it was worth it.
The New York Times published a mega-viral piece this week about a woman who made the opposite decision to Larissa; it was titled, “The Case for Ending a Long, Mostly Good Marriage.” The writer, Cathi Hanauer, actually helped the husband she’s separated from found the paper’s Modern Love series, one of the many corners of the culture that’s helped shift our ideas about marriage.
This week, Kat Rosenfield had two drinks with Cathi in Grand Central Terminal, to ask her: What’s it like when the whole world sees the implosion of your relationship as a referendum on the institution of marriage? Of matrimony, Cathi had this to say: “It’s the worst possible way of doing things except for all the other ways that have been tried.”
Meghan Markle Is the Slop Princess We Deserve |
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Meghan Markle’s Christmas special has arrived on Netflix and it’s amazing, writes Suzy Weiss. The duchess of Montecito says things like, “A tradition has to have a beginning.” One of her holiday “hacks” is: Premake wax seals for your gifts, so you can just stick them straight on when you’re in the mood to wrap! This is the highest form of slop, and you won’t want to miss Suzy’s review of it. (Or her opinions on Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau’s double date with the Japanese first couple.) | | |
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A Man Should Know: How to Travel |
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A pajama protest has been taking place in America lately. After the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, told citizens not to wear slippers to the airport, people across the country traveled home from Thanksgiving looking like they were ready for bed. But in his latest column, Elliot Ackerman writes that “Duffy’s remarks generated a head nod and slow clap from me”—before sharing his marvelous guide to traveling like a gentleman. | | |
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