Most fathers don't see the war within the daughter her struggles with conflicting images of the idealized and flawed father her temptation both to retreat to Daddy's lap and protection and to push out of his embrace to that of beau and the world beyond home.

Christmas can have a real melancholy aspect 'cause it packages itself as this idea of perfect family cohesion and love and you're always going to come up short when you measure your personal life against the idealized personal lives that are constantly thrust in our faces primarily by TV commercials.

Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.