Typecasting, Candice Bergen and Family Relationships
I'm experiencing some challenges in my relationship with Candice Bergen.
I recently started watching Boston Legal on Sunday nights, because Candice Bergen had joined the cast. (She joined the cast so that more people like me would start watching Boston Legal on Sunday nights.) Like most Candice Bergen fans, I mainly associate her with her character on Murphy Brown: tough, smart, funny, sharp, no-punches-pulled, slightly over-the-top, and definitely not someone you want to have angry with you. Even the Vogue editor she played for a few episodes of Sex and the City fit this mold.
While I'm certainly enjoying watching her on Boston Legal, it's been an interesting challenge for me, because the character she plays, Shirley Schmidt, is different from Murphy Brown. I expected her to be playing a larger-than-life version of her usually type. Instead, we're shown a very different Candice Bergen, and I'm noticing that even after three episodes, I'm still having to adjust my expectations.
Shirley Schmidt does embody all of the strong qualities that Candice Bergen's characters are famous for: brilliant, no-nonsense, sharp and canny. But she's also much softer and more compassionate than I expect from her characters. This new character is still Candice Bergen, but she's a far more subtle and nuanced Candice Bergen than I expected.
I realized this after the first episode. And yet, I still expect her to behave in the way she did in Murphy Brown. I expect her confrontation scenes to be bigger and louder and broader, and I don't expect to see her character as a layered and multi-faceted person.
This is creating a certain amount of strain on my relationship with Candice Bergen. I'm having to alter my expectations of how she behaves, and who she appears to be as a person.
Sadly, I don't actually have a personal relationship with Candice Bergen. I simply have the same relationship to her that millions of other television fans do. But even in this one-sided relationship, I still have safety and validation needs, and this change in her character is disrupting those needs. The fact that she has evolved, that she is playing a different character requires me to adjust my expectations and redefine my relationship with her, and this makes me feel less safe in our relationship.
(At this point, in the interest of avoiding a restraining order, let me state that I am only using Candice Bergen as an illustration.)
In Hollywood, actors are, often arbitrarily, assigned a "type." We see an actor in a certain role, and identify her with that role. The stronger the identification, the harder it is for us to accept her in different roles. Actors constantly struggle against "typecasting," because once they're seen as a certain "type," they find it more difficult to be cast in roles that differ from this "type."
Jim Carrey, for example, is a fine dramatic actor; however, it's taken him many years (and a number of baby steps) to be able to be accepted in more serious roles, and audiences still relate to him best when he's being a clown.
But typecasting doesn't just happen in Hollywood. We also encounter typecasting in our family relationships.
For most of us, we first experience typecasting because we're the ones being typecast. Our families have an uncanny knack for not recognizing how much we've evolved and matured as individuals. No matter what our accomplishments, no matter how much we've achieved, our parents and siblings invariably remember us as we were in our most memorable (and usually our least favorite) role from our childhood.
When we spend time with our families as adults, we struggle against this typecasting. We try, in increasingly less subtle ways, to get our families to recognize and relate to us for who we are, rather than for who we were. It's an ongoing struggle–one that we seem to lose more often than we win, reverting to type and playing out our well-established roles in the family drama long after we believe we've outgrown them.
What we rarely notice while we're feeling typecast ourselves, is that we're making the same typecasting assumptions about our family members. We're so concerned that our family members notice how much we've changed and evolved that we don't take the time to notice how our family members have also grown.
Since the Universal Law of Relationships states that our partners in relationships are our mirrors, (and therefore it's never about the other person), if we want our families to accept us for who we are now, all we need to do is to learn to accept them for who they are now. When we change how we relate to our families, the way that they relate to us will also change.
It's quite simple, actually. Unfortunately, simple isn't the same thing as easy. Just as it's taking me time to adjust my expectations of Candice Bergen and accept her in her new role, it takes us (and our families) time to adjust our expectations and begin to relate to each other as adults.
One essential thing to recognize is that anytime the nature and dynamic of a relationship changes–especially a long-standing relationship such as a family relationship–we're dealing with the question of safety needs.
Let me explain. One of the fundamental things that our egos need in order for us to feel safe is to know what to expect. On the most fundamental level, "safe" is the same thing as "familiar." We don't have to like what we expect in order to feel safe; we simply have to experience what we expect.
Consider this: Our family relationships are some of the most important (and frequently difficult) relationships in our lives. We value safety in these relationships tremendously, because safety often seems to be in such short supply. No matter how well defended we may feel in the rest of our lives, our family members always know where (and how) we're the most vulnerable. We instinctively cling to what's familiar (and therefore safe) in our family relationships, and this results in typecasting.
On a conscious level we may want to embrace our family members and recognize their evolution as individuals. On an unconscious level, however, the fact that our family members are no longer playing their familiar and safe roles in the family drama is very threatening. We (and our family members) unconsciously cling to the familiar family dynamic (no matter how dysfunctional it may be), and try to impose it on our family members
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Relationship: Just Because
Life is all about giving and not taking so learn to give and see how happy you feel. If you love somebody then you will definitely want to give and not expect anything in return expect that intense love you've always looked forward for. It should be love and only love you should expect in return. Give your lover gifts for no reason. It will just make your partner happy. It does not have to be expensive. Little things in life make a lot of difference. Present a cute little teddy bear or a simply a card saying "I love you", or a stalk of red rose. After all you don't have to find occasions to show that you care. It is something that you should show quite often to let your love not fade.
Don't wait for expected time to do something special do just because
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Dating In 2006 So Many Choices
Every thing is Rush, Rush, Rush. We all have a million agendas and only a 100 hours to do it all in.
Americans work more hours, spend less time at home, and eat on the go more than ever before. So how do we meet people that will have the same interest as if we don't even have time to catch our breath?
There are online chat rooms, online dating sites, traditional dating services, lunch dating services, speed dating, cell phone dating, and more.
Chartrooms can get really hairy as we have to put our belief in the person on the other side is actually telling us is true. They are a fun place to goof around but for anyone looking for a serious relationship, I don't suggest you go there.
Online dating sites are useful mainly to singles that aren't looking for a serious long term relationship. I am not saying that long term relationships can't develop from meeting some one on a online dating site. The chances are higher that the person on the other end is either not ready to settle down, not who they say they are, our just getting back into the dating world. Just be cautious.
Traditional dating services can get expensive but there are professionals with the skills to help you locate some one with all the same interest as you. There are extensive back ground and personality profiles performed on each member in the service.
They will usually guarantee in contract that they will help you find that perfect some one.
This is a good way to pursue a relationship as long as you have some extra money to dedicate to a quality professional service. It may also help you save time, money, and energy in the long run skipping all the dating games.
Speed dating is one of the latest trends. It gives you several minutes with a person to allow you to find out some basic information and then you go to the next single and so on. You really don't get any quality time with others but some one may strike a note and you can come back to them for more information and there number.
Cell phone dating surfing the net on your phone is the newest trend. It's like speed dating and online dating combined. There is risk with this as with online chat rooms, online dating sites, and speed dating.
If you don't have time to go searching for a new love than maybe one of the dating strategies I spoke about will help you in your quest.
Just remember when you go and try these services, have fun, be yourself, and don't expect any miracles. When the right person comes along, you'll know it.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)