Breakfast at Tiffany’s has a lot more meaning than what I though it had. My eyes were opened and mi ignorance abated by a the latest book I managed to read, half on the airplane/half on my couch, “Fifth avenue, 5 A.M.”. The book introduces Breakfast atTiffany’s as a pivotal point in the roll of woman in society. It also presents delightful Audrey Hepburn as the antithesis of it all. Even more so than the movie it was Truman Capote and the original Breakfast at Tiffany’s (not the Hepburn-housewife part). The destiny of both, the movie and the book, intertwines because of the censorship of the times and basically because the story was pretty out there. The real Holy Golythly was too much to be massified, but it certainly was the original seed, Audrey’s version made it pop. Both the movie and the book absolutely enjoyable.

They got me thinking, you know when the good old days are mentioned? A reference to the days of yore when America was great and prosperous. That era was probably from May of 1945 when United States wins the war up until the last days of disco. The peak of the empire. And it was great, great for business, great for social mobility. Everybody looked to America the land of the free. But it also was great if your were white heterosexual male. If you were a minority, a woman or gay, you were screwed. Slowly (through the sixties and seventies) each constituency started fighting for their rights and gaining ground among the white heterosexual male .

What troubles me is that in this country the comparison, when looked as in a graph, of freedom and social equality with income equality and social mobility looks almost as two crossing lines. Back in the day things appeared to be more distributed and people that got to this country with zero in their pockets made it. Immigrants came and fought their way through. The poor man got its education and made it through. Not any more.

What does it mean? I know it does not means that this world is better when it is ruled by WHMs (because of its fundamental stepping on the rest of the world). It may be lack of information and bad perception of those days, more of the same hypocrisy. But there is also hard data that speaks to it.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is just a little piece in the puzzle. I am sure today there are many women like Audrey Hepburn and I am sure not all girls want to be like Holy Golythly, but certainly both have the choice. There are some things that money cannot buy.

Do you have your own answer?

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