Day by day by day

I think that I need to blog more to attempt to remind myself that my interests extend beyond finishing my latest reading assignment. During the last month I have done little other than read, write (office memos and case briefs), and freak out about reading and writing. On Mondays I watch the Hills on demand and hate/love it more and more each episode. On Sundays I watch True Blood. Sadly, most of my breaks are television oriented. Or I work out. I figure those two activities maybe average themselves out somehow? But, then again, sometimes I watch TV on my ipod while I work out. I need new hobbies.
I have always wanted to be one of those people who get really into something, like music or knitting or calligraphy or chess. My brother can go for hours without speaking to anyone, as long as he has his guitar. In high school, he was the same way with sports. I like to do a whole lot of different things but none of them has ever turned into an obsession. Maybe I should try something totally new, like conducting awesome science experiments.
Anyway, I just found a Starbuck (from Battlestar Gallactica) Halloween costume. It is pretty awful but makes me wish i had a real Battlestar outfit. Although, really, what she is wearing here looks a lot like my grade ten style when everyone shopped at Army Surplus.

So I am in Legal Writing class but am quite bored and am looking up stuff about Sarah Palin. Did you know that she engages in aerial wolf hunting?

Badass Barack!!

Super Depressing The View

So yesterday I was watching TV at the gym and I caught part of a View episode.
Yes, I watch television when I am working out because, for me, cardio is impossibly boring without an episode of Lost or (if I don't feel like downloading shows onto my ipod) CNN or ABC stuff on Gold's Gym's giant television screens.
So, this particular episode focused on plastic surgery and in one particular segment they brought in a girl who had gotten breast reduction and liposuction at 15!
I understand the breast reduction was necessary because people gave her so much hell for her DDs and she couldn't jog and everything but a TUMMY TUCK?
When asked why, the girl said that no matter how much she exercised, she could never get rid of her belly. Her mother added that it was partially because her daughter was beginning to show signs of an eating disorder AND IT WAS A PREVENTATIVE PROCEDURE TO STOP IT FROM GETTING WORSE.
Jezebel has a clip of all this.
There are so many things wrong with this. First off, when someone shows signs of an eating disorder, they need a psychologist, not PLASTIC SURGERY!
Second, in my experience (and I know that I cannot speak for all people who have had eating disorders but I think that this is a pretty universally agreed-upon statement) eating disorders, in most cases, have very little to do with what your body actually looks like. Shrinking one part of your body is not going to make your issues go away. If that was the case, anorectics and bulimics would stop dieting and purging once they reached their "goal" weight.
I am not against plastic surgery, although I have no plans to get it myself, but I am anti liposuction, just like I am against extreme dieting, unless it is for medical reasons. I understand that there are crazy beauty standards out there and they are very difficult to deal with- after therapy I still struggle and cave to this shit sometimes- but shouldn't we be fighting against these standards instead of just acceptig that they are going to get more and more unhealthy? They are just going to get crazier.
This is just too depressing for me, I am signing off.

Shane & Carmen 4ever

For those of you who don't know, watching the L Word is one of greatest joys in life. So today I was missing it so much (since the new season doesn't start for quite a while) that I looked it up on youtube to see if there were any weird clip mashups/music videos and I found some decent ones.

Shane and Carmen

I like this one except I wanted it to show the whole leaving Carmen at the altar thing.
I liked this one better, I think...

The crazy thing is that these are all made by the same person, username shaneycarmenforever.
I would like them to get back together but this is kind nuts.
And pretty awesome.

HERE IS MY FAVOURITE!!!
FYI: This one was made by user iluvshane

Badass Bikini Kill+Shane=awesome.

Sunday Pride post

So, once again, I haven't written in quite a while. The thing is that, ever since I got fired from my last shitty admin job and started working making coffee for a living (again), I haven't really been online too much.
But anyway.
I am blogging on the last night of SF pride because instead of going out like a lot of people in the city I am staying in since I have to wake up early to get to work at 6:15. A little annoying, particularly since there are two major leather bars outside my window where people are super stoked on being out, but whatever.
This weekend was pretty awesome. Rex, my friend/housemate from my first year at UCSC came up for the festivities and to host a party at the Mezzanine, which I attended on Friday. On Saturday I hung out at and around Dolores Park for the whole pre-dyke march thing and then watched it from my friend Conor's apartment on the corner on Guerrero and 18th. It was pretty weird to watch a whole bunch of gay guys throwing Mardi Gras beads at queer women flashing their tits. I guess some sexualized gender interactions exist independent of sexuality. It was a pretty fun party though.
Today I met up with some people for the parade/festival after recovering from a mini meltdown.
Bisexuality is complicated sometimes. Shows like Tila Tequila enforce the idea that bisexuality is more of crossroads than a state of being. Not that people can't change their mind, but I have known I am attracted to men and women since I was in elementary school and, in my opinion, queer is queer. Sometimes though I worry that people think I say I am bi for street cred, or that I am a "college bisexual" who makes out with girls purely to turn men on at parties.
I understand that, as a woman who lives with a man, I have a lot of straight privilege but I still struggle with a lot of internal craziness resulting from years of confusion and shame and everyone once in a while I need some validation.
Anyway, this is a rant. The point is that, when I called my friend Seth, he told me to get some pink and blue beads and meet him and his girlfriend at the civic center. We had a great time. I saw Margaret Cho and Peter Paige and got a badass shirt from the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP). Then I went to visit my boyfriend who was working at Dog-Eared Books on Valencia and collapsed on the couch reading Michelle Tea in fishnets and a giant purple boa. No one seemed to mind.
Happy Pride!

I haven't written in so long but this made me really mad.
Absinence gear for pre-teens at Kmart marketed as "bold abstinence screen print." Walmart has pissed me off big time before but this is ridiculous...

Top Gun the Musical

Step for Mental Health Care?

So FINALLY, according to the New York Times the House has passed a bill that requires insurance companies to provide mental health insurance parity, meaning that mental illness must be treated on par with physical illness. And the insurance companies, obviously, are PISSED!
This, in my opinion, represents a huge step in US mental health rights. Even with good insurance (which I lack, but whatever) being less than totally sane is extremely expensive in this country. So, good going!

The bill would ban insurance companies from setting lower limits on treatment for mental health problems than on treatment for physical problems, including doctor visits and hospital stays. It would also disallow higher co-payments.

I mean, obviously, I am still waiting until there is national health care but till then, I am pleased with this in principle.

I guess the Senate passed a more limited version of this sort of bill last fall, which Mr. Bush prefers because he thinks the new one includes too broad a list of disorders.

The House bill would require insurance companies that offer mental health benefits to cover treatment for the hundreds of diagnoses included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, from paranoid schizophrenia to stuttering to insomnia to chronic melancholy, or dysthymia.

The Bush administration and other opponents say the list of disorders is far too broad. That leads from parity to another, parallel morass in the fields of psychiatry and pharmacology. Both fields are accused of over-diagnosis and of seizing on fashionable diagnoses — bipolar disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder, for example — for financial gain or through highly subjective assessments.

Mental illnesses are over diagnosed. Old fucking news. This does not mean that people who ACTUALLY live with these diseases do not deserve care.

Feministing's Samhita has a great post about the prison industrial complex at The Nation. Check it out.

"Girls Rock" Looks Super Bad Ass!!!

Oh my goodness. I wish I could have gone to this camp when I was 11. To think of the years of therapy I could have been spared...

No, seriously though. this documentary looks amazing. Basically, a rock camp for girls (of a pretty large age range) that seems to focus on bringing their self esteem up instead of pushing it down and encourages individuality instead if conformity and general mundaneness.

Furthermore, it seems to be pushing for music that is actually cool, based on the soundtrack and samples from the girls' music.

I am so excited. I can't wait. When I have daughters, they are definitely going to this camp.

This trailer totally made me tear up. I think I am going to watch it five more times now.

I was always under the impression that stupid, idiot, offensive people were usually under the impression that they are actually smarter than everyone else.

Not Charlotte Allen.

In her article, published in the Washington Post last Sunday, Allen writes about how maybe we should just give up on this who feminism thing and relinquish the brains to the men. She also says that she neither add two and two nor count the shoes in her closet.

"I can't help it, but reading about such episodes of screaming, gushing and swooning makes me wonder whether women -- I should say, "we women," of course -- aren't the weaker sex after all. Or even the stupid sex, our brains permanently occluded by random emotions, psychosomatic flailings and distraction by the superficial. Women "are only children of a larger growth," wrote the 18th-century Earl of Chesterfield. Could he have been right?"

Oh, and here is another gem.

The theory that women are the dumber sex -- or at least the sex that gets into more car accidents -- is amply supported by neurological and standardized-testing evidence. Men's and women's brains not only look different, but men's brains are bigger than women's (even adjusting for men's generally bigger body size). The important difference is in the parietal cortex, which is associated with space perception. Visuospatial skills, the capacity to rotate three-dimensional objects in the mind, at which men tend to excel over women, are in turn related to a capacity for abstract thinking and reasoning, the grounding for mathematics, science and philosophy. While the two sexes seem to have the same IQ on average (although even here, at least one recent study gives males a slight edge), there are proportionally more men than women at the extremes of very, very smart and very, very stupid.

She later said the article was tongue in cheek.

Hella Cuteness!

I wish this was my kid

Thanks Feministing

You Wanna Be On Top?

Ok, seeing as this is the first time I have ever actually watched America's Next Top Model in proper weekly fashion I have decided to live blog this episode. Especially since all my pretentious friends refused to watch it with me and let me to drink by myself. Thanks by the way...

So to get started....

I got super stoned and a little drunk. I watched two episodes of Bad Girl Club and about a half hour of the film version my favourite musical, Rent. I texted my boyfriend some cryptic messages (which were actually just lyrics from Rent/the ANTM theme song, “you Wanna Be on Top”.) I think he though that either he was on acid, I was on acid or I was a big dork. I am pretty sure he just assumed the third option.

So. About the episode...


Several points:

1.) The school girl outfits– totally ridiculous. So infantalizing. Aren’t these women mostly over 20?

2.) Really liked Marvita... until she was totally insensitive to the subject of FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

3.) I super like Lauren’s look. Like of like Sarah Polley or someone Canadian. Also I love that she said she’s be perfectly happy at home watching home watching zombie movies

Oh!!! Crazy former ANTM cheerleaders!!!!!! So excited to see the twins!!!! Although I hated the uniforms, was super bored with the tired school girl fetish and I wished that Heather was there. Although she probably has cooler things to do. Like be cool and shit.

Tyra as the “homecoming queen” disturbing and creepy and homicidal. Like Carrie. She said she slept with all their boyfriends. Cougar. Just kidding

So much fighting. I have never seen so much fighting on a first episode.

Also, an aspiring lap dancer

So now for the serious stuff...

Fatima went though female genital mutilation. She said that winning the competition will give her a voice.

Even though ANTMs never really get anywhere....

But at least she might get to talk about it on the show. She was mutilated when she was seven.

Holy fucking hell.

Oh my God! One of the women is actually drinking her own breast milk!!!!!! So that her baby will be able to continue feeding when she comes home. Super bizarre!!! Kind of sweet but kind of weird!!!!

Curse of the Bro

Ok, first off, I cannot believe I am about to blog about sports.

So, those of you who watched the Superbowl on Sunday (or heard about it) know that people are generally ecstatic or depressed about Tom Brady's poor performance. What I am personally annoyed at is the fact that people are attributing it to the Curse of the Babe, the fact that Giselle Bundchen is super hot. Just like Jessica Simpson caused the Cowboys to lose by the simple fact of her presence. Eva Longoria dealt with the same thing.

I think this "theory" carries over to other scenarios as well. Rarely are my paired-off guy friends completely blamed for their actions- their girlfriends usually get the rap for whatever they have done to piss other people off (go home early, go to bed early, not get totally shit faced drunk.)

Because it isn't possible that a man could ever be responsible for any failure without the help of a woman- how else would have Adam gotten hold of the apple?

SUPER SEXIST MOVIE ALERT!!!

This one stars Paris Hilton.
First: since when does she act?
Second: super sexist/ridiculous movie
Third: WTF is the world coming to? Oh right... general dickheadery... as usual.

UPDATE!

Wait, now the Afgan senate has withdrawn the death sentence confirmation. You can also sign a petition to save him here.

Guy Sentenced to Death for Reading About Feminism

This is just terrible.

A 23 year old Afghani journalism student who had the gall to download literature from a Farsi site stating that fundamentalists skewed the teaching of the Koran to oppress women has been sentenced to death.

Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on the matter. But a complaint was made against him and he was arrested, tried by religious judges without – say his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death.

Fucking hell.

I Don't Know What to Think About This...

How much do you actually hate your period? Soon, you might not have to deal with it.
A new pill called Lybrel promises to eliminate your period ALL TOGETHER.

According to an article at Salon:

The pink pill, tag-lined "Fewer Periods. More Possibilities," was promoted as a lifestyle choice. The drug's current Web site offers a period planner allowing women to schedule their cycle around "vacations, business travel, romantic encounters, and family reunions." In other words, there is no need for public premenstrual breakdowns, missing a meeting because of debilitating cramps or dampening a sexual flame by having to bashfully explain it's "that time of the month." The take-away marketing message: A woman in control has menstruation under control.

On one hand, it sounds awesome. I could definitely do with less "public premenstrual breakdowns" myself. On the other, I like to know I am not pregnant. What do you think?

Thanks to Jezebel for the link

Things that have happened in the past few days

I am finally coming out of a horrible migraine attack that last five days. FIVE days! During the process, mostly consisting of me lying on the couch watching America's Next Top Model reruns, a Queer as Folk marathon (thank you, James), random action movies (thank you, John and Danny) and finally some super badass (meaning kind of ridiculous) Tudors episodes (thank you, Amity).
In the process, I have learned the following:

1.) The Passion of the Christ was not Mel Gibson's first totally gory movie (believe it or not, I had never seen Braveheart).

2.) At one point, Mel Gibson was (kind of) okay looking.

3.) Janice Dickenson doesn't think that blindness should be a problem for runway models. I mean, I am all for equal opportunity, but wouldn't they fall off the runway? Tyra also made legally blind Amanda on cycle 3 do a rollerskating shoot (although Amanda kicked ass on the shoot).

4.) Ms. Dickenson also thinks that it is totally fine to pick on a girls weight after she comes out about being bulimic. Furthermore, shouldn't the girl have been eliminated (so that she could seek treatment) once she told Tyra she had an eating disorder. No. Of course not.

5.) The actress who plays Anne Boleyn on The Tudors is super, SUPER smug.

6.) The plague was hella crazy and super sad.

7.) The last season of Queer as Folk is so much worse than the others (I knew that, but had forgotten)

8.) Trader Joe's stuffed poblano peppers are really yummy.

7.) Oh, and I will probably have migraines for the rest of my life because my hormones are out of whack. Great.

Well, at least I, unlike Ted on Queer as Folk, am not about to undergo major plastic surgery for no apparent reason. That would probably hurt even more.

Guess who has a terrible migraine today... again

Yeah, me

Vagina Dentata to the Max!!

I have yet to see the movie Teeth (although I kind of want to) but, in honor of the film, New York magazine has released a list of the top ten scariest vagina dentatas ever!!
I personally think that Videodrome is the creepiest, although I don't really see the dentata part. Mostly just the vagina part.
Anyway, for those interested, here is a clip of the first five minutes of Teeth

The Is A Light That Never Goes Out- the Smiths

Something so beautifully melancholy and bittersweet about this one. It makes me feel insanely love and terribly sad at the same time.

America's Next Top Model New Contestants Revealed!!!

I was beginning to get a little antsy about this one. Since the last season of ANTM I have begun watching Canada's Next Top Model to fuel my addiction but the problem with CNTM is that the contestants are just so much nicer (still not necessarily nice but nicer than in the US).
I have a bit of a love hate relationship with the Top Model shows. On one hand, the shows makes girls to want to be models. Furthermore, contestants in the show (one of CNTM's winners) have suffered from eating disorders and dealt with a great deal of trauma resulting from their experiences on the show. So I recognize how ridiculous the show is.

That said, I am sorry but I am addicted.

Here are next season's contestants

Once again, the "plus sized" model (like Sarah from season 9) is not plus sized. She looks like about a size 6. I wonder if she will be voted off for being too "normal sized," like Sarah.

You can see profiles of all the women on CW's site. Remember Marvita from the final cut at the beginning of the last season? The called her back for this one. I liked her because she called Ebony out when she wanted to play a game called "guess who has an eating disorder."

The Long Awaited Reunion (if, by a long time, you mean a week)

Last night something very exciting happened... the Real World Sydney Reunion Episode.
After about two hours of cleaning my house for the event (maybe secretly imagining that some crazy Real World Sydney enthusiast party would show up at my house), I watched it with my sweetie and several MAJOR (actually not too major) items were revealed about the course of the series.

1.) People got really drunk a lot, threw up a lot and fell over a lot.

2.) Parisa doesn't hate Trisha and would totally have lattes with her.

3.) Parisa got lots of sex while in the house. This was probably the only thing that was a bit of a suprise. Not because Parisa isn't gorgeous but because it only showed her kissing one person through the whole season.




4.) Dunbar's girlfriend took him back even though he cheated on her with Ashli. Also it seems like he has chilled out a lot and is less likely to scream at people like this:



5.) KellyAnne and Cohutta are still together. Kind of. It was a little unclear.

6.) Isaac had lots of sex in the bathroom and cupboards with random people.

7.) After Shauvon quit the show to be with her ex, they broke up.

8.) Trisha says she isn't homophobic (because she wouldn't go to gay pride) or racist (because she yelled at this woman in a McDonald's because she couldn't speak english).
PS: What she actually said was:

“I’m like, well I’d take the f….n’ Crunchie one but I don’t know what it tastes like because you wouldn’t give me a sample. I’m like, you know what, keep the money, maybe take some English lessons - I’m leaving cause you don’t know how to speak English.”

Then Dunbat pretended like he was going to propose to Ashli but didn't really, since he has a girlfriend whom he lives with. I hope his gf dumps him because of that, if not for the fact that he cheated on her with Ashli.

Sexism, sexism, sexism

If I hear ONE more person talk shit about the women voters in New Hampshire I will puke. I can't vote- I am Canadian. And if I could I would likely vote for Obama, since I am not particularly fond of political aristocracy and I like his stance on the war.
But Judas Priest people, smarten up! If I have to read one more post about Hilary crying and how that is the only reason why she got the vote last night and how it is because too many women in New Hampshire voted I will have to start getting medieval on people's asses!
After both Bush elections, people blamed the outcome on the fact that too few women voted. Now too many voted?
Also, first Hilary was too "hard" and now she is too soft? WTF?
Most of all, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of having EVERYTHING about Hilary being attributed to that fact that she is a woman. Maybe people voted for her because they liked her. And does anyone ever think about how many presidents the US has elected based on their masculinity?
Even Jezebel is getting all sexist on our asses:

New Hampshire women, after telling pollster after pollster they were ready for change, went inside the booths and had a little cry. Maybe they felt bad for Hillary for sticking it out in that humiliating, mirth-free marriage of hers only to vote against her now. Maybe it reminded them of the time they stuck it out in an emotionally abusive situation and only got through it because somehow, somewhere, they still held out hope that karma would make it all right in the end. Well, that is not an audacious hope. That is a STUPID hope.

And, has anyone ever considered that even if people are voting for Hilary because she is a woman, SO MANY OTHERS that I KNOW are voting for Obama because he is hot?
Like I said, I would vote for Obama. But this is just immature and sexist bullshit.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!!!
Jezebel poster Moe explains what she said. I guess.

2008 Updates

Some things that have happened (to me directly) since 01/01/08 at 12:00 a.m.

1.) I got incredibly stomach sick (and not from alcohol!)

2.) I fainted at the Civic Center BART station

3.) I finally wrote a full blog post

4.) I thought a lot about the rest of my law school applications

5.) I FINALLY paid off the minimum on my credit card and, let me tell you, it wasn't pretty

6.) I got called a "Newfie" at Club 93 by an elderly gentleman whose son fought a boxer from Newfoundland

7.) I had a lasagna mini dinner party

8.) I contemplated several tattoo designs

9.) I saw the Tila Tequila Reunion espisode

10.) I started hoping really hard that Dov Charney gets in a lot of trouble at trial tomorrow

I guess that's it

Dov Charney to Go To Trial Tomorrow For being a General Idiot Sexist Dick

This guy had it fucking COMING to him!!

After an three employees filed a suits against the founder of American Apparel, he is finally going to trial for sexual harassment, according to the New York Post:

Dov Charney walks around his office in his underwear, sleeps with employees, and calls women bitches, sluts, whores and the c-word - and that's the stuff he admits to.

In her civil case, which is slated to begin in Los Angeles tomorrow, former employee Mary Nelson charges the eccentric Charney, 39, once had a meeting with her wearing only a fragment of clothing called a "c- - k sock," invited her to masturbate with him, and then fired her when he learned she planned to meet with a lawyer.

First off, he "admits to" parts of his charges:

Asked in a deposition whether he'd ever referred to women as "sluts" at work, he said, "In private conversations, where such language was generally welcome."

Asked whether he considered the word "derogatory," he said, "There are some of us that love sluts . . . It could be also be an endearing term."

Asked whether he'd ever used the c-word for female genitalia at work, he said, "Absolutely."

He also acknowledged traipsing around his company wearing only his American Apparel-made underwear.

"There is no evidence to say that you can't walk around in your underwear all day anywhere in the United States of America," he testified.

He walked around wearing NOTHING BUT A COCK SOCK!! Not only harassment but a horrible image in my head.

Yes, but there is evidence that you can't (let alone shouldn't) harrass employees in a sexual manner. Duh, fucking duh. Please God, let him get charged.

From Jezebel: Awesome Video

An awesome video by some of the ladies at Jezebel about the effects of badly designed American Apparel clothing.
Also, Jezebel writers are HOT!

Happy New Year and Slightly Different Blog!

So, in case anyone has noticed, this blog has begun to trickle down to, well, pretty much nothing. I have decided to shift my focus a little and broaden this into a more general blog, rather than just a feminists news commentary (not that reviews of The Hills were ever really a feminist news item... although they COULD be).
So, hopefully, there will be more posts to come.
love,
Sarah

PS: Speaking of The Hills, this picture is ridiculous!

Happy New Years!

Hi,
Once again, no posts for a while. Sorry. Carpal tunnel sucks