Bludgeoned To Death

So, I was on The Sart today and saw a pic of a brunette girl. The pic was exactly like most photos on there, just a stylish young woman in a hip outfit. No biggie. Love it. But, Scott adds some text at the bottom of the post, as he sometimes does, about the girl being "curvy" and having "sturdy" legs and being "bigger" than other bloggers. It's all said in a "separate but equal" sort of attitude.

Needless to say, people went nuts over it and did not appreciate Scott's comments at all. The reason being that this girl is clearly not overweight. In one photo you can tell that she has muscular, thick legs, but that doesn't really make her a "big" girl. This is all semantics and beating a dead horse, but I thought I'd post my comment. I haven't written anything on here in a minute and I have been BORED TO DEATH today.

"I heart this blog as much as anyone, but this post did call to mind the distorted idea of beauty as it relates to shape and size in the fashion industry.

As a fashion and beauty writer and editor in NYC, I have close friends who rank high in the world of high fashion. And although I love them dearly, their perception of acceptable weight, height, beauty, shape, etc. is perverse. Plain and simple. I think your wording is a reflection of this same kind of distorted thinking. But, I can't judge it any more than I do my friends.

I would simply urge any reading this blog to consider their own notions about the "norm" and what it means to be beautiful. The truth is beauty in the fashion world is as subjective as it gets. Beauty determined by the oldest (first developed) parts of our brain is wholly objective. This is a woman with curves, universally desired."

How Was Work

Beth: How was work? (heh)

Me: Giggle

Beth: heh heh

Me: haha

Beth: hahahahaha

Me: hahahahahah ahhh. Good...I went to the coffee shop this morning. All the fucking hipsters got there before me and took up all the seats next to the wall with the outlets. And they're sitting there with their fucking macs that have a 15 hour battery life and I'm here with my PC, needing an outlet. So, I just got a coffee and a sandwich and left.

Beth: Can you please blog that right now?

Change Is Good

I was just sitting, well I am right now, on my couch wondering about two schools of thought. The first is the general idea that you are "who you are", you can't hide it, you can't fake it and so you might as well be it to the fullest. Who you are is not only great, no matter what, but it's who you were "meant" to be. Then there's the other school. The one that says you can change, you control your destiny, you can be whatever you want. Which school is right? They can't both be right. Obviously. They're mutually exclusive ideas about the meaning of life.

I think people should try on as many hats as they can. People should try to change. It's only through the failed attempt to be something different than you were last year, last month or yesterday that you find either the tenacity to be something "you're not" or the pride to be something you are.

People can change. Alcoholics can get sober, Obsessive Compulsives can stop counting how many windows are in every office building they pass, people aren't born astro physicists or concert pianists. The decision to become something is a change from a natural state of unemployment. Chew on it. Disagree in comments.

To be philosophical is entirely different than pretending to be philosophical

Long title, huh? And this is probably going to be a short post.

For everyone who likes to read, just because. For everyone who likes to think, just because. For everyone who likes to learn new things constantly b/c their brain slowly dies of boredom if they don't. For each of us who has a compulsion to understand the world around them on any and all levels possible in the same way that some people have a compulsion to wash their hands 20 times a day...I want you to make a fist, raise your hand in the air and extend your middle finger. Right now.

For everyone who would rather watch Saturday morning cartoons with a bowl of cereal in their lap instead of Nietzsche, for everyone who wants to play with hair or clothes all day long instead of learning Aramic, I want you to make a fist, raise your hand in the air and extend your middle finger. Right now.

Who are we giving the little birdie to? To every mother fu****ing douche bag who fakes what they're interested in to feel superior to other people. For every loser who takes a seed of intellectual curiosity and turns it into a thorny vine they prick people with. For every person who wants to tell you you're better or worse than others simply b/c of what you like, that is who the birdie is for.

XOXO Gossip Girl

I've written a previous post about gossip, where I essentially advocate it. My justfication is that we all need to vent and what someone doesn't know you're saying about them, doesn't hurt them. The problem of course is that many times gossip gets back to someone you don't want it to. And for some, this is their reason for keeping their mouths shut, which is is fair.

It's the sprit in which we talk about each other that needs to be kept in check, imo, not the act of it in general.

The problem with most gossipers is that they begin to feel they have the right to judge others. You don't. None of us does.

I know the freedoms "given" to us by our government are also expressed as inalienable rights and this includes free speech...however when it comes to their word usage, I disagree semantically.

We each have the inalienable freedom to express our opinions, publicly and privately, but none of us has the right in a purely moral sense.

Beautiful Daughters

I was just wondering why it is that a parent telling someone how many kids she has always, and I mean always, inserts "beautiful" between the number (of kids) and the word daughter(s). People don't say, "I have three strapping, athletic boys!" or "I have three handsome sons." But, people feel the need to express to others they've got beautiful daughters.

I guess this is just some thing where a woman's value is tied up, ultimately, in how good looking she is. Parents are going to be biased about their daughters' looks. Not to mention very few young girls are unattractive. They're all pretty adorable--up to a point. At the receiveing end of this message we swoon at the emphasis of the word "beautiful". OH! They're BEAUTIFUL! You made BEAUTIFUL girls! our smiles and raised eyebrows say. Do we believe them? Are we genuinely impressed? Maybe.

What's funny about our gullibility and the continuation of this kind of mildly sexist rhetoric is that chances are "no, you don't actually have beautiful daughters." The odds are greatly against your favor that your daughters are any better than average looking and most likely a little bit below. But, beauty's on the inside anyway, right?

Transgender Models

I just read that a trans-gender model is making headlines because she's becoming quite successful. She's even scheduled to be interviewed by Oprah for one of her last shows. I'm calling it right now, trans-gender models are the wave of the future. And if they aren't, they should be.

The modeling industry plucks children (some as young as 14) from their homes and throws them into big cities with the hopes of making a mint off the child if she becomes successful. Chanel Iman is a good example of this plan working out in the agency's favor. She was 15 when she started, and became a sensation. Sadly, she's made up at endless events to look like a woman in her mid to late twenties. She struts around the red carpet soaking in the attention like only a teenage girl could and is exploited in ways I can't imagine. The fact that parents allow this and are essentially selling their daughters away is a whole other post.

Why does the industry do this? Because the industry wants girls who look like boys. The ideal aesthetic is no waist, no hips.

Enter a trans-gender model. No waist. No hips. Maybe a little extra in between the legs that could pose a problem modeling a bikini...but at least you can send people down the runway who are adults and have the cognitive ability to choose the career for themselves. Everybody wins.