Today I felt restless so I put on some music and went to the British Museum to wander around. I found myself in a room of Medieval Europe looking at coins and armor. But the thing that caught my eye was this golden cup with painted scenes of St Agnes. I thought I might share her story with you all cause it's a great one.
So this chick Agnes was, like most women, told to marry this old guy. She refused and so she was sent to work at a brothel. Now being the good catholic girl she was, she did not consent to having sex with anyone who came in. So one day this guy comes in, pays his money and tries to rape her. Surprisingly this demon comes out of no where to strangle him for his crime. She, being a good catholic girl, forgives the man and brings him back to life. The people of the town cry WITCH and have her burned at the stake. The flames don't burn her because she's not a witch so this random guy spears her in the throat, which does kill her.
tada! great story to paint on a gold ceremonial cup yea?
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The declining morality of children
For the record, the title is ironic...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYRIYL5uP6w&feature=player_embedded#!
So ok, many of you may have heard about/seen this video of 11-year-old girls dancing to Single Ladies. Everyone and their mother has given their opinion. I hadn't seen it until this very morning, I never sought it out. But there it was this morning on my mini-feed so I clicked play to see what all the fuss was about.
Now, as a feminist, you probably assume I have a problem with this video. You'd be right. But right now, I'm not even angry or annoyed or put off. I'm sad. This is so sad.
A lot of the commenters on youtube talk about the girls costumes as if that's what's wrong. I've been an 11-year-old girl and I can tell you that all I wanted at that time was to dress like that. I understand the appeal to a young girl.
My main issue is with the overall theme of the performance, which is of course sex. These girls are so talented. They are so young and already have such an amazing set of dancing skills. These girls are doing triple pirouettes, they're so flexible, they have amazing control of their bodies. However, the only thing that stands out from their performance is their use of sex. The only reason they've gotten such national attention is because they exploited their sexuality. It's the same with many adult female performers. I've written about it a couple of times on here and this is just more evidence.
Now I personally don't like this song (because I think if he liked it then he should have loved, cherished and respected it. Nothing is secured just because he put a ring on it.) But this song is not about sex. We could go as far as to say the song is about love, but if nothing else, it's about commitment, or rather the symbol of commitment. Sadly these girls (or whomever choreographed this dance) have sexualized a song that could be interpreted as empowered. Beyonce is standing up for what she wants: marriage. And won't settle for anything less. But this choreography is all about fulfilling heterosexual male fantasies. There is nothing empowered about 11 year old girls shaking their breasts and asses. That's child pornography.
Which leads me to my second problem with the video: the sexualization of children. Who in heavens name would find this appropriate or sexually appealing? Sickos, that's who. But as I've said a couple of times before, women are constantly treated as children in this society especially where sex is involved. Seriously, how many porns are there of professors and school girls? And we're supposed to shave our pubic hair like when we were prepubescent and be so skinny we don't menstruate.
So remember, pedophilia is a disease. Like cancer. You wouldn't date someone with cancer, right? (ps that's a Midwest teen sex show joke. I highly recommend the series, quite hilarious!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYRIYL5uP6w&feature=player_embedded#!
So ok, many of you may have heard about/seen this video of 11-year-old girls dancing to Single Ladies. Everyone and their mother has given their opinion. I hadn't seen it until this very morning, I never sought it out. But there it was this morning on my mini-feed so I clicked play to see what all the fuss was about.
Now, as a feminist, you probably assume I have a problem with this video. You'd be right. But right now, I'm not even angry or annoyed or put off. I'm sad. This is so sad.
A lot of the commenters on youtube talk about the girls costumes as if that's what's wrong. I've been an 11-year-old girl and I can tell you that all I wanted at that time was to dress like that. I understand the appeal to a young girl.
My main issue is with the overall theme of the performance, which is of course sex. These girls are so talented. They are so young and already have such an amazing set of dancing skills. These girls are doing triple pirouettes, they're so flexible, they have amazing control of their bodies. However, the only thing that stands out from their performance is their use of sex. The only reason they've gotten such national attention is because they exploited their sexuality. It's the same with many adult female performers. I've written about it a couple of times on here and this is just more evidence.
Now I personally don't like this song (because I think if he liked it then he should have loved, cherished and respected it. Nothing is secured just because he put a ring on it.) But this song is not about sex. We could go as far as to say the song is about love, but if nothing else, it's about commitment, or rather the symbol of commitment. Sadly these girls (or whomever choreographed this dance) have sexualized a song that could be interpreted as empowered. Beyonce is standing up for what she wants: marriage. And won't settle for anything less. But this choreography is all about fulfilling heterosexual male fantasies. There is nothing empowered about 11 year old girls shaking their breasts and asses. That's child pornography.
Which leads me to my second problem with the video: the sexualization of children. Who in heavens name would find this appropriate or sexually appealing? Sickos, that's who. But as I've said a couple of times before, women are constantly treated as children in this society especially where sex is involved. Seriously, how many porns are there of professors and school girls? And we're supposed to shave our pubic hair like when we were prepubescent and be so skinny we don't menstruate.
So remember, pedophilia is a disease. Like cancer. You wouldn't date someone with cancer, right? (ps that's a Midwest teen sex show joke. I highly recommend the series, quite hilarious!)
Monday, September 20, 2010
Isabelle settled herself, luxuriously, on the feeling of impalement...
I'm reading this book called Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. My professor assured the class that it was a both a captivating and steamy read. Mostly I've just been laughing, which is not the reaction I think good old Faulks intended.
Isabelle and Stephen are having a tawdry affair (she's married, he's 20). We the readers are told in great detail exactly how their first romp in the bed turns out. This sex scene is just so obviously written by a man. Women don't compare sex to being impaled. Another really funny bit was after he performed oral sex on her, she orgasmed but then thought to herself, He's still not fucked me yet. "The joy is still to come." Seriously? She has just climaxed but still she's not experienced any joy because she's not been impaled yet? Isn't that just like a man to think that his penis is what a woman REALLY wants.
Just think about all the violent language associated with sex. And, in heterosexual sex, it's always the woman who is the victim. A woman gets banged, screwed, nailed, etc and men are always the perpetrators. This type of language is definitely misogynistic. There's no denying that. So I think I'm right in being put off (and not turned on) by the imagery of Isabelle being impaled by Stephen's dick.
Now before you roll your eyes and write me off, let me tell you my first red flag from this book and maybe you'll understand my distaste. The issue of consent is very near and dear to my heart. I will fight the rape culture for as long as it takes to ensure no woman, man, or child has to fear sexual assault. So knowing this, imagine me reaction to the beginning of this raunchy sex scene. "She pulled away from him and ran from the room. Stephen went to the window and held on to the frame as he looked out. The force that drove through him could not be stopped. The part of his mind that remained calm accepted this; if the necessity could not be denied, then the question was only whether it could be achieved with her consent" (pg 58).
As you could possibly imagine, I had a difficult time getting into the mood after reading that. I cannot believe the "calm" part of his mind rationalized raping Isabelle. This just reinforces the idea that women say no at first so we don't seem slutty. I promise you this, if a woman says no, she means no. Not yes. No never means yes. Unless you're into bdsm in which case pumpernickel (or whatever your code word is) means no.
Isabelle and Stephen are having a tawdry affair (she's married, he's 20). We the readers are told in great detail exactly how their first romp in the bed turns out. This sex scene is just so obviously written by a man. Women don't compare sex to being impaled. Another really funny bit was after he performed oral sex on her, she orgasmed but then thought to herself, He's still not fucked me yet. "The joy is still to come." Seriously? She has just climaxed but still she's not experienced any joy because she's not been impaled yet? Isn't that just like a man to think that his penis is what a woman REALLY wants.
Just think about all the violent language associated with sex. And, in heterosexual sex, it's always the woman who is the victim. A woman gets banged, screwed, nailed, etc and men are always the perpetrators. This type of language is definitely misogynistic. There's no denying that. So I think I'm right in being put off (and not turned on) by the imagery of Isabelle being impaled by Stephen's dick.
Now before you roll your eyes and write me off, let me tell you my first red flag from this book and maybe you'll understand my distaste. The issue of consent is very near and dear to my heart. I will fight the rape culture for as long as it takes to ensure no woman, man, or child has to fear sexual assault. So knowing this, imagine me reaction to the beginning of this raunchy sex scene. "She pulled away from him and ran from the room. Stephen went to the window and held on to the frame as he looked out. The force that drove through him could not be stopped. The part of his mind that remained calm accepted this; if the necessity could not be denied, then the question was only whether it could be achieved with her consent" (pg 58).
As you could possibly imagine, I had a difficult time getting into the mood after reading that. I cannot believe the "calm" part of his mind rationalized raping Isabelle. This just reinforces the idea that women say no at first so we don't seem slutty. I promise you this, if a woman says no, she means no. Not yes. No never means yes. Unless you're into bdsm in which case pumpernickel (or whatever your code word is) means no.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
On not wearing a bra
Spend 5 minutes with me and you'll soon realize that I'm not wearing a bra. My lack of undergarments steams from one reason and one reason alone: I find them uncomfortable. Now i realize that many women will be unable to comprehend this, but I assure you that for my entire life of owning bras I have hated them. I feel like I can't breathe and they do nothing but make my girls look bigger (therefore it is "sluttier" of me to wear a bra).
Tonight at a club I had a conversation with a drunken girl I thought was a nice, chill person:
Girl: You're wearing a bra tonight!
Me: yep
Girl: that's so great! can i ask you something? Why don't you wear a bra usually?
Me: cause it hurts
Girl: oh, i thought it was a feminism thing
Me: Well I am a feminist, but that's not why i don't wear a bra
GIrl: I thought it was a bra burning thing. Cause you wear heels but not a bra so I was really confused!
Me: you obviously don't know anything about feminism
This just fucking pissed me off. Feminism is equal to lack of bras? God some people. If you don't know what something's about, shut the fuck up. And if you're too ignorant to know that you don't fully understand something, shut the fuck up.
I would just love for someone to once, ONCE, ask me a god damned question about feminism instead of hearing the word and making assumptions. Feminism is so complicated and interesting and has NOTHING (I repeat NOTHING) to do with not wearing bras. Even the "bra burning" concept is an invention by non-feminists. No one burned their bras, a picture of a woman throwing her bra into a trash can was perceived by the papers to be a woman burning her bra. It never actually happened. So shut the fuck up about things you don't know. You don't see me shouting off commonly held misperceptions about hinduism, right? Right. Because i know better.
What the fucking hell?
Tonight at a club I had a conversation with a drunken girl I thought was a nice, chill person:
Girl: You're wearing a bra tonight!
Me: yep
Girl: that's so great! can i ask you something? Why don't you wear a bra usually?
Me: cause it hurts
Girl: oh, i thought it was a feminism thing
Me: Well I am a feminist, but that's not why i don't wear a bra
GIrl: I thought it was a bra burning thing. Cause you wear heels but not a bra so I was really confused!
Me: you obviously don't know anything about feminism
This just fucking pissed me off. Feminism is equal to lack of bras? God some people. If you don't know what something's about, shut the fuck up. And if you're too ignorant to know that you don't fully understand something, shut the fuck up.
I would just love for someone to once, ONCE, ask me a god damned question about feminism instead of hearing the word and making assumptions. Feminism is so complicated and interesting and has NOTHING (I repeat NOTHING) to do with not wearing bras. Even the "bra burning" concept is an invention by non-feminists. No one burned their bras, a picture of a woman throwing her bra into a trash can was perceived by the papers to be a woman burning her bra. It never actually happened. So shut the fuck up about things you don't know. You don't see me shouting off commonly held misperceptions about hinduism, right? Right. Because i know better.
What the fucking hell?
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Beautiful Disaster
So I just discovered this song via Pandora and I'm in love! I wish I'd known this song in high school because it completely articulates every feeling I had back then.
Right now I'm just in love with the line "Every magazine tells her she's not good enough, the pictures that she sees make her cry." So true. That's why I don't read those things anymore and I implore you to do the same!
Well here's the music video, I love it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eWDZqc7lCc
Right now I'm just in love with the line "Every magazine tells her she's not good enough, the pictures that she sees make her cry." So true. That's why I don't read those things anymore and I implore you to do the same!
Well here's the music video, I love it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eWDZqc7lCc
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