Twilight Movie Review

(Sorry I have been too busy to write lately. But here is another feature on how much I dislike Twilight. Enjoy.)

One day I was having a conversation with a coworker and he told me that he understands teenagers today more clearly after watching Twilight. Even though I'm only 26, I have very little in common with teenagers today. I didn't get a cell phone until I was in college, and chatrooms were the cool thing, not text messages. I'm interested in understanding this younger generation more, so I politely asked my man to put Twilight on his Netflix account.

I watched it last night. As a result, I discovered that, one, I have nothing in common with today's teenage girls; two, the producers and creaters of Twilight think abusive and emotionally draining relationships are romantic and endearing; and three,teenagers don't talk to each other. They just stare dramatically at one another from across parking lots and wooded areas.

Oh, Jesus. I'm at a loss.

Here is my attempt at the plot and meaning of this whole load of crap. There is a girl who wants to move from Arizona to Washington State to live with her Dad. She starts school there and meets a 100-year-old man who still attends his junior year of high school. (Where's Chris Hansen when you need him, eh?) Turns out,this guy is a vampire and lusts after this underage girls' "blood". Instead of killing her, he decides to stalk her. He hangs out in her bedroom while she's sleeping, comes into her house without her permission, follows her around in his car, and somehow ALWAYS knows where she's at. Then some bad vampires come and he decides to kidnap this young girl from her father and tells her she has to leave town and go somewhere else with him. Then she gets attacked by a bad vampire and some odd stuff happened and then she's going to prom with him with a broken leg. Then the movie ends a bit abruptly and some horrid band that Eric likes plays in the background. The End.

Now that I have read both the book and seen the movie, I do worry that young women today are going to have some serious relationship issues. Stalking, possesion and alienation from friends and family is emotional abuse. Twilight is portraying this abuse as an idealistic relationship.

I still don't understand the staring at each other without speaking crap. I guess it's hard to think of something to say to someone who is 96 years older than you who is trying to get in your pants.

Anyways, I suppose I learned a few things about teenagers today. Such as, it's too bad they didnt' grow up in the 90's.

Pit and Leg Hair

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/tribu/askamy/ct-live-1104-amy-20101104,0,6896125.column

Please read this article first. Below is a comment written in response to above article. Emphasis has been added by me.

"Part of being on a team is being a team player and doing what is best for the team. Coaches have rules in place and certain aspects are designed to promote a feeling of solidarity and unity, because the closer the teammates feel to each other, the better they will play as a team.
Uniforms and dress/grooming codes are one way to display that unity. By refusing to shave her pits and legs, she is indicating she doesn't want to conform to the team policies. Moreover, has she considered how incredibly distracting this is? Everyone on her team will be thinking about how she has hairy pits and legs. Everyone on the other team will be talking about the girl with hairy pits and legs. Her teammates will hear this, and lose focus.
The girl is simply being selfish. If she really wants to be an individual and stand up for her right to shout out "I am woman hear me roar" then she should quit the volleyball team."

This situation has got me asking a lot of questions. Why are women's bodies disgusting? Why would the whole team be distracted by someone's armpit hair? Are male athletes distracted by each other's leg and armpit hair? What makes this girl "selfish"? Why would everyone on the team be talking about her hairy armpits and legs? How does not shaving her armpits and legs make her a nonconformist?

I think it all comes down to the fact that women's bodies are viewed as nothing but sex objects. Whether women are running for political office or trying to stay on the volleyball team, women are expected to satisfy the male gaze at all times. Women can't do anything without enduring comments about out hair, clothes, weight and, of course, grooming rituals.

And men in our country have been conditioned to think that female body hair is unnatural, non-hygeniec, disgusting and wrong. Men have armpit and leg hair and no one views it as unclean. Why is it different for women?

If this girl is expected to give up her ideals for the sake of being a "team player" then I expect to see all the boys in that school with freshly shaved pits and legs before every game. After all, EVERYONE will be discussing armpit hair thoughout the entire game and be distracted.

(I truly love when sexism is shoved in my face like this. It gives me the perfect opportunity to go "see, I told you women have not earned equality in this country." Thank you, sexist, mindless, Tribune commenting asshole :>)

New York Mosque

After reading many articles on the mosque that may or not be built in New York, I have come to the conclusion that Americans as a whole are disgusting people. There was a poll somewhere that I saw that said 70% of Americans don't want it built. (I don't feel like re-looking for it and attaching it here so if you don't' believe me and need a source, feel free to Google it.)

The reasons for not wanting it vary. For entertainment purposes, I like to read people's comments on these news articles. The two main reasons why most people do not want a mosque built near Ground Zero are all follows, according to the news reading American public:

1) It is disrespectful to families of 9/11 victims. Muslims should not be allowed near Ground Zero because "Muslims killed us on 9/11," Bill O'Reilly said.

2) Muslims are not Americans and do not have a right to worship in America.

I strongly disagree with both of these statements. The first reason I listed is wrong on many different levels. First off, people who think it would be disrespectful to victims of 9/11 have been very misguided and misinformed. What everyone seems to be misunderstanding is that Muslims did not cause 9/11. People who are insane and just happen to be of the Muslim religion did.

For comparison, let's say a group of men got together and killed their wives and kids and said it was because Jesus told them to. ( I saw a Lifetime movie like that once, so I know things like that actually happen.) We wouldn't say that all Christians enjoy murdering their families and that churches shouldn't' be allowed around schools and maternity wards. We would say that these men were in a cult and are psychopaths. So, just because the 9/11 terrorists said they did it in the name of Allah, doesn't mean that ALL Muslims are going to go off and do this. The main difference here is that Muslims aren't thought of as white people, so therefore they must be feared and not trusted, right Mr. O'Reilly? (Sorry, that was an off-topic bigot rant. Back to my point.)

In my opinion, building a mosque near Ground Zero is an excellent way to help America heal from 9/11. It would be a perfect opportunity to educate and inform Americans on the Muslim religion and to help bring tolerance and respect to many Muslim Americans who have been wrongfully disrespected and discriminated against.

The second reason I listed can be found many times in the comments section of any news article covering this issue. Many comments just flat out said that only Christians are REAL Americans and that this country is founded on Christian beliefs. Well, this country was also founded on freedom of and freedom from religion, including Christianity. Muslim Americans have not experienced either one of these freedoms since 9/11.

The fierce opposition to building a mosque in New York City clearly shows that Muslim Americans do not have freedom of religion. They are not being allowed to practice their religion in a building, to themselves, not harming other people. They are not imposing the Muslim religion on anyone. They just wanted a place in the area to chill and do their religion stuff. Muslim Americans also do not have freedom from religion, like so many other Americans. Christianity is thrust down all our throats, but Muslim Americans seem to be getting the worst and most hostile of it. Many Americans are wrongfully viewing Muslim Americans as a threat and are using Christianity as an excuse for their hateful behavior. You know, Jesus did say to love your neighbor and everyone different from you. (This is actually in the Bible.) So, according to the Bible, these people aren't really Christians. Ah, but sorry. I'm going off on my fake Christian people rant again. I apologize. Back to the topic at hand....

People who say that Muslims are not true Americans and claim this is not a racist or Eurocentric comment are truly unfortunate. I have no other description for them. They live their lives in fear of everyone who is different from them and can't be bothered to educate themselves on other religions and cultures. I think a little education and open-mindedness from these people would do them some good. Unfortunately, these people are loud and politically influential and I have to hear from them everyday of my life. But, they always give me plenty to write about!

Me

So, I forgot to introduce myself. It looks like I have a few new readers who may not know me personally. So here's me!

I'm 26-years-old with a boring office job. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism with a minor in Women's Studies. I spend my free time either on the internet doing research for here or educating myself on world events. I enjoy loser things like 19th century feminist literature and angry girl music from the 1990's.

I write about politics and social issues often. I root for Democrats, liberals, socialists and pro-feminists and I can be pretty offensive to those who don't :>)

I live with my awesome fiance in not-so-awesome Chicago suburbia. I dream of going back to school to earn a law degree or a MA in Women's Studies (preferably both), but I'm too chicken shit to quit my job and give up my lovely health insurance plan. Instead, I'm hoping my blog will do for me what feministing did for Jessica Valenti.

I take requests for blog posts so feel free to leave suggestions!

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Happy October 1 and Happy Domestic Violence Awareness Month!

Domestic violence is an issue that is very important to me and one that I think has an affect on everyone in the world. Domestic violence is a crime that happens in all countries, in all socioeconomic structures and to people of all ages.

One aspect of this issue that concerns me the most is teen dating violence. Especially preteens and young teenagers. Due to many factors that I won't get into right now, people this age really do not understand what it means to be in a relationship and how to treat their partners. But hopefully this will change soon. There is a law in the making which would make teen dating education mandatory in all public junior high and high schools. What a wonderful plan! I love it!

Emotional abuse is very common in young teenage relationships. Technology is making the abuse worse. When I was a teenager, there were no cellphones so I feel a little out of touch with todays young teenagers. However, from what I have read about teenagers today, boyfriends are keeping tabs on their girlfriends through text messages. I can relate with what these young girls must be going through, however my emotional abuse was through a landline and I actually had to listen to his voice. I had a boyfriend who called me over 100 times a day and back then I just though he was a stalker. Since then, I learned that I was being emotionally abused. You can turn off your cellphone or unplug your landline, but that makes the abuser come looking for you, thus the threat of physical violence. Many people, youngsters included, only think of domestic violence as physical abuse. Therefore, they do not think to ask for help or get out of a relationship when their partner does not attack them physically.

Since most parents suck and have no clue how to talk to their kids about anything, it is very important for public schools to teach teenagers the difference between an annoying partner and an abusive partner. Since school is where kids this age see their partners the most, school is where much of the abuse occurs.

Emotional abuse leaves just as many scars as physical abuse.

Religion

Today, the Tribune published an article saying that atheists know more about religion than religious people. I'm not surprised by this and have no trouble believing it. I have a strong belief that atheists are complete hypocrites and are actually very religious people.

Religion - a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs (www.dictionary.com).

According to the definition of religion, atheism is a religion and serves the same purpose as Christianity, Buddhism and Judaism.

In my opinion and from observation, one main religious activity is to actively recruit others into your religion. Atheists are becoming experts on this. They have taken out advertisements on buses and billboards. They are being interviewed by national newspapers and trying to make themselves more vocal. They say everyone in this country has a fundamental right to freedom from religion, but they are pushing their religion in everyone's faces exactly like their archenemies, the Evangelical Christians.

Now, I do not associate myself with any organized religion and do not have any set beliefs in anything in particular, other than that Evangelical Christians are glorified sociopaths. I am not rooting for one religion over another, nor am I saying that atheism is bad. I do however think that atheists these days are the worst and most obnoxious religion recruiters on the entire planet.

If they insist on criticizing every other religion for promoting religious propaganda in public, then they should stop promoting their religious propaganda. If atheists truly wanted freedom from religion, they would be opposed to bus advertisements and billboards claiming that God is a hoax and participating in studies that are trying to prove that they know everything there is to know about religion.

Thanks.

Jane Austen

Many critics dismiss Jane Austen as a sentimental romance writer. When placed into context (early 1800's England), Jane Austen was an active feminist and social commentator.

To truly appreciate Ms. Austen, one needs some background on Victorian England social norms. Since I am a serious nerd, I can provide you with this. Only two things were important to people in early 1800's England: money and social status. Nothing else. Just money and social status.

People did not get married because they met and fell in love. They married people who could get them more money who had a favorable social status. Since women could not have careers, they were completely dependant on a man for their livelihood. (English novelist Charlotte Bronte wrote about lower class women and how they made a living. If you are interested, check out Villette, or her sister, Anne Bronte's novel Agnes Gray.) Marriages were often "arranged". I use quotations because they weren't arranged like how marriages are today. Rather, children were directed towards who they should marry and associate themselves with. A family of "good breeding" would introduce their children to another family of "good breeding", or more commonly, cousins would be encouraged to marry. As demonstrated in Ms. Austen's novels, a couple would meet, decide they like each other and be engaged within a week. Marriage was not romantic. It was a business deal.

If a woman chose not to get married, she had few options for survival. For one, family fortunes were never passed down to daughters. If there were no sons, the inheritance would go to the nearest male relative. An unmarried woman had to rely on brothers or uncles for a home and basic necessities. Jane Austen was pretty cool. She chose not to get married and then began a writing career for herself, with the support of her brother. Both Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility were popular while she was alive.

What's fascinating about Ms. Austen is her observation of social norms and how she vilified them in her novels. Many of her main players are caricatures of things she hated about society; fat gossipy women and flashy conceited young men to name a few. All of her heroines marry men they fall in love with. Specifically, her Emma would only consider marriage if she met someone she loved. This was certainly not the fashion back then. In real life, Emma should have been damn grateful to receive any marriage proposal and to say yes to the first wealthy man who hit on her. I like to think that Jane Austen invented the notion of playing hard to get.

A feminist novel can still revolve around marriage and romance. I think people today look past the societal importance of Jane Austen and only look at the romantic relationships of her main characters. These fans miss the whole point of Jane Austen.

Take another look at Pride and Prejudice. Lizzy Bennett refuses her obnoxious cousin's marriage proposal. However, her best friend accepts and is grateful she found a man with money and a home who can support her and her family. This is what any woman back then would do. But Ms. Austen tries to demonstrate with Lizzy that women are people and not possessions to be traded off amongst men. On a side note, Ms. Austen also doesn't stray too far away from societal norms. After all, Lizzy falls in love and marries a rich man with the biggest house in the neighborhood.

I'm glad many people like Jane Austen and still read her books. I wish more women would look into the historical significance of her novels and perhaps develop an appreciation for what she was trying to do. But then again, I'm a nerd and who really wants to spend their time studying Victorian England?

Home Buyers

Facebook suggestion #2 comes from my aunt. The topic: Stupid potential buyers that come to look at your house.

When I had TV, I enjoyed watching House Hunters on TLC. I picked up some useful pointers and advice for when I look for a house. I have also learned how not to act in front of my realtor and to be grateful if there are nice homes in my price range.

I have always known that stupid people exist, but they seem to come out in droves when TLC is involved (i.e. John and Kate Plus 8). I have seen few episodes of House Hunters that didn't have some brain dead woman on who couldn't find her dream house on her meager budget. (Good luck finding a $200,000 palace in Boston, crazy blonde chick from that episode that came on after Full House that one day.).

Anyways, reality TV aside, people have some odd demands when it comes to what they want in a house. My aunt told me that someone said her carpeting has too much personality. When did carpets take on human characteristics?

Stuff like carpet and wallpaper can all be removed. (Or you can be like my mother and just paint over the wallpaper.) Deciding not to buy a house because there's floral wallpaper in the master bedroom is extraordinarily petty. When you buy a home, new or used, expect to put some physical labor into it.

One thing I don't understand about people is their priorities. I would think finding a home in a safe neighborhood that had a new roof and a laundry room would be high on a "must have" list. Apparently, I'm not with the in-crowd. Home buyers are looking for things like unique architecture and built in bookcases. I guess it's fine to live in gangsta central as long you have arched doorways and plenty of shelving for your Martha Stewart literature.

Back to House Hunters (which sounds like Ghost Hunters which is why I started watching it in the first place. Loser?). Every episode is pretty much the same. The buyer is shown three houses which, according to the buyer, is always too small, too far away from the beach, too close to traffic, doesn't have enough windows, the bathrooms are too small, there's not enough closet space, the backyard is too small, the layout is weird, the kitchen is too small, the basement isn't finished, etc.

But I guess a TV show would be boring if people complained about inadequate schools and plumbing problems.

African Killer Bees and Sentient Robots: Nature's Perfect Killing Machines

I asked my facebook friends to give me topics to write about. Here's suggestion #1:

African Killer Bees and Sentient Robots: Nature's Perfect Killing Machines

I have to slightly disagree that African Killer Bees are a perfect killing machine. It takes more than one bee to do any real damage. It's quite simple to defeat them actually. Here is the recipe:

4 Alaskan Grizzly Bears
1 12-Pack of Howling Gray Wolves
3 Bald Eagles
1 White Lion
1 Dio's "Holy Diver"

With that combo, the bees don't stand a chance.

The robots, on the other hand are harder to defeat. However, with a little effort it can be done. Here is how to defeat any robot that has turned to the dark side:

6 Panthers
6 Cougars
1/2 Silverback Gorilla
7 Pterodactyls
1 Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast"

This concoction of natural power can defeat the man made tyranny of any sentient robot.

So, you see African Killer Bees and Sentient Robots will never win. Nothing will overcome the majestic power of nature's finest creatures.

Child abusers

Sorry I haven't written in awhile. I have been overworked and pretty sick for a few months. But alas, have I got a story for you!

For those that don't know, I volunteer at a resale shop that benefits a domestic violence shelter. Last weekend, I witnessed a mother beating the hell out of her little boy in the shop while completely ignoring her screaming toddler in the stroller.

I don't know what happened exactly. This woman had been in the store for about an hour. Her daughter in the stroller had been crying hysterically the whole time. Her son was about 4 or 5. As a boy that age, wandering around a thrift store for an hour has got to be pretty boring. The only thing I can think of that set her off was him asking her if they could go home. (That is not a violence inducing request, but whatever.)

She then punched him in the back of his head. He fell forward and hit the front of his head on a clothing rack. Then she said," Now STOP IT!". The boy didn't cry but he did have the sense to run away from her.

That lady is lucky my supervisor was right there next to me at that point. I was ready with some harsh words and a phone call to the police. My supervisor was more subtle. She explained to that woman that this was a non violence store and that we have time out chairs if her kids were misbehaving. The woman ignored her and went into the fitting room, dragging her daughter in with her but leaving the boy on his own. The two kids were given organic lolly pops from my supervisor but the woman took away the little girls after a few minutes and threw it on the floor by the shoe rack. They eventually left about a half hour later.

I'm going to skip past the irony of beating your kids in a store that donates all the proceeds to a domestic violence shelter and discuss the implications of beating your children in public.

Some might say the only way to parent children is to beat them senseless until they are afraid of you. Those people are failures at life and should be sterilized.

I have a severe dislike for anyone who spanks their child, but more so for people who hit their children in public and ignore their screaming child while they are shopping. The child is screaming and crying for a reason. Stop being selfish, mindless consumers and tend to your child's needs! Ignoring your child is equivalent to beating the crap out of it. In addition, hitting your child only teaches them to hit others to solve their problems.

There are much more effective ways to discipline your children. Using violence is never a proper way. If your child only responds to violence, then you have bigger problems. Remember, they learn habits and problem solving methods from YOU!

Rants

I've been in a craptacular mood lately so I've decided to blog my first ever public rant session. So here goes:

Where did all the public support for Haiti go? The country has not been fixed. People are still homeless, jobless and destitute. Why did all the celebrities stop endorsing fundraising for Haiti? Where are the media reports? Charity in this country is such crap. It is some stupid fad for dumb, white Americans. They could donate their $5 and feel like they made a difference and then go to the mall and buy the new iPhone.

Speaking of charitable events, I HATE them! Like sororities and whatnot holding car washes for homeless shelters? Have they ever been in a homeless shelter? Do they volunteer for a homeless shelter? Are they even going to drop the money off at the homeless shelter themselves? Are they going to think about homeless people after the car wash? Do they even think about homeless people during the car wash? My guess is, no they do not. I'm sure they feel like they are doing something good by donating their time for 3 hours. Really, they are only stroking their egos without having to do any actual charitable work.

Or how about people who only donate food in December? People need to eat other times of the year too.

I also despise people who don't vote. The only people who could vote when this country was founded were white men who owned property. That was not very many people. Today, everyone can vote due to some hardworking people in our past who were imprisoned and murdered so we could have this right. It is not difficult or time consuming. People who don't vote and then complain about the president all the time should just cancel their existence on this planet.

Want to know who really sucks? Anti-choicers who are fighting rather successfully to make abortion illegal. Ask them what they want to happen to women who have abortions when it's illegal and they say one of two things: No women will have abortions when it's illegal or women should not go to prison, but they should be prayed for and go to counseling. So really, they have no idea what they want other than for everyone to be crazed Jesus fanatics like them.

Bill Clinton is awesome and Hillary is one lucky lady.


I guarantee that in a few more months people won't even be talking about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and by the end of the year, most people will be filling up their tanks at BP gas stations all over the country.

Ever wonder why people all over the world are disgusted with Americans?

I hate many more things but all rants must come to an end.

Credit Scores

I guess since there is a high number of unemployment and the housing market sucks, there have been many articles written about credit scores. For the past several months, I have been reading the articles, mainly to learn more about how credit scores work. Here is a summary of what I have learned:

1. If you pay your bills on time, you will have good credit. If you pay your bills on time, you could have bad credit because you are not building a credit history.

2. If you have more than one credit card, you will have bad credit. If you only have one credit card and don't' take advantage of all the credit that is available to you, you will have bad credit and loans will be harder to come by.

3. If you open a credit card, your credit score will be affected negatively. If you close a credit card, your credit score will be affected negatively.

4. If you pay your credit card bill in full, you will have good credit. If you pay your credit card bill in full, this will effect your credit score negatively because you are not building a credit history.

5. If you take out a mortgage and don't buy a house for the full amount you were approved for, it could result in bad credit history because you are not taking full advantage of the credit available to you. If you take out a mortgage and take out the full amount you were approved for, you will have bad credit because you took out the maximum amount of credit you were approved for.

6. If you take out a car loan instead of paying in cash, your credit score will be affected negatively. If you pay for a car with cash instead of taking out a loan, you are not building a credit history and this could reflect negatively on you when you go to purchase a house.

7. If you try to make sense out of how credit scores work, you will go insane.

Why Feminism is Needed

My answers to the infamous question:

Feminism is needed because the other day I was driving through a construction zone and saw a sign that said "Men Working" and saw 2 women working.

Feminism is needed because 85% of domestic violence victims in the U.S. are women and 1.3 million women are physically assaulted each year by an intimate partner. (NCADV)

Feminism is needed because women seeking health care at Planned Parenthood's around the country are harassed and assaulted every day by anti-woman organizations and activists.

Feminism is needed because a woman earn 78 cents for every dollar a man makes. (NOW)

Feminism is needed because little girls are entering beauty contests, wearing make-up before they enter puberty and suffering from eating disorders. (TLC)

Feminism is needed because women are constantly pushed out of the music industry (Tribune)

Feminism is needed because the person bagging my grocery always asks me if I need assistance to my car.

Feminism is needed because people like Sarah Palin exist.

Feminism is needed because girls in Africa are having their clitorises removed to prevent them from enjoying sex. (UNICEF)

Feminism is needed because 1 in 6 women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. (RAINN)

Feminism is needed because female politicians are criticized for their clothes and hair instead of their policies. (Clinton)

Feminism is needed because the word "guys" is used to address a group of men and women.

Feminism is needed because "he" is the default gender when describing animals.

Feminism is needed because my cardiologist assumed my primary care physician is a man and my primary care physician assumed by cardiologist is a man. (They are both women.)

Feminism is needed because gay marriage is not legal in all 50 states and in most countries around the world.

Feminism is needed because the website stopmilitaryrape.org is a necessity and female soldiers are being punished for reporting rapes.

Feminism is needed because women's sports lag behind men's in popularity, profit and facilities, but certainly not in athletic interest or talent.

Feminism is needed because magazines like Playboy and Hustler exist.

Feminism is needed because high school students don't know who Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Abigail Adams are.

Feminism is needed because birth control pills are not covered by health insurance companies and Viagra is.

Feminism is needed because football players are called "girls" and "ladies" as insults.

Feminism is needed because girls ask for breast implants as graduation gifts.

Feminism is needed because women's access to reproductive rights is currently being debated in Congress.

Feminism is needed because girls and women seeking an education in Afghanistan are being bombed and getting acid thrown into their faces. (CNN)


There are many more reasons why feminism is needed. The facts written above are the reasons why I'm involved. Too many people think women have achieved equal rights. I don't see it, and until I do I will continue to work as a feminist activist.

Sweet Valley High with Vampires

The Twilight series is the most sickening trend in my lifetime. The books are not literature, are not well written and are not encouraging young women to read; they are encouraging young women to consume.

Sadly, I have read the book Twilight. My best friends mother lent it to me thinking I would enjoy it. This was before Twilight mania began. The book is written for young women, probably between the ages of 12-17.

The focus of the book is a high school girl who becomes stalked and harassed by a 100-year old high school "boy". (Why a 100-year-old would want to attend high school is beyond my comprehension. Unless he has a wish to meet Chris Hansen.) This "boy" sneaks into her bedroom and watches her sleep and does not allow any other males to come near her. The main character sees this as romantic. Emotional abuse is not romantic, Ms. Stephanie Meyer.

The only reason why people think Twilight books are good is because, unlike the DaVinci Code, they actually understand the plot. It is written in the same reading comprehension level as the Babysitters Club, R.L. Stine's Fear Street Series and Sweet Valley High. The average American stops reading novels after high school, thus never developing their critical thinking skills beyond the Lord of the Flies. This one reason why Twilight is popular amongst adults.

As a feminist, I must also point out society's obsession with dumbing down girls. The main character of this book rarely thinks for herself. All decisions are made for her by her 100-year-old boyfriend. She doesn't question why this person watches her sleep or knows where she's at 24 hours a day. She just quietly accepts the fact that that's how romantic boys act and violence towards her is just a part of being in a relationship.

Young women are eating this up and discussing which 100-year-old male vampire they love most. They are buying posters, sound tracks and t-shirts with the actors and actresses on them at Hot Topic and wait in long lines to see the new movie. Buy, buy, buy! Don't' spend your money on more books (since Twilight makes you want to read so much.) Buy a load of crap and secretly wish you could be bitten and abused by a 100-year-old man!

If I could, I would pluck every Twilight book out of every young woman's hands and replace it with The Secret Life of Bees.

To the Wedding Planners

Dear Wedding Industry:

I have had enough of your foolish shannigans. I am getting married, but this does not make me an out of control consumer-driven Bridezilla who must stress out about center pieces and "hot color combos."

I no longer want to be told that my fiancee did not buy my engagement ring properly. In fact, I don't want to hear anymore about diamonds being the only true rock for engagement rings. (Mine is a pretty sapphire that did not exploite children or fund a war in Africa.)

I no longer want to be instructed on how to find the "perfect dress". I don't want to be subjected to your rules on what shade of white my dress should be based on the circumstances of my marriage. I have had enough of looking at $1,000 dresses. I want to see dresses made for real people!

On another note, I am going to blow chunks if I have to hear another word on how to throw a great reception for my guests. I'm sure my guests feel privileged that I am inviting them to this special occasion in my life and could care less about wedding favors and whether or not I have a band or DJ. (In fact, I will have neither.) I don't think my reception will make or break their opinion of my marriage.

I am also disgusted that you managed to work your evil ways on the likes of Macys, Kohls and the unsuspecting Target with your demonic wedding registries. I am not getting married to profit off of my friends and family and get a butt load of kitchen gadgets that I will never use. I don't want my friends buying me sheets and toasters, or fine china that's going to sit in a cabinet and never get used.

What's even more upsetting is that you have completely brainwashed my loved ones. One of my beloved's asked me why I don't want to register for new towels. I just got new towels 9 months ago when I moved into my apartment! What the F do I need new towels for? Because we're getting married instead of just moving in together? Super lame and wasteful. If someone buys me a blender with no intention of it being a joke, I'm going to be super pissed.

Wedding Industry, I want to let you know how horrendous it is to be told by you that my wedding will be complete trash without the most expensive photographer, the most elegant looking flowers and a cake that is a foot and a half taller than me. I do not care if my wedding is perfect down to the smallest detail.

I am not getting married to put on a show and to impress my family and friends with limos, a four course meal and 700 toasts and speeches. I am getting married because I want to share my life with someone and I am having a wedding so my friends and family can witness the beginning of that. I have yet to hear any advice from you as to how to celebrate love.

Sincerely:

Jenny

Break

Since I have developed a nasty case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, I will be taking an unspecified length of time off from extracurricular typing. I will continue to astound you with my wit and intelligence after surgery and/or physical therapy. I apologize for the inconvenince.

Boiling Point Cartoons

Check out this website www.boilingpointcartoon.com. This woman is an amazing political cartoonist.

Animal Friendly Cosmetics and Household Products

If you're like me and don't think we should be testing lipstick on monkeys, check out Leaping Bunny, a company associated with the Human Society of the United States. According to Leaping Bunny, "every year, tens of thousands of animals are harmed and killed in product testing labs."

Leaping Bunny has list of all the companies that have pledged to not test their products on animals. A few of my favorite companies are Mary Kay, Urban Decay and The Body Shop. Remember, when a product says "This finished product is not tested on animals" it usually means a portion of the production of the product was tested on animals. The statement is just a PR and advertising move.

You can also sign a pledge on their website to no longer buy from companies that test their products on animals.

One Groovy Chick

Another person I have come to admire is Janis Joplin. I've never been the biggest fan of her music, but after watching a few interviews with her on YouTube, I've discovered that she was a fascinating woman.

She was surprisingly down to earth, even in 1970 a few months before she died. Her interview with Dick Cavett on the Dick Cavett show is riveting. I really like the part when she tells him she's going to her 10-year high school reunion. She said they laughed her out of school, out of town and out of the state, so she's "going home."

I'm drawn to people who are successful even though they are hated worldwide. I'm currently reading a biography on Janis. Not too many people liked her as a person. Jim Morrison couldn't stand her and, according to the book I'm reading, a lot of people in the Haight-Ashbury district avoided her. People close to her said she was brash, outspoken and rude (not too different from Ms. Courtney Love huh?). Perhaps that's the personality a woman in the 1960's needed to be a successful rock star. The formula still applies today (i.e. Hole, L7, Bikini Kill).

Another reason why people didn't really like Janis was because she was "ugly". No joke! Her hair wasn't styled the way a woman's should be and she had acne. Female singers are supposed to be beautiful and Janis wasn't (in the conventional way). What a dumb reason to not appreciate someone.

Janis lived an extraordinary enough life to warrant a good biography. Reading about her experiences growing up in small town Texas with few friends to having an abortion (before it was legal!) are intriguing. It's sad to read about her trouble with addiction and how she really wanted to stay clean for awhile before she joined Big Brother. It made me wonder what would have happened to her if she had stayed away from San Francisco.

Whether her music is for you or not, you've got to admire her ballsy attitude and her influence on women's role in rock music. She went onstage, ugly and all, and out-performed her male bandmates to the point where the name Janis Joplin is more well-known than either Big Brother and the Holding Company or Full Tilt Boogie. It's also nice to see that she is still admired, even 40 years later.

Body Image

Last December, I wore a size 4. In March,my Buddha Gut popped the button off a size 6 pair of pants. Today, I'm an 8 and even that's starting to feel a little snug. While I don't mind having an excuse to shop for new clothes, my new body weight is weird and I'm having a hard time adjusting.

I already know my feelings about being a size 8 are total crap. A size 8 is not even fat. But being told I look "heavier in my face" than I did a few months ago isn't exactly doing much for my self-esteem. (Thanks family holiday get togethers!) My outside appearance should have zero influence on my self-esteem. But it does.

What makes me angry is that stick thin figures are so ingrained in women's minds as the only acceptable way to look that even I, a self-proclaimed radical feminist, am not immune. This summer, I opted for the tankini instead of the bikini, which made me look 6 months preggers. (My gut is only inseminated with doughnuts and burritos.) In actuality, I probably should have gone with the string bikini and flaunted my new tummy rolls.

I've never had problems with gaining weight before so this whole "body image" garbage is pretty new to me. I often wonder why it is that I feel so funny about gaining weight. I did gain a lot really fast, but I'm pretty sure it's due to a change in my eating and lifestyle habits. But I also think the real problem is stupid American society telling all women they're fat and unattractive unless they're a size 4 (or a 2 if you live in L.A.)

Now instead of trying to improve my inner self with reading and volunteerism, I'm focusing on making myself feel better about being a size 8. What a waste.

Pointless Music

I greatly dislike musicians that create music with no point. It doesn't matter what the point is. It could be party music, dance music, smoking crack music...whatever. But please don't pick up an instrument and make music if you have nothing to say either lyrically or instrumentally.

Last night, I had the misfortune of witnessing a "musical group" that desperately needed a Music Theory 101 course. During one song, it sounded like the keyboardist sat on the keyboard and played with his butt. It was similar to a two-year-old pounding on a piano. The keyboardist was clearly trying to be eccentric, but that only works with people who know what they're doing. This guy sounded like he had never played any instrument before in his life. In my opinion, if you want to make eccentric and offbeat music, you should do it in a way that is not going to ostracize your audience.

Some music I have been exposed to has lyrics, but they are literally about nothing. (This has been explained to me as "stream of conscious writing". You write whatever you are thinking about at the moment. ) Lyrics about nothing don't necessarily equal a bad song. (Does anyone know what Gavin Rossdale is singing about in all those Bush songs?) But combine it with guitars that are way too fuzzy and muffled with no clear melody and you have yourself a load of pointless music. It's hard for me to connect with a song that if full of distorted harmonies with a singer who is singing about how many doors are in his house or something. If lyrics are not important to your musical creativity, then leave them out.

I'm mostly upset about this because music is very powerful and has the potential to make a difference or to connect with people emotionally. It's like a fart in Mozart's face to sell a record that you created just to have fun and make some noise. Most people listen to music to relax, rock out or to help them through difficult times. Why would you make music that no one knows what they hell they're supposed to do with?

If you have the talent/will to record music, why would you create something that doesn't connect with a broad audience? If you want to make eccentric music, that's cool but do it responsibly. Learn some scales and key signatures and take some piano lessons. I would also suggest you take a poetry course and learn to write meaningful lyrics (or lyrics about anything!).

I think music has a significant impact on everyone in this world. To have the talent to participate in that is not something to be taken lightly. You have a role in this world (similar to a Jedi Knight) to connect with people. Don't squander your talent or, better yet, don't pretend you have the talent and then poo-poo all over an instrument.

Children's Rights

I read an article in the Tribune today on how kids don't' have the right to protest in schools. In a school in West Chicago, students were upset because their school play got cancelled and they petitioned to be able to have the production. I think this is fantastic, but most adults don't. In fact, because of certain adults, children do not have any rights in this country.

I really like this generation of teenagers. They are amazing multi-taskers and are much more socially aware than my generation was. As a collective whole, the majority are accepting of peers from other nationalities, religions, races and sexual orientations. It's too bad that adults today don't' give a flying crap about this and are too concerned with taking away their freedoms.

High schools today are like minimum security prisons. There are dress codes, behavior regulations and their right to have art and music as part of the curriculum is pretty much history. Teenagers have to ask permission to take a dump and can't take Pepto Bismol without a doctor's note. These rules may all be for the safety of the students (or adults for that matter) but it looks like these students have had enough. And it's about time!!!!

I've heard people say that these rules have been in place for years and teenagers should just shut up and deal with it like all the other teenagers before them. Just because a rule has been in place for 20 years doesn't make it a right. I'm so glad teenagers today are realizing this and doing something about it.

Some rules and regulations are outdated and ineffective. Dress codes are lame and kids are going to be in gangs whether they have a school uniform or not. And all the kids know who is in which gang. The colors or numbers on their T-shirts are irrelevant.

Adults on the school board are taking away extracurricular activities and then wondering why kids loiter around doing nothing. Stop taking away programs like jazz band and watch as this problem instantly dissolves!

Teenagers also are losing their right to have a drivers license. Some states are raising the age limit. (Of course they are going to get into more accidents. They've only been driving a short time!) Children can't do anything until they are 18. They can't make their own medical decisions. They can't vote. They can't have their own checking account. Many teenagers are responsible enough for these privileges, therefore, the option should be open to them.

Teenagers understand that taking away their rights at school is detrimental to their lives. Why don't 40-year-olds? And when teenagers stand up for themselves and demand to have the drama department back, they are rewarded with detention.

5 to 10 years from now, I see these kids rejecting corporate jobs and creating their own non-profit organizations. Their networking skills are spectacular, thanks to Facebook and MySpace. They already have the life experience to do some great PR for their businesses, not to mention they are ALL great at sending out memos!

Teenagers and younger children today are not learning exceptional values from today's adults. In my opinion, all they are learning is that they are second class citizens who should be seen and not heard. I'm not sure what adults are trying to teach kids when they take away their activities, criticize the amount of time they spend networking and getting acquainted with technology and then call them all illiterate and lazy.

However, I'm glad today's teenagers aren't buying into this crap are are fighting to have their rights back. It's time we stop punishing them for acting like responsible citizens.

Advertisements

Advertising companies suck! Why would you even think to use rape to sell designer clothing? Why do all beer ads exploit women's bodies? If you see an advertisement that pisses you off, write to the company and stop giving them your money!

(Credit for the vintage advertisements)

Looking to Get Rid of an Old Cell Phone?

If you have any old cell phones laying around that you don't use and need to dispose of, please let me know. I will donate them to the Domestic Violence shelter I volunteer for.

Thanks!

What is a Feminist?

BBC News published an awesome article today on women in the technology industry. One woman named Judith Lewis was interviewed on the movement and feminism was brought up.

"To her the word feminist means something different. In a sense [Geek Girl Dinners] is a feminist movement as it aspires to a lot of the same ideals but I don't want it to be seen as something that is feminist as this can be seen as something marginal or negative.
"We're not trying to be radical or disruptive, but to show that women have a place in technology." (Emphasis added)

Ms. Lewis, you are a feminist. You don't' need to be "radical and disruptive" to be a feminist. Your act of speaking at a girls and technology camp telling women that "they have a place in technology" makes you a feminist.

It's too bad people buy into what the media and patriarchal influences tell them about feminism instead looking into it themselves. Feminism is not negative. It's one of the most positive movements out there.


(From dictionary.com)
fem·i·nism   /ˈfɛməˌnɪzəm/ Show Spelled[fem-uh-niz-uhm] Show IPA
–noun
1. the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.
2. ( sometimes initial capital letter ) an organized movement for the attainment of such rights for women.
3. feminine character.

Sarah Palin look-alike Stripper Contest

The tribune reported today that there is such as thing as a Sarah Palin look-alike stripper contest.

Why, why WHY are all women politicians belittled and rejected as human beings? This contest is not honoring Sarah Palin. It's demeaning her. Society cannot accept that women can be intellectuals and responsible citizens. When they see a woman who is smart, they can't help themselves. They must degrade her and value her as nothing more than a sex object.

Sarah Palin is not the only victim of this sexist crap. All female politicians are judged on how they look and what they wear.

Remember when Hillary Clinton was running for president? How many articles did you read about her that mentioned her clothes and hair? I bet you didn't' read any about Barack Obama's new haircut. FYI, Hillary's headband obsession has nothing to do with her ability to run this country. It's too bad she isn't our president, but she sure is kicking butt as our Secretary of State!

I wish I lived in a world that valued women the same as men. This stupid "contest" is proof that I don't.

(For the record, I dislike Sarah Palin tremendously, but no one deserves to be humiliated to this extent.)

Interpersonal Violence

Please see this link


This past week has been a harsh reality check for me. Interpersonal violence toward women is everywhere! I was reminded that even I'm not immune to it.

Saturday was my first day at my volunteer job. I'm working at a resale shop run by the local women's shelter. It's definitely rewarding, but it's hard being confronted with battered women.

Domestic violence comes in all types of forms. Emotional abuse is the one that bothers me the most. I think this is the one that none of us are immune to, and some women don't even realize it's happening. I witnessed and experienced this most as a teenager. Teenage boys will say and do such lovely things to keep you under their control. They'll say they will kill themselves if you break up with them. You break up with them anyways and they'll call you incessantly and harass you. (This is not only teenage boys. I've recently discovered that 40-year-old men will leave you 47 messages in under two hours.)

Teenage boys also have a tendency to tell their girlfriends that they can't hang out with their friends, coerce them into having sex and stalk them. It's not entirely the boy's faults. Society tells them these are romantic things to do.

In the movie, Valley Girl, Nick Cage's character gets dumped by his girlfriend. In an attempt to get back together with her, he randomly shows up at all her hangout spots and camps on her parent's front lawn. In real life, this would get him nothing but a restraining order, but he ends up getting her to go out with him again.

There is nothing romantic about emotionally abusing your girlfriend or ex-girlfriend. Stalking her and threatening her are not going to make her want to go back out with you. Showing up randomly at her job or at her hangout spots are not romantic and sweet! It's scary and intimidating.

I watched a Lifetime movie last night called "She's Too Young." It's the one where the whole school gets syphilis. In the movie, the main character gets asked out by "the most popular boy in school". He wants to have sex with her, but she tells him no. He then decides he no longer wants to hang out with her and wants to take her home. Instead of saying, "OK, going home and not hanging around with your loser ass sounds great", she decides to give him oral sex and gets syphilis in her mouth. This is a perfect example of emotional abuse and this situation happens all the time (minus the syphilis part).

I'm not really sure how comfortable I am talking about my experiences, but I know I'm not alone. According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, women experience about 4.8 million intimate partner-related physical assaults and rapes every year. My first experience with dating violence happened when I was 14-years-old. I consider myself lucky because I've learned from my experiences and use them to help empower other women to do the same. It's not my problem that these boys were totally screwed up, but I think it is a problem if I internalize it and don't help other women to do the same.

Interpersonal violence prevention should be taught in junior high and reiterated in high school health courses. Some young people don't know how to be in a healthy relationship and need to be taught. Parents could help, but I'm sure they this is where these kids learned this lousy behavior.

Until domestic and interpersonal violence is a thing of the past, you can find me at my volunteer job on Saturday afternoons.

For more information on Interpersonal Violence, please visit these websites:

http://www.now.org/
http://www.ncadv.org/
http://www.familyshelterservice.org/
http://feminist.org/


PS: Thanks to my women's studies degree and feminism, I learned about what happened to me and what I can do to prevent it. If you need someone to talk to, let me know.

Equal Pay

I recently met another person who had a good time challenging my subversive views on women's roles. This time, it was on equal pay for women.

Here are the arguments for why women should not be paid as much as men. Some are common ones I hear all the time and others were found on the Internet among a slew of anti-feminist websites.

1. Women get pregnant and go on maternity leave.

2. Women call off work to stay home and care for sick children and relatives.

3. Women don't stay late or work weekends

4. Women don't ask for raises or negotiate salaries

5. Women are not as competitive as men

6. Women don't care about job status as much as men

7. Women don't want the upper-level management jobs, so they should not be paid as much in the lower ranked positions

Here is why those arguments are total bullshit.

Women get pregnant and go on maternity leave.

Obviously not all women get pregnant, so let's focus on why women who choose to be mothers and take time off to bond with their infant should be paid the same as their male peers. Close your eyes and imagine this. A male employee has a heart attack and needs heart surgery. He takes a month or so off to recover. Should this employee be paid less now because he took an extended amount of time off work? "Well,"you say, " he didn't choose to have a heart attack. Women choose to have babies." OK, how about this. All overweight men should be paid less because they will have a heart attack and need to take an extended amount of time off. Should companies take preventative measures against any person who looks like they may need to use their short term disability and not pay them fairly? Sound ridiculous? So does this argument against equal pay.

Women call off work to stay home and care for sick children and relatives.

How about men who call off to care for sick kids and relatives? It happens often enough at my office. Should people with families not make as much as people who don't have families? I think this argument is deeply rooted in sexist logic. Why do schools call the mother when the kid is sick? Fathers are capable of caring for their offspring as well. To be fair, fathers should also be discriminated against. Or, to make things right, no one should be discriminated against.

Women don't stay late or work weekends.

This one really pisses me off. Overtime is mandatory at my company. And you know who works all the voluntary overtime? The women. This includes Saturdays. The hardest working employees at my company who work 8 hour shifts on Saturdays voluntarily are all women. The men are the ones pissing and moaning all the time about having to work Saturday mornings and less men choose to work the voluntary overtime. This does not only happen at my place of employment. And you know why all these women are volunteering to work the overtime? Because they get paid less and need the extra money!

Women don't ask for raises or negotiate salaries.

Unfortunately, statistics show that this is true. However, women who ask for raises are more likely than men to not get as much as they ask for. Interestingly, women have discovered pay discrepancies when they asked for a raise. Just ask Lilly Ledbetter.

Women are not as competitive as men.

What a load of crap. Women will do just as much to get a position working on a special project as their male counterparts. Women's efforts are often ignored because of sexism in the corporate world. From my observations and research, men don't want women in upper level management positions because it threatens the patriarchal structure of how businesses are run. Even though the movie wasn't that great, Anchorman did a great job of illustrating sexism in the workplace. Even though the plot took place a few decades back, things have not changed for women seeking to advance.

Women don't care about their job status as much as men.

I'm not sure why people think this. Everyone, both female and male, wants to be the supervisor. No, not everyone women wants to be Dwight Shrute with an army of subordinates, but women do care about the positions and rank they hold at work. If anyone can share with the world why they think women don't care about their job status, I would be very interested in hearing what you have to say. And then I will tell you why you are a dumb ass.

Women don't want the upper-level management jobs.

Yes, this could be true. Not all women want to be the CEO. But some do!!!! Not all men want upper-level management positions and we don't pay them less! Check out this woman CEO. Or this one. Fortune 500 lists 10 more women CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. I guarantee all of these women want their jobs.

My point is that there are no logical argument for not paying women equal wages. Companies are hiding behind their misogynist values and are pulling excuses out of their rectums for justifying pay discrimination.

Here is why companies won't pay women equal wages.

1. They are cheap bastards

2. They think female employees are expendable

3. They can use excuses like maternity leave to not pay women equally because it's not socially acceptable for mothers to work outside the home.

4. They think women are stupid

5. They think no one will notice

6. No one is forcing them to

7. They are depending on women to not care

The Girl Guitar Revolution

I love Daisy Rock Guitars! They are guitars for girls (but lots of boys play them too). My man doesn't like them because he's insecure with his masculinity, but they sound cool. I own the pixie acoustic. Nice huh!

A lot of the guitars come in a short scale version for children. The necks are thinner for smaller hands and the guitars are made from a lightweight wood to lessen fatigue. They have also have electric guitars and basses.

I love that there are guitars marketed towards young girls. More girls need to be encouraged to play guitar. The world has too many male rock stars. We need more Courtney Loves (Hole's new album is awesome by the way!), Juliana Hatfields and Louise Posts.

They come in a style for everyone. The ones pictured here are my favorites. Check out their website for more information.

Better Cafeteria Food

A lot of attention has been given to school lunch programs. I think reform is long overdue. I learned my eating habits from my parents and from school. I hope that improving school lunches will allow kids to make better choices than I did.

My family criticized my eating habits my entire childhood. But you know what? I'm not the one who did the grocery shopping. If you don't buy or provide garbage to children then they can't eat it! Same goes for schools. In elementary school, we were provided with rectangular pizza on Styrofoam. In junior high, we had nachos with powder cheese mixed with milk, chocolate chip cookies and deep fried chicken sandwiches. In high school, we had the greasiest pizza you can imagine, a snack line and fries served to us everyday. Kids can't make healthy choices when there are no choices. Why not throw a handful of salad or carrots on the tray instead of fries? Kids will eat it if its given to them and all the junk food is gone.

Some schools are allowing kids to grow their own gardens at school as part of the curriculum. This is neat because it teaches kids about gardening, feeding themselves and it saves the school money. What I think is super cool is that some CPS students are demanding better lunches and making suggestions at to what they want to be served. Even though high school students have been doing this for decades, these kids finally got someone to listen to them.

Better school lunches will help with the childhood obesity epidemic and encourage kids to make smarter life decisions. Schools need to educate students on all aspects of life, including nutrition.

Immigration

A group of people protesting immigrant deportation were arrested today. They are angry about what's happening in Arizona, and they do not want people who came into this country without the proper paperwork to be deported.

I have been doing a lot of research on this subject, and I've gotta say I'm on the immigrants side. Did you know it can take anywhere from 6 months to 6 years to obtain a work visa for the United States? That is a long time to wait for someone with no job, starving children and a not so great government.

How horrible does life have to be that you would rather sneak into another country and live as quietly as you can, constantly worrying about being caught? How destitute would you have to be to consider working menial labor jobs for less than minimum wage and have to support a family? You can't have any say in your new goverment or where your kids go to school. You have little choices and no authority to make your situation better.

How bad must things be that you would trade you current life to live in a country with hillbilly white men with mullets and rusted pick up trucks who want to shoot everyone and then take a trip to Wal-Mart?

Mexican immigrants are choosing to endure all of this. What is going on that they would rather settle for America then stay in Mexico? Why isn't this question being asked and why is nothing being done to help their situation?

The government needs to provide immigrants with the proper paperwork in a timely manner. More needs to be done to ensure that people who want to live and work in the United States have a fair chance and are shown respect. We need to address the reason why so many people from Mexico want out of there, and why so many don't have the proper documents.

No, "jumping the fence" isnt' a great way to come to America and it does cause problems. But, my God show some compassion and respect for these people. You have no idea what their lives have been like and the constant fear of deportation they live with every day.

In the words of Alicia Silverstone, "It does not say R.S.V.P. on the Statue of Liberty".

Mind Your Manners

Why do racist, sexist, homophobic people talk to others like everyone agrees with their craptacular views?

I have been around plenty of people lately that don't know me very well. I heard someone say "why can't we have white history month" and I heard another person say that she is deathly afraid of black men because Barack Obama is president. I think she was implying that they are all going to start attacking white women.

I am not making this up. Real people said these things. I have witnesses.

If you insist on being a bigot, please keep this to yourself. No one likes you. Thanks.

Alaska Dogs Are Pretty Awesome

Read the full story here

Subtract Boys, Add Confidence

The Tribune did a great feature on an all girls Chicago Public High School today. This school is preparing girls to work in predominantly male professions, such as Engineering and Science. I thought this quote by one of the students was great:

"In other schools, boys mostly answer all the questions and do all the talking in class, and the only thing the girls care about is looking cute for the boys," said Jenaun Armstrong, 18, a senior who plans to major in acting when she starts at Tennessee State University in the fall."At ‘Y-Dub,' we speak up, and we don't have to worry about the boys doing all the talking."

I agree with Jenaun. In my high school, most girls' only goal was to find a boyfriend. I remember one girl in my senior economics class saying her motivation for coming to school every day was to talk to boys. I remember thinking that was stupid, but now that I know about sexism in the education system, I realize that girls are conditioned to think this way as soon as they reach junior high. In my Women in Contemporary America course in College, I read a great article about what it would be like if girl's and boy's roles in the schools were switched. I'll find it and post it at another time.

I remember very vividly my second grade teacher, Mrs. Burnham, saying to me "girls are not good at math, so it's ok if you need extra help." I believe I was about 8 at the time. I also remember being told that boys were better and math, science and social science and that girls were better at reading and writing. This was in the early 1990's! Were any girls encouraged to take math or science courses?

This girl is cool and way smarter than I was at 18:

"I grew up in a single-parent household, so there wasn't much motivation to go to college. If not for ‘Y-Dub,' I might have gotten pregnant and dropped out of high school and struggled to make a living, maybe working at a retail store," said Clanton, who attends Harold Washington College and will transfer to the University of Chicago next year to study elementary education.

I think this school is great, but I don't think there should be more single sex schools. Girls should be given more encouragement and motivation by the public school systems. Some anti-feminists insist this is happening and that boys are being neglected. This is not the case at all. What's happening is that girls are finally being given a chance to exceed and they are just happening to out-succeed their male peers. I don't think boys will ever be neglected in the public school systems. I think it's a likely as football programs being cut.

Reading this article cheered me up and gave me hope for future generations of girls.

Destroy your TV!!!!!!

I have been living without cable television since October 2009. It's not difficult and I don't miss it. If there is something I want to watch (The Rachel Maddow Show!!!), I watch it on the Internet. It saves me money and it also saves my mind from being exposed to advertisements and brain cell loss.

I have no idea what movies are currently in theaters. I don't know what kinds of deals I can get on a new car. I don't know what god awful sitcoms are when I get home from work. What I do know is that I have more time to write, sit outside, read and socialize. My life doesn't revolve around the next Grey's Anatomy episode or Dancing with the Stars. And yes, I prefer it that way.

I read actual newspapers for my news. Therefore, I get more well-rounded information instead of 30 second clips of crap.

I do have a TV in my apartment and I do use it. I enjoy watching certain types of movies and documentaries. I also own the first 3 seasons of Paranormal State and Eric has season 1 and 2 of The Office. What I don't have is 900 channels of garbage.

When I was writing for my college newspaper, my mother told me that my writing sounded whiny and snotty. Sure, I think I'm better than everyone else, but as a friend of mine I think that is to your advantage! (Ha!) So here's my snotty whiny advice to you. I'm requesting that all of you stop watching cable television. It's not good for you and it's made my life more enjoyable. I guarantee it will do the same to yours.

Computer Engineer Barbie

The Tribune reported today that Mattel is coming out with a Computer Engineer Barbie. While I applaud their efforts to have Barbie work in a predominantly male field, I am disappointed that this "smarter" Barbie still looks like a trashy whore. This dumb broad still has an unrealistic looking physique and a blank, idiotic look on her overmakeup faced. My guess is that Computer Engineers don't wear tight leggings and stilettos while on the job. Hmm.....Computer Engineer Barbie, you look like RuPaul at an engineering firm. Just say no to Barbie and her fascist beauty standards.

Sister Lakes, Michigan

Driftwood

Superman Ice cream

Blue Moon

We went out for ice cream for my sister's birthday party. We had Blue Moon ice cream, which we only ever had in Michigan. I said Blue Moon ice cream tastes like Michigan and we started talking about our memories from there.

We always got Blue Moon ice cream at the Cone Dock, which isn't there anymore. That place had a little arcade and tons of ice cream flavors. Blue Moon was cool because they only had it in Michigan. They also had Superman ice cream, which had Blue Moon in it. Superman ice cream was cool because it turned lavender as it melted.

We also went to Driftwood for ice cream, more so when the Cone Dock closed. They had Beanie Babies there, so my sister loved going.

Another cool place to visit was the Jesus House. This house was a short walk from our cabin. It had signs everywhere with Bible quotes and crazy paranoid phrases. Their car was 100% covered with bumper stickers. They had nailed signs to the trees. The front yard was covered with signs like a political convention. Even the outside of their house wasn't safe from the wrath of Jesus love. The windows were covered up with Bible verses. Walking past that house was always fun.

On the way back from the Jesus house was the 3,647,489-year-old Antique store that had not been occupied in about 300 years. When I was little, my sister told me it was haunted and some gross guy lived in there. The place terrified me since. I couldn't find any pictures of it, but my dad said it was still there.

My parents went to Wick's Apple House often. It was a short drive from our cabin and is located in the middle of nowhere. It had fresh fruit and vegetables, a gift shop and a small restaurant that was added later. It's a neat place and I highly recommend it. According to their website, they are located in Dowagiac. However, for some reason when I go to the website, it says their account has been suspended. Last time I checked they were still in business.....

I have some cool memories of Michigan since my family has been going every summer since right when I was born to about my senior year of high school. Since my brother and older sister never let me hang out with them, I had to entertain myself since all my parents wanted to do was lame stuff like play cards or watch TV. Behind Cabin 1 and 2 there was a hill with concrete stairs going down it. The hill was covered with rocks that were intentionally stuck there. It was fun to climb up and down that hill and I thought cement stairs were cool because I've never seen any before. I also liked to hang out on the benches that faced the channel. Feeding the bluegill stale bread was always entertaining for me, but probably hazardous to the fish.

Someone posted a lot of pictures on YouTube of Magician Lake, the lake my family stayed on. We stayed in the ghetto "channel" and our cabin did not look like these huge houses!

Brookfield Zoo

Today I went to Brookfield Zoo. I am amazed at how much crap is there to distract children from the animals. I think there are four playgrounds and a merry-go-round. There is also a Family Play Zoo, where, according to their website, children can pretend to be zoo animals or zookeepers.

From my observations, there were more kids on the playground at any given time than in one of the animal houses. I saw kids who went into Tropic World and just kept walking without even glancing at the monkeys. What 3-year-old doesn't like monkeys? As I was walking past one of these stupid playgrounds (there wasn't even a swing set), one little girl was crying because she didn't want to leave. What's wrong with this kid? The zoo has penguins, giraffes and elephants. Why do you want to play at some lame, swing set-less piece of crap playground?

I would not be writing this if it were just a handful of kids. It was a lot of kids who had very little interest in the animals. Not that long ago, all kids loved animals and got excited when the rhino sprayed pee everywhere. I wonder what happened? I'm not that hip with current children's programming, but are there not enough nature shows or something?

My little sister loved Jack Hanna and the Discovery Channel. Zoo animals are awesome. What's wrong with these kids?

And that merry-go-round is uber whack. A brand new house could have been built on that spot instead of that hunk of garbage. Or, for money making purposes, build another store or snack shop.

Little kids should be taught about conservation and the planet and stuff like that. They should be taught an appreciation for wildlife and the rain forest. Obviously, they are not since they are more preoccupied with some inferior, dumb park.

It's not the parents fault either this time! All the parents were desperately trying to sweet talk their kids into looking at the animals. One father couldn't even get his daughter to show an interest in the lion. It's a lion for Christ sakes!

I blame Brookfield Zoo. They don't charge anything to play at the playgrounds, so why have them? Why don't they want the kids to be excited about seeing the animals? If they want the zoo to be more kid friendly, they should have the volunteers interact with the children more so they can learn about the animals they are seeing. Right now they are just sitting behind tables with some snapping turtle skulls and a donation jar.

If youngen's don't start caring about wildlife, there will be no future in conservation and then our beloved animals will die, like the woolly mammoth. ( I love Lyuba. I need to visit her again soon.)

PS: At lunch, a mother changed her baby's diaper at the table next to mine. Disgusting! People are going to eat at that table. When I gave her a disgusted look, she looked at me like I was the one with the problem. What a sick ass!

PPS: There was a couple trying to find the Panda exhibit, because the woman saw a picture of a panda on a postcard at the gift shop. I didn't tell them that 1935 was the last time Brookfield Zoo had a panda but it is now stuffed and on display at the Field Museum if they really want to see it.