More random thoughts

[sorcyress]

Let's see if we can make another random post about random things, and therefore fulfill both the livejournal and 750words requirements I've been neglecting.

*Late to the party, I know, but I finally got around to listening to/watching Amanda Palmer's "Map of Tasmania". There's an explanation and copy of the video here, but the gist is that "Map of Tasmania" is Tasmanian slang for a lady's pubic hair. And so AFP has written an ode to pubic hair freedom --expressing distress that apparently girls as young as 8 or 9 are being waxed by their mothers (citation needed, and I don't feel like googling it myself.).

I'm cool with this so far. It's horrifying that we're socializing girls from _that young_ to think that having any hair on their bodies whatsoever is cause for alarm. Hell, it's frustrating that we're socializing women of *any* age to think that body hair is a terrible thing. Let people make their own choices there. If they want to shave because they then feel pretty, or like being smooth, or it pleases a partner, or is easier to deal with...that's cool. If they don't want to shave because they then feel pretty, or like being hairy, or it pleases a partner, or is easier to deal with...that's also cool! Just let people make the decisions for themselves.

However, then in the middle of the song, we get these lyrics:

Soft and sweet and shaped like a triangle
Some girls want no shape and they shave it all
That’s so whack, it hurts with the stubble
Walking ’round and look like an eight-year-old

Come the fuck on, Amanda! Saying "it's whack to shave" is just as problematic as saying "it's whack to have body hair". It negates the idea that women (people) could make the conscious choice to remove their body hair, for whatever reason they find satisfying. Not everyone wants to have pubic hair --and that's not a bad thing! Sure, there are probably people out there who shave themselves because they feel societal pressure to do so, and that's bad. But that's certainly not everyone who trims or 'scapes or removes their pubic hair, and I'm willing to bet it's not even the majority.

Why can't we just say "whatever you want to do with your body hair, do it for your own reasons" and go with that. Let's not demonize women who do prefer, for themselves, to be clean-shaven.

Also, as I've mentioned before, a grown, postpubescent woman who shaves her pubic area does not look a goddamn thing like a child. And I resent the implication immensely.

*Yes, I will write basically infinite amounts of words about hair, all the time. This is because hair is apparently important to me, or at least I have a lot of opinions about it. Slightly moreso with head-hair, but I seem to have some form of the body hair rant every few months.

*Kitty made me a smoothie! She is the girl who lives under Sparr's room in C7.

*I think this is the coolest thing I've heard of in a while. I want to start filling out comment cards in hotels I stay at, asking them to join this project.

*Also at the burn last weekend, I got to spend some time hanging out in this:


Photo is a picture of a VW van painted and decorated to look like the meme NyanCat. Photo taken by PhotoGnome and belongs to him.

It was playing songs from ALL THE MEMES. Which was pretty damn great, let me tell you.

*Tonight's plans involve wandering over to Freeside at some point to hang out at their meeting and harass friends. I really need a trip to Atlanta where there aren't omgthings going on --I want to be able to just hang out with Sparr and the C7/Freeside folk, and visit Frosh-Matt and maybe finally get around to taking that daytrip to visit Talia, and in short, just spend time enjoying the city and what it has to offer. Haven't gotten enough of that lately.

*Man, I have so many plans that I am not sure are going to get fulfilled. Need to get a job first. Once I have a job, I can then work out everything else. Like, say, whether or not I can go to Dragon*Con (ohgodsplease) or what I'm going to do about the fact that Alchemy (mama-burn of Euphoria) and HonkFest (festival of activist brass bands) are the same weekend. This is a serious conflict of interest, and I am taking full advantage of the "I have several months to decide" thing.

*Sweet, that's two straight days that I've gotten my 750words written. Which doesn't at all seem like an accomplishment, I know, but dammit...this is what I've got right now! I've been so unbelievably behind on doing this --it all fell apart mid-February or so, and I really want to try and put it back together.

*Origins tomorrow! Huzzah for seeing that set of once-a-year friends. Jesus, there are people there who I've known since we were both in middle school, aren't there?

~Sor
MOOP!

Comments

[harena]

*steals rainbow kitty bus and hides it under the couch*

[mikaverleth.livejournal.com]

Soft and sweet and shaped like a triangle
Some girls want no shape and they shave it all
That’s so whack, it hurts with the stubble
Walking ’round and look like an eight-year-old

i didn't properly listen to those lyrics (or the lyrics of the rest of the song, but since those were the ones you brought up...).

people telling other people what to do with their bodies makes me angry.


whoa, interesting van.

[zombie-dog.livejournal.com]

Wait what

.

Amanda Palmer said something (http://unnaturalforces.blogspot.com/2010/03/jesus-amanda-palmer.html) problematic (http://disabledfeminists.com/2010/02/09/evelyn-evelyn-ableism-ableism/)
..

get outta town


...

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

I knew what both of those links were before clicking them. Yep.

Ms. Palmer makes me really sad. She's talented, and I like her music (and her song "Oasis" is the closest I come to actually needing a song) but she is such. a. fucking. asshole.

So yeah. That.

~Sor

[zombie-dog.livejournal.com]

Honestly it feels to me like she just never grew up. She wants to fight the good fight and be really edgy and artistic but she just doesn't think about the consequences of her actions.

She's lethally self-absorbed and it doesn't occur to her that she needs to do any learning whatsoever. She's here to show stuff to other people and make their lives better.

Sadly, there will always be so many people to tell her she's right that she'll never need to believe otherwise.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Pretty much that. Plus the fact that occasionally she has had someone point out "um, that's hurtful" and her response is always along the lines of "HAHA STOP BEING OFFENDED NOT MY FAULT WHEE" instead of "oh shit, I didn't realize, let me see if I can come up with some way to rework what I was doing to not be a dick". Which, like you said, is hallmark inability to grow up there, but it's just. so. frustrating. Like, is it really THAT HARD to be a decent person?

~Sor

[zombie-dog.livejournal.com]

and, well.

Truth be told, there is a correct (if not a 'right') way to be an edgy, offensive, artist type person who is unafraid to offend.

You do your offensive thing. Then people get angry.
In reply? You say nothing.

Honestly, the people who are consistently horrible and offensive and actually pull it off are the ones who do their thing, and then fail to make any contact whatsoever with their audience. No comment replies, no talking about what they already said, no defense against attacks. They just do their thing and let it speak for itself.

Think about how much of a non-issue the whole dickwolves thing would have been if the PA boys hadn't responded.

[marmota.livejournal.com]

*blink* This from someone who shaves off her eyebrows and draws them back on?

Also... Firefly in Vermont! Playa del Fuego in Delaware! Wicker Man in Pennsylvania! I hope you'll go to more burns. :)

[ms-hecubus.livejournal.com]

The more I hear from her the more I dislike her. And since it makes me unspeakably sad that Neil Gaiman married such a twit I try to hear as little as possible. It's the only way I can read his books without weeping over his slow descent into Tim Burtonhood.

[miriampenguin.livejournal.com]

That hotel soap link is pretty cool.

[malakhgabriel.livejournal.com]

Kitty made me a smoothie!

After all the talk about hair, I totally misinterpreted that.