anotheranon | Entries tagged with culture

Fascinating comparison of male and female superheroes in comics, with men drawn in the distorted "sexy" poses usually assigned to women. Kinda depressing how it's so hard to imagine a female superhero that isn't stereotypically "hot".

Via Shakesville, whose comments revealed more of the same.

From drugpolicy.org:

Current Mood: amused

If you don't read Wired's Table of Malcontents, perhaps you should. But not if you plan to have a life beyond it:

Ancient Birth Control - sadly the plant was so popular it went extinct :(

The Battle of Helm's Deep - as performed by Muppets - Toronto 2003 peeps, was Silver Snail the bookshop we went to?

The Lonely Sea Monster - delightfully morbid. If you like Lemony Snicket, you'll like this (I'm looking at YOU,

jlsjlsjls!)

B Movies go Art House - don't miss "Le Lebowski Grande" or "300: The Criterion Collection"

Saved the best for last - Hieronymous Bosch action figures! C'mon, you can't tell me these aren't the coolest beasties ever! Someone send these to Seth Green and the other Robot Chicken [Google Video] creators stat! I want to see the Tree Man have a showdown with the Care Bears....

Current Mood: amused

After reading this post on Pandagon about framing sex as a collaborative instead of a competitive act all I could think was - yeah, no wonder standard hetero dating sucked so bad when I was single :P

If one assumes that sex is something one person (usually male) will lie, cheat, and steal in order to get from someone else (usually female) - and based on what I saw in college, many people (men and women) had this perspective - women can never be more than the prize, not a participant. And being Most Desired Thing still sucks, 'cos you're still a thing :(

However, if you assume that sex is a collaborative act, like dancing (or other art), then you've got two (or more) fully realized individuals doing something fun together. I like this idea much better :)

Seriously, read all of it, because Amanda explains where she's coming from much better than I - also a related post elsewhere about the differences between a competitive and a performance model of sex is illustrative. Needless to say, a lot of this makes me nod in understanding.

Leaving this public 'cos I think the links are thought provoking enough to want them to have a wider audience, but comments screened 'cos sex is a touchy subject for some people. Usual rules apply - if you want to be seen, ask me to unscreen.

He may have come down from the trees, but prehistoric man did not stop swinging. New research into Stone Age humans has argued that, far from having intercourse simply to reproduce, they had sex for fun.....

Timothy Taylor, reader in archeology at Bradford University, reviewed evidence from dozens of archeological finds and scientific studies for his research.

“The widespread lay belief that sex in the past was predominantly heterosexual and reproductive can be challenged,” said Taylor.

Note: this link is NOT safe for work, but isn't pornographic. It's just a gallery of normal female breasts in all their variety and glory.

I post it because I read somewhere today (I think at Pandagon.com, but can't find it) that something like 75% of women hate their breasts. I thought it might be useful to point to the wide spectrum of what constitues "normal".

There's little I can add to the discussion that hasn't already been said. Of course it's tragic, of course the media is grasping for explanations and some way to fix it so another tragedy can be prevented. ll I have are some random observations:

Was it just me, or did the early news seem to harp on the fact that the shooter was a Korean national? Technically it's correct that he wasn't born here or a naturalized citizen, but having lived here since childhood I imagine he was certainly "Americanized" - it just seems to me that racist idjits will jump on his nationality as part of a larger "damned furriners" argument.
Both sides of the gun control issue seem eager to use this as an argument for their respective positions - I'm not wading into that one because IMHO like it or not, guns are so taken for granted in American culture that both sides seem to miss the larger point, which is: what motivates someone to go on a killing spree anyway? Is it individual, societal, some combination, something else? Why is it almost always schools getting shot up? Why are the shooters almost always young men?
Is there really any way to see someone going down that path, and do anything effective? FWIW, I do think Cho's teachers did just about everything they could legally - one blogger discusses their own experience helping someone on the edge and points out that to someone in this frame of mind, normal deterrents are useless.
Police response: I'm no expert in crisis intervention, but I'm not sure how practical it would be to try and lock down a campus of ~30,000 students + staff, most/all of whom are legal adults and as such their freedom of movement can't be squashed the way it might be in a K-12 (underage) environment.

I can't add much else.

Current Mood: sad

Rhode Island boy loves Middle Ages, but school cites no-weapons policy.

My opinion - tricky. No weapons at school I can understand, but no photos of weapons (and replica historical ones at that)? But then I think of what if he had wanted to be photographed carrying a gun, and I reconsider.

Thoughts?

Current Mood: curious

Evidently there is only one weight at which women (regardless of height, age, or overall health) are "perfect". Deviations of more than a couple of pounds either way result in either "scary skinny" or "out of control weight gain" (neither of these are citeable quotes but very much the gist of the headlines).

And any woman who doesn't have abs like a washboard has a potential "baby bump", giving rise to any number of headlines debating whether she's pregnant or just hideously fat.

Is it any wonder that no one (women included) have any idea what real women are supposed to look like?

Current Mood: irritated

From Lusty Lady.

Beefier posts up and coming.

The subject of my post last month about a woman repeatedly denied an emergency contraception prescription from multiple doctors was very unfortunately unavailable to get EC in time and is now pregnant :( Comments at the post debate the possible legal standing she might have for suing her doctors.

I can't add anything.

Current Mood: angry

Following up my prior post on the difference between progressives and conservatives, Ornicus deconstructs the Foley scandal through the lens of the conservative/authoritarian political model. Short version: it's not liberal tolerance that creates sexual predators, it's abuse, denial, and secrets.

Just a few random things on my mind:

Just because I've not been commenting on the current political climate doesn't mean I haven't been paying attention. Today's vote on torture, the controversy over voting machines, and Keith Olbermann's stunning rebukes of the current regime haven't escaped my notice, I just don't think my feeble command of the details gives these weighty subjects the discussion they deserve. Others handle political analysis far better than I can: check out Shakespeare's Sister, Madame Verdi, Ornicus and the like. I also put forth that geekchick and vvalkyri have some thoughtful posts going on.
- Also check out Jeffery Sharlet's stories about the Christian Right at Harper's magazine - they'll curl your hair.
- Also Crooks and Liars for all your political video needs.
I've been around too much good food lately! For my last day at my current job my co workers took me out to the Fantastically Good Indian Buffet place, and I topped this off with Fast Tasty Brunswick Stew this evening. When I have to make friends with Pepcid AC I know I've overdone it.
- But..but...got a can of Xocolatl hot hot chocolate and it's not half bad. Not Ghiardelli, mind (the cinnamon/chiles don't blend into hot milk very well), but I suspect that used in combination with a regular cocoa it will lend it's sparkly burn to rich chocolatey goodness in a most fluffy way this winter :)
May not be making Renn Faire Sunday as I had hoped to include D. in the outing but his back is still not doing well - prolonged sitting/standing for Medieval Baebes may be out of his range :( Might still go alone but not if I can salvage my planned date.
I need to not be sitting at this computer any longer, and perhaps be getting a (relatively) early night.

Current Mood: random

I recommend this rambling post that covers, among other things, the inconsistent, shifting nature of women's clothing sizes and the ban on too-thin models from Spanish fashion week. Lots of interesting linkage throughout about smaller than zero sizes (!), Jamie Lee Curtis' efforts to expose the glamor for what it is, etc., but one I especially wanted to point out is that the SizeUSA National Sizing Survey is using a scanner to attempt to find out how Americans are REALLY shaped, on average.

Preliminary findings: less than 8.4% of women scanned have the idealized hourglass shape. Indeed, they've found 4 basic types - I myself am either an inverted triangle or a rectangle. Kind of reminds me of the shape icons in Land's End swimwear catalogs (alas, not available on their site).

Random thought on the too-skinny models debate: IMHO it comes down less to pressuring designers and advertisers to use more realistically shaped/sized models, and more to do with improving the health/safety standards of the modeling business itself. The Spanish decided to use BMI (body mass index) as a standard in an effort to prevent eating-disordered women reaching the runway, but I think it's also worth pointing out that a lot of the girls look thin and underdeveloped because they ARE girls - 14, 15 years old. Maybe another starting point would be agencies restricting representation only to women 18 and older?

Current Mood: busy

Damn, I'm just running into a lot of old, though provoking stuff on the interwebs these days:

Red Family, Blue Family: Making sense of the values issue uses a "Nation-as-Family" metaphor to explain why there is such a difference between liberals and conservatives on such "moral" issues as the environment, women's/gbltq rights, war, etc.

It's long, but I recommend scrolling down to the red and blue Strict Father and Nurturant Parent family descriptions if you have time for nothing else - I'm not saying this model explains everything, but it is eye opening. Much of it refers to the books of George Lakoff, Don't Think of an Elephant and Moral Politics, which attempt to apply cognitive psychology to political movements. A snippet from the link says more than I can:

( snipped for brevity )

Good stuff. Luckily these books are in my public library.

Thoughts?

Current Mood: thoughtful

Not saying much about it, because I think the best way to remember is to keep on living.

If you're that curious, you can read my archives.

Hmm...

Ran across this discussion of a new book, Get To Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World. While I'm not keen on the term "sexual bargaining" (what the author advocates is that women need to conciously negotiate domestic duties with their partners, a discussion which is less about sex than it is about housework), I do think that it's a concept whose time has come - so much is assumed about who does the housework and whose career matters more in (straight) relationships that if you have any ambitions to do something different (in this case, if you're a woman who wants a high powered career), you really do need to spell it out.

( snipped for brevity )

Not sure how I wanted to conclude this except to say that it's really hard to see the influence of "the script" when you're in it, and even harder to buck trends even when you know they're damaging. Please read the linked articles, because it outlines the arguments far, far better than I've done here (I HATE it when I'm trying to think aloud and can't muster the words I want to convey my ideas. But that's another post). I don't have an answer becase the world isn't "one size fits all", but I think it's always time to question norms that aren't to our benefit.

Current Mood: contemplative

Man gets Polo logo tattoo: man, I think this is just depressing - where I come from tattoos = individuality. He should have at least had Ralph Lauren Co. pony (pun intended) up the cash to wear their symbol :P

For

nminusone and anyone else who might be interested: The BBC has How to Sew a Modern Kilt! Alas, no pictures, but as kilts don't rely on patterns as much as directions, this might be enough, at least to get you started.

Because I simply can't leave the show alone, The Firefly Timeline (found at

fireflyfans). "2503: Hoban Washburne enters flight school, arguably just to see what the hell everyone is talking about regarding the stars in the sky, which he has never seen. At one point, he is laconic there."

Probably old news to some, but not to me so I include it: Make Blog, a collection of wonderful do-it-yourself projects, including case mods, amateur home electronics, mathematical crochet, and cat furniture. Seriously, there's enough in the archives to make you go "huh!" that it's a serious timewaster if you're not careful.

Thai fisherman pants a style I was alerted to through one of my costume lists during the worst of July's heat wave. Might be worth looking into.

MadeWithMolecules "gifts inspired by science". I originally found the neurotransmitter earrings, but stuck around for the holiday cards - might need to get some of these this year.

On a more serious note, I've kept up to some degree with the thwarted UK terror plot story and am trying to keep it in perspective. In the short run this is probably the safest time to fly because the authorities are at high alert, but in the long run we're probably no more or less safer than we were before - something WILL happen again, and there's no sense hiding from the world in case it does. More cogent thoughts about six lessons learned.

Anyone else watching this? If so, opinions?

For those who aren't - it's another of HBO's "historical" miniseries (or is it a series?) that I've been watching 1) out of curiosity and 2) Kristen Bell ("Veronica Mars") had a guest role in an episode. At first I didn't like it (even my debauched, leathery ears cringed at the language; I think within the first episode everyone calls everyone else a c*cks*cker at least once), but it's kind of growing on me due to the evolving plot (I'm on about episode 10 of season 1).

This post (NSFW due to all the coarse language) by someone I guess is a fan alleges that while it takes liberties, the story IS based on a spectacular 19th century gold strike.

I doubt it will affect how entertained I am, but out of curiosity I'm asking the same question of it that I did of "Rome" - just how right are they getting it?

Notable that some of the linkage at the links above is from a Firefly fan site; I guess some fans are aching for another western to sink their teeth into.

Current Mood: curious

As a a follow-up to my post re: fitting non-standard sizes,

jlsjlsjls has done a huge pattern company link roundup of specialty vendors that recognize that not all women are straight as boards :P If you're a home-sewer, check them out - some of them have some really cool stuff :)

Tangential - it's hard to find men's patterns, even within the Big Three (Butterick/McCalls/Vogue) pattern companies, let alone those geared towards guys with "non-ideal" shapes, and I don't know how that can be addressed. I would put forth that perhaps the American Civil War re-enactment community might have some tips on how to fit men's clothing, as I would imagine war re-enactment would involve more men sewing/sewing for men than other kinds of home sewing.

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it's like the eye of a duck

but some people juggle geese

Entries tagged with culture

I'm in yur comix, drawin yur d00dz

this is your government on drugs

a collection of marvelous things

sex/dating: the dancing vs. basketball model

stick this in yer abstinence only and smoke it...

normal breast gallery

VaTech massacre

News article: Teen wants armor in yearbook photo

more lessons from tabloids

PSA: more Plan B links

unhappy followup

betrayal by authority

random

size queens

the familes in our heads: the difference between progressives and conservatives

5 years

on the domestic "glass ceiling"

handful of links, thoughts

Deadwood

PSA: Fitting tops