Oh, Rather!

Photo

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 04:49:18 -0400

On Weight-Related Epiphanies

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:09:06 -0400

Epiphany 1

So this one time in college some friends and I were taking our measurements. Back then I had a 23-inch waist. My friend measured hers, and it was 24.5 inches.

“Oh, but you’re slimmer all over,” I instantly reassured her. “And you weigh less than I do.”

She looked at me like she was confused. Like what I was saying didn’t make any sense to her in context. And that’s when I realised that not everybody felt instantly crappy if she wasn’t the skinniest girl in the room.

Epiphany 2

A few years later, another friend matter-of-factly said “I’m fat.” I blinked. I opened my mouth automatically to pop out with, “You’re not fat,” but then I realised two things: (a) she was fat, and (b) she wasn’t unhappy about it.

That’s when I realised that fat isn’t really an insult, even though it’s hurled around like one. In my twisted little thin-focused psyche, it had never occurred to me that fat could simply be a descriptor — accurate or inaccurate, but morally neutral.

Epiphany 3

The sum of these moments was a foreign concept — not that other people might be happy with their bodies, but that other people might simply not care very much. It had never quite occurred to me that you could be female and not be constantly aware of your size. That you might not walk around all day constantly evaluating how your body occupied and moved through space. That if you gained or lost five pounds, other people probably wouldn’t even notice.

I haven’t even had an eating disorder, and this is how I was raised to think. This is how my mother thinks, how most of the women in my life have though and acted. It took 18 years of living before I encountered someone who didn’t think that way. Is that scary to anyone else but me?

Dickwolves Debacle: Penny Arcade's Descent into Shittiness

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:48:00 -0400

(for those who aren’t aware of the controversy, Debacle Timeline has a great summary.)

Let me preface this by saying I wasn’t offended by the initial comic. Yes, it was tasteless — but Penny Arcade is often tasteless, it’s part of the package. I used to read Penny Arcade back in the day; it was funny, but it just drifted off my blogroll. No big deal.

Melissa McEwan at Shakesville posted about it. I don’t always agree with Melissa McEwan, but just as PA has a right to post tasteless/offensive comics, Shakesville has a right to critique them.

Then the internet EXPLODED.

Everything since Tycho and Gabe’s non-apology apology has felt like a headlong rush of the cliff for PA’s credibility. Every time I think their responses to this can’t get any shittier, they somehow manage to descend further. Penny Arcade used to be awesome. They made a concerted effort to include women, non-white folks, and non-heteros in the gamer community, which can be hugely and openly hostile to all of these folks. They’ve created a wonderful charity, Child’s Play, and in the past they’ve engaged with critics in a reasonable, let’s-agree-to-disagree kind of way. So guys — what the hell?

The offensive non-apology comic. Gabe mocking trigger warnings as ridiculous when he doesn’t know a thing about them.* PA’s fanboys viciously attacking anyone who dared criticise their precious comic (oh the irony of dudes specifically trolling blogs to say “If you don’t like it, don’t read it”). PA not speaking up about the multiple death threats against rape survivors made by their fans until some douche on Twitter made an (unacceptable! completely out of line!) mock-threat against Gabe’s family. The Team Dickwolves t-shirt. Gabe corresponding with a group who call themselves Team Rape.

Jesus Christ, PA. What the hell happened? You’ve lost a lot of fans over this, and NOT as the result of your original comic. Because of your universally crappy, insensitive, dismissive, and — dare I say it? — misogynistic responses to people who initially hadn’t done anything to you except sending you some freakin’ emails. And if all of that wasn’t enough, I wonder what you guys were thinking when the people on your side were calling themselves Team Rape. If those are the people who are defending you, you might want to take a hard look at your stance. Because the PA I used to read wouldn’t have touched those jerkwads with a ten-foot pole.

*lots of people have Views on trigger warnings. I think they’re overused, but it’s tough to fault people for being too cautious when much of the internet isn’t cautious enough.

Photo

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:08:32 -0500

omgthatdress: Cancan boots ca. 1900-1920 via The Costume...

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:06:23 -0500

omgthatdress:

Cancan boots ca. 1900-1920 via The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

fuckyeahitchywitch: via Clint Catalyst

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:23:57 -0500

fuckyeahitchywitch:

via Clint Catalyst

SPOILERS: Elizabeth Kostova's _The Historian_

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:22:00 -0500

Lemme get this straight: Dracula spends centuries of effort and 900+ pages drawing historians into a deep conspiracy to… catalogue his library???

He’s undead and immortal! In the time he spent putting people across the globe through strange, life-threatening tests to discern which of them ‘really’ wanted to find him, Dracula could have written the damn catalogue himself!

Reverend Peter Gomes died of a heart attack. I don't know what to say.

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:21:26 -0500

Reverend Peter Gomes died of a heart attack. I don't know what to say.

"Romanticizing traditional masculinity is like romanticizing the Confederacy or the Nazi regime...."

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 01:09:13 -0500

“Romanticizing traditional masculinity is like romanticizing the Confederacy or the Nazi regime. Great uniforms, accessories, and anecdotes. But your politics fucking blow.”

- Molly Lambert, “In which we can never stay out of trouble if it’s baited with this much tramp”

littlebabycoffins: spellbound (by Eleanor Hardwick)

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 13:51:07 -0500

littlebabycoffins:

spellbound (by Eleanor Hardwick)

I had a dream about a guy who dressed up in a giant Pokemon costume

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 10:18:07 -0500

It was a new pokemon — it was shaped like a Hallowe’en ghost, but black, with pink trim. He was really proud that his was the largest Pokemon costume in Ottawa. It was over eight feet tall. It marched in the annual Pokemon Parade, and it was called Nationale.

He (and it) had recently beat out a rival costume of the same Pokemon (the rival was seafoam green and pink) for Biggest Pokemon in Ottawa. The rival’s name? — Fationale.

I think I’m afraid of my subconscious.

Things I have learned recently:

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 03:26:06 -0500

the cute girl isn’t single.
frozen blueberries apply a lip-stain that doesn’t kiss off.
if you must burst into tears, do so during school hours. some professors will take it quite well.
I can’t find my goddamn valakut.

You know that puppy feeling, where you are all "Let's be friends forever!" and they are like "What's your name again?"

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:45:00 -0500

that was today. bummer.

“Don’t You Want Me” — the Human League

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:37:35 -0500

“Don’t You Want Me” — the Human League

this room is lovely. May I live here?

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:05:31 -0500

this room is lovely. May I live here?

"There is a strong idea in the world that a woman cannot live unless she is married, or at all events..."

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:49:35 -0500

“There is a strong idea in the world that a woman cannot live unless she is married, or at all events that if she refrains from marriage she does so for some bad reason, as they said of me that I did not marry because I was fond of the Earl of Leicester, and that I would not marry him because he had a wife already. Although he has no wife alive now, I do not marry him… We cannot cover everybody’s mouth, but must content ourselves with doing our duty and trust in God, for the truth will at last be made manifest. He knows my heart, which is very different from what people think, as you will see some day.”

- Elizabeth I has words for Ye Syngle Ladies, Ye Ladies Assailed by Gossyp, and Ye Ladyes Who Art In Charge, on this day. (via sadydoyle)

catladysoul: eleanor-rigby: Dress from Alexander’s AW95...

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 06:52:07 -0500

catladysoul:

eleanor-rigby:

Dress from Alexander’s AW95 ‘Highland Rape’ collection

Photo by Richard Avedon

(I posted this a while ago but I couldn’t be bothered learning how to reblog from myself sooooooo)

when i passed by mcqueen’s store today i teared up a lil bit. ;_; never gonna get over him.

enjoying the 70s feel of this.

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 03:26:07 -0500

enjoying the 70s feel of this.

Someone called me a "Femme Fatale" today... she's the new Favourite.

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 03:02:27 -0500

(this is Carol Kane)

That’s my second-favourite thing that has been said about me. My very favourite is a friend’s description: “You walk like a battle-axe.” Same friend, upon seeing my fur-trimmed cardigan: “You look like a Russian oligarch’s wife.”

And a devil in a black dress watches over… —...

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 02:55:11 -0500

And a devil in a black dress watches over…

— (“Temple of Love” — the Sisters of Mercy)