(Somebody else) On the suckitude that is the current trend of enfeebled heroines

Today whilst procrastinating, I read this recent review/rant by Righteous Rib the Rejectionist about the current trend in (mosty YA) waify, weeny heroines whose very existence depends upon the “love” of a hunky vamp/were/whatever that is stalking them:

So all we can say is: KNOCK IT OFF. Knock off buying this shit, and knock off cranking it out. It is tough enough being a lady in this world, Author-friends, without having it hammered into our goddamn heads that we’re STILL supposed to sit tight, shut up, and look pretty. We are NOT HAVING IT. If anybody around here gets to be a werewolf, it’s gonna be US. And we will eat you right up, believe it.

Preach it, sista.

Technorati Tags: books, reading, writing

Quote of the Day

Recently a young mother asked for advice. What, she wanted to know, was she to do with a 7-year-old who was obstreperous, outspoken, and inconveniently willful?  “Keep her,” I replied.  The suffragettes refused to be polite in demanding what they wanted or grateful for getting what they deserved. Works for me.~ Anna Quildlen

Photo by Julia Margaret Cameron

This post was inspired by Maureen’s at IslandRoar.

Absewlutely fabulous

Scored these two beauties from the righteous Ribs at Rat City Rags, purveyors of find hand-made textiles, at their show at the West Seattle Artwalk last night.  How delicious to be free of the boringness that is department store baggery!

I also bought one of the bag ladies’ all-natural, microwave-heatable pillows, which I applied to my flexible-as-a-two-by-four back muscles immediately upon returning home from the show. Bliss.  If you do not see me at all this weekend, it is because this pillow and I have become one with the Universe.

Technorati Tags: hand-made, art, textiles, Rat City Rags

Do you have the guts?

Besides the cute little tummy roll, what I love most about this photo is that you can’t count Lizzie Miller’s ribs. It’s almost like she eats!

What I like the least about this photo is that when it was originally published in Glamour, it was hidden away on page 194.  It’s had its comeuppance, though, since now it’s plastered all over teh interwebs.

Most of the articles about this are similar to this one, in which a PR exec admits that though the magazine has received a flood of “positive” responses about this image, they don’t think “real women” are going to sell magazines any time soon because consumers “want to see perfection.”

Given how wealthy the advertising industry is, this may be true. It’s certainly true that we shell out big money to be made to feel insecure.

Which came first, the yearning to be perfect or the magazine that sells it?  It’s a chicken-and-egg situation, but which one are we? I guess it’s up to us to get uppity and break out of this cage. Don’t you think?

Technorati Tags: Lizzie Miller, Glamour Magazine

Champagne toast to Earth Day

Going green doesn’t have to be snooty - let the Guide Girls prove it to you.  (Where can I get one of those flying nun hats?)

Technorati Tags: Earth Day, Guide Girls

Now this is a t.v. show I’d stay up for

They’re making a television movie about Irene Sendler, the woman who saved twice as many Jews as Schindler.

As a social worker in Poland, Sendler smuggled 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto, and although she was tortured for three months - with Gestapo officers crushing her legs in a vice and smashing her bones with hammers - she refused to divulge their whereabouts. Having buried their names in jars, after the war Sendler used the information to help the children track down surviving relatives.

She was relatively unknown until three kids from Kansas researched her as part of a history project in 1999.  Not to diss Schindler in any way, but why, until then, was he a chapter heading and she a footnote?

Anyway, Anna Paquin is going to play Sendler in the movie.  I hope it’s historically accurate, though part of me is secretly hoping to see her go full-tilt Rogue on some Nazis.

Well said: Ruth Bernhard

“If I have chosen the female form in particular, it is because beauty has been debased and exploited in our sensual twentieth century. We seem to have a need to turn innocent nature into evil ugliness by the twist of the mind. Woman has been the target of much that is sordid and cheap, especially in photography. To raise, to elevate, to endorse with timeless reverence the image of woman, has been my mission - the reason for my work which you see here.”

- Ruth Bernhard (October 14, 1905 – December 18, 2006)

Quote of the day

Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she’ll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she’ll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she’ll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she’ll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.

So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.

If anyone knows who said this, please comment. She is my hero today.

Happy Halloween, witches!

Derisive air quotes were never so funny

Samantha Bee is my hero.