Stay Inside
It’s an immeasurably miserable winter day in Wellington, even though it’s still Autumn for another 5 weeks or so. With this in mind, here’s some stuff to keep you occupied while you stay inside where it’s warm. Snuggle into a blankie, make yourself a hot cup of whatever you fancy, click and read and watch….
Food blogs are always good to read, but I think they’re even better when it’s cold. You can vicariously enjoy the food pictures and dream about things you might make. It may even inspire you to actually cook or bake, then you can really enjoy the food!
*Freshly Ground has recently branched out into podcast reviews, which might also interest you, but the recipes are still coming. Every time I read one of those recipes I just want to kidnap Dan and make him cook for me all the time. Luckily for him, I’m very lazy.
*My friend Jen is back from her OE and put me on to the marvelous looking Bread and honey. She advises me that the chocolate cupcakes are very good.
After I played around with the drama button Svend asked if I’d ever tracked down the animation we saw in the Animation For Kids collection a couple of years ago which we keep quoting at each other. Inspired by the powers of the internets I tracked it down. It’s a story told by three kids about Crazy eyes dolphin vs the Mad cows and animated by Ian Stewart in the manner of kids’ drawings. Good fun, if somewhat startling.
He was an article on stuff randomly, but I still think you should all read Sockington, especially if you’ve ever known a cat. It’s incredibly funny stuff. And it makes me want to talk SOMETIMES IN ALL CAPS and then undercut myself.
Just for something completely different, why not check out Filament magazine? It’s the brainchild of my friend Suraya and the first edition is going to print very very soon. Basically it’s porn for girls, or erotic images of men designed specifically to appeal to the straight woman. I have personally been involved in small ways over the course of the project, giving feedback on one of the photo sessions and beta-ing a short story. In one of the later editions, there may even be a story written by me….anyway, I’ve subscribed, so expect a review of the first edition once I’ve received it in the mail.
Suraya linked to this article about one woman’s experience in a modern burlesque show. It describes quite eloquently the problems I tend to have with the idea of burlesque.
Latest awesomeness from cutebreak is this cat’s bitter disappointment that a pigeon got away from him. Heh.
Have you read something awesome online recently? Seen a great video? Please comment with the links, I’m always up for new stuff! Speaking of which, my sister in law on Lee’s side just got a kitten, we’re going to visit and I’m going to pass on some of my cat-rearing knowledge.
The Bride Stripped Bare
Originally published anonymously, The Bride Stripped Bare is by Nikki Gemmell , an Australian author now living in London.
I am not yet finished this book, but from 3/4s of the way through I can say this: Read it. If you are a woman, or are in a relationship with a woman or are in any way interested in female sexuality…..read it.
It is told in first person, as a diary of a married woman. It is primarily about sex, and an exploration of what she thinks about sex, what she wants, what she doesn’t want. Nikki says she deliberately made the woman (who is unnamed) conventional, an everywoman so as to make the text more accessible.
I read it and am relieved that I am not the only one who thinks, feels, wants these things. Reading this book is a bit like having a cup of tea with a close friend who says ‘yes! that’s right!’ and ‘me too’ and ‘you’re normal’.
…Besides all that, it’s also got a fantastic story and engaging characters who make mistakes and learn from them. Great ‘adult’ fiction in every sense of the word.
Nikki answers questions about Bride here
dude
Comics geek linkage….comics 4 libraries, a rather charmingly written blog about comics from a publisher…I found a link to a rather startling and wonderful blog entry about exploitation.
i.e. if comic cover artists exploited men in the same way they exploit women what would the covers of DC issues look like??? Warning. Uh, it’s a bit racy. Oddity Collector.
Just…so great. I may have to add her as an lj buddy.
PoF: Rarotonga
CO: stupid clogged throat!
Edited to add Thanks to C-Star, librarian extraordinairre for the sweet linkage 
Librarian Jenni
Yesterday at the library I talked to the mother of an 8 year old girl who wants to be a boy. When asked why she wants to be a boy, she replied that boys get to do all the ‘cool stuff’ they get to go on adventures, be pirates and action heroes and generally be cool.
In all the tv and movies and books this 8 year old has encountered she has found no girls doing this kind of thing. Her mum wanted to know if there were any books we could recommend that show girls being the action hero.
The books that came to mind first for me were The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch and The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye because of the stereotype reversal and because Paperbag princess was my favourite book when I was a kid.
Then I thought of the obvious solution: Tamora Pierce books!
I especially recommended Alanna: the First Adventure because of the whole girl has to pretend to be boy to do these things and because it’s a fantastic book. Hopefully the kid will get into it and read the whole series and I can put her onto First Test as well.
The only other ones I could think of were Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine and a bunch of Young Adult novels that would be beyond an 8 year old. I went ahead and told her mum about The Changeover by Margaret Mahy anyway because that’s cool.
It was a worrying exchange though, her mum is a dedicated feminist and her heart was breaking because her daughter thinks that being a girl is boring and useless. It was much harder to think of good kid’s movies that show a string female lead action hero. They’d already tried and rejected Spy Kids, Thunderbirds and a bunch of other stuff. I suggested Kim Possible but that’s all I had.
my hand hurts
Lee had a restless night, so of course I did by proxy. I am aware of being woken many times because he was moving around too much.
My hand hurts and I don’t know why. My left hand, in the middle of my palm, slightly towards the pinkie.
I watched a weird show on TV last night. It was on Prime and called “Mistresses” it was a sort of how-to documentary show about what mistresses do and why men cheat. I saw a bit about a dominatrix, a bit about different sexy costumes you should have if you are a mistress and an interview with a “serial mistress” who basically said (and this may be oversimplifying) men will always cheat and they cheat because their wives aren’t sexy enough/stop trying to be sexy.
That pissed me off. Then they showed a preview of the next episode (because of course it’s a series!) where two different men said that it was ingrained nature for men to cheat and there was nothing they could do about it.
I say bollocks to that. It is really very easy not to cheat (in my experience, and granted I have no being-a-man-experience). I mean, you just don’t have sex with other people. I don’t buy that nature shite. I think it’s more what you can get away with…like if everyone could stay home on a sickie all the time and still get paid, well, we’d all do it right? But there are consequences.
Lee knows what the consequences would be if he ever cheated on me, so he doesn’t do it. I don’t cheat on him because I know what consequences I’d get (besides the whole feeling really bad about betraying someone which is still a huge factor don’t get me wrong.)
There you go. Rant after weird Prime watching.
It’s a great show. 10pm Tuesdays. I know it’s actually aimed at men because all the ads in the ad break were for cars, motorbikes, anti-speeding and a men’s health clinic. You get to see buxom host lady try on hussy clothes and interviews with dominatrices. What more could you want?
Offense
I am quite used to being offended by things that don’t seem to bother the majority of my friends. Take the speights ads for example. I think they’re sexist and awful but all these people say ‘but they’re funny!’ That is not an excuse and it is not OK.
I’ve been ranting about tv ads a lot lately so I’ll move to a different example type. Big dumb Hollywood Blockbusters. I used to love ‘em. Now they offend me with their poorly drawn characters, storyline that exists only to provide more explosions and token women who are just there to flash breasts/legs/give men sexual pleasure.
Then you get something like that blasted milkshake song that everyone I talk to agrees is just plain wrong, and yet it gets a lot of publicity, played on Top of the Pops and probably made it to number one in the UK and possibly in NZ. I don’t really now since it’s been years since I watched a charts show.
Men whistling at me in the street, or calling out. That’s awful too. I do not exist to provide all men with something nice to look at. I do not enjoy being told if I have by some total stranger. I don’t think I’ve ever been whistled at by a woman so that’s not an issue for me.
Moan moan moan.
Another offensive TV ad
Cool charm lets you keep you cool.
In this ad, it lets a dental nurse use her cleavage to get a patient to open his mouth wider. The dentist is saying “you’ll have to open wider…” Sexy nurse comes in and leans over in front of the young male patient, displaying her mostly unzipped skin tight mini-dress and then his jaw drops and the Dentist is happy.
Thanks cool charm for another sexist stereotype! At the end of the ad, she gives the patient a napkin and says “you’re drooling.”
Man, I wish I could use cool charm and trade on my looks that way. Oh wait, I *do* use cool charm. I suppose I have the power to use my looks in just the same way. Lucky me.
The reasons this ad bugs me as much as it does:
It shows traditional work stereotypes; the man is the dentist, the woman is the “lesser” and subservient dental nurse.
It pretends to give women power; use cool charm and get what you want. But the way you get the power is by trading on your looks and objectifying yourself. Making yourself an object to be oogled by men.
It’s freaking tacky!
