Whoever Dances is One with the Universe

So here's the deal. A bunch of the people I know, while generally nice people, do not seem to know the difference between 'this is a legitimate cause for annoyance' and 'this makes you look like a smug self-righteous douchebag'. So I am making a little primer to help with the problem.

The Culprit: Toria and Andy
The Crime: They have a lot of sex. A lot.
You Shut Up and Sit the Hell Down About This: They have a lot of sex.
S/he Deserves to DIAF Because of This: They like to tell you about it.

The Culprit: Jake
The Crime: Having a great deal of unpopular/unpleasant opinions.
You Shut Up and Sit the Hell Down About This: His morbid obesity.
S/he Deserves to DIAF Because of This: Stalking me for a semester.

The Culprit: Vesper
The Crime: Being a nerdy kid in my philosophy class. Also, a ginger.
You Shut Up and Sit the Hell Down About This: His potential Asperger's.
S/he Deserves to DIAF Because of This: "Women created the glass ceiling themselves. They choose low-paying jobs."

The Culprit: Lady Gaga
The Crime: Writing popular music.
You Shut Up and Sit the Hell Down About This: Her being transgendered.*
S/he Deserves to DIAF Because of This: Bad Romance has been stuck in my head for over a week.

I hope this was helpful. I only wish I could distribute copies en masse to the people I know.

*I can find absolutely NO evidence to suggest that Lady Gaga is transgendered or transsexual or anything of the kind, but since people WILL NOT shut up about it, here it appears.

---

In other news, campus is showing Sherlock Holmes free on the quad to-night. COUNT ME IN. I am still working on my Bechdel-approved Mary Watson/Irene Adler fic for lokogato, so this is srs bsns.

Also, FREE COMICS DAY in State College to-morrow. Oh hell yes.

Now I just need to finish my paaaaper.

Edit: Woke up this morning and I CAN BREATHE AGAIN. I might finally be getting over this stupid cold omg.

Okay. Here are some links you need to see.

This one, because it makes me furious--that is, not the post, but the article it's talking about: the author of the post is right on.

This one, because it is brilliant, and this woman should be supported and rallied around and I love her.

And this one because we need something light after all that, and this is hilarious.

I am angry. I am really goddamn angry.

Because we live in a world that gets up every morning and says to women, "We've created a standard of beauty. If you don't conform to this standard of beauty, we will make you feel valueless and unlovable. And we will do it at the same time we assure you that it is the cultural norm to feel that you don't conform to this standard of beauty no matter what you do to achieve it." We live in a world that cheerfully fucks you up and tells you it's normal and acceptable.

We do not try to make women feel beautiful. We make them feel insufficient. Women are conditioned to need male validation of their beauty, because the women around you just tell you that you look fine out of "loyalty". And it's wrong to weigh anything, and if you don't, you still need to be thinner. And it doesn't matter how thin you are, you still need to dress right. And if you leave the house without makeup, that's obscene. Not dressing your hair is slovenly. Shave your legs. Pluck your eyebrows. If you don't have large breasts, you're not desirable, but if your breasts are too large, that's also unacceptable.

Maybe most women do not have actual clinical eating disorders, but God knows most of them have the eating disorder mentality. We think with eating disordered brains, because this society encourages that. Does anyone else read the comic strip Cathy? It is designed by this society. It is a perfect example of every single thing wrong with our collective mentality towards female beauty, because it basically validates that mentality as a "normal" one.

And that is just not acceptable. That is not acceptable.

Insurance companies will not pay for inpatient eating disorder treatment unless the woman is physically malnourished. I met a girl to-day who told me that when she went to see a therapist for self-esteem issues, the therapist told her she wouldn't have them if she just lost some weight. I met a girl across campus who was telling me how upset she was because she "broke a hundred". Pounds. This girl is a college student. One of my friends describes herself as "the whale girl". She is only a little bigger than I am. Her roommate, who is otherwise a perfectly nice person, believes that this girl could look better if she just "ate less junk". We don't even support each other to believe in our beauty as women. We don't look for current beauty, we insist that beauty is something we must achieve.

And that is a lie. It is a lie. We are beautiful here and now, in and of ourselves. We are beautiful as the people we are. There is nothing to be achieved. There is absolutely nothing to be attained. Our societal standard is shite, and no one can make me believe that's not true.

And at the same time, no one can make me believe that I'm beautiful. I've been working on this for five years, and I still can't force my brain to believe in myself as a worthy, lovable human being at my current weight. That is insane. That is, I'm sorry, evil, and I believe that it's evil because I know I am years away from being the only woman who feels this way. We have been being told this by the world for so long that it's ingrained, and we can't just make it go away. I can tell women as a whole that they are all beautiful, and not many of them are going to believe me, not truly.

We are so insanely beautiful. Teach that to your children. Tell it to the people around you. Make that the social standard. Beautiful, dammit. So beautiful. Weight loss should never be encouraged as a beauty measure, as a self-acceptance measure. Help all the women around you see themselves as beautiful people and accept themselves as they are. Don't make beauty a goal. Make the realisation of beauty the goal.

For God's sake. Because things are not okay the way they are.

Go and tell that.

Hello, and welcome to our Weekly Show, I Shouldn't Have Been Allowed To Name My Own Children! This week's special guests are Mr. and Mrs. Knuckles of Sunbury. Mr. Knuckles, would you like to tell us what you named your daughter?

Mr. Knuckles: *with the embarrassment of a man who knows he's done a bad thing, and is trying to bluff his way out* I don't see that it's any of your business.

Mrs Knuckles?

Mrs Knuckles: Oh, dear, do we have to say in front of all these people? I'm not really sure I--

Come now, folks! Your daughter will be saying this name in front of piles of people all her life! It shouldn't be any trouble for you to tell these nice livejournal people. Don't be shy.

Mrs. Knuckles: Well, I mean--

Mr. Knuckles: It's okay, Renita. Let's just get this over with and go home.

Mrs. Knuckles: It's a very pretty name, you know!

It certainly is! Let's 'fess up, now!

Mr. Knuckles: *whispers something*

Could you please speak up for the audience, Mr. Knuckles?

Mr. Knuckles: *whispers it a little louder, goes red, grabs his wife's arm*

All right, thank you very much. You can go now. All right, livejournal, let's have a big round of applause for the parents of Miss ZuRiah Tichelle Nykole Knuckles, and everybody remember to leave a donation in her therapy box before you leave. Mwah. Love you guys. Have a great week!

Polyclinic, where I go for my Human Bio class, has a great many promotional tables down on the first floor in the room you come into when you first come in from outside. There's a big desk for Informations, and lots of tables around it in a semicircle, with two doors on either side of Informations for getting to the classrooms/stairwells. Most of the tables change each week, but one that has been there for nearly two months now is the Army Recruitment table. There is often a man in uniform sitting there.

There are a great many pamphlets upon the table. One of them states, in large block letters, IT'S WHAT A MAN'S GOT TO DO.

I often wish to take this up with the man at the table, but I can only imagine how the conversation would go.

Me: Excuse me, I find that pamphlet offencive.
Him: Why?
Me: Because it implies that men have a duty to fight for their country. Why don't women have that same duty? Aren't there hundreds of strong, resourceful women who would be willing to take up arms for America, and wouldn't it be as much what they 'got to do' as it would be for men?
Him: Does that mean you're interested in signing up?
Me: Oh, no, I'm a total tree-hugging hippie liberal pacifist environmentalist pansexual Episcopalian conscientious objector. But I still find it offencive.
Him: ...

In other news, the aging hippie gentleman came and bought more hippie tea from me at work to-day. I resisted the urge to say 'r u kind!' to him when I gave him his change. I did, however, say 'don't harsh my mellow' to Jenn when Rachel asked to have a peace sign on her snowflake and Jenn went O_o.

Also, people need to stop driving off from the Oriental store. They're a local family-owned business! They can't afford it! Come and rob a corporation, why don't you? We've got money to spare! Bastards.

Something I wrote to-day for Waen: honing a theme. Or something.

( Green Love Song )

I need to take off to-night for writing. :) Wish me luck.

( Ecologist's Love Song )