Friday, September 30, 2011

What the hell is wrong with people?

Last year after Halloween I read about a woman who was pretty much Salem Witch Trialed for letting her son wear a Daphne costume (from Scooby Doo) for his costume.   (http://nerdyapplebottom.com/2010/11/02/my-son-is-gay/)

Having a nearly five-year old son brings this all up to me again.  Why are parents so damned scared of what other people think?  Who appointed the other parents as the costume police for anybody else's kid? He's not going to "catch the gay" from wearing a girl costume.  He won't become a cross-dresser, and it certainly doesn't mean he's transgendered.  Even so, would any of those things be so bad in the grand scheme???  

My own husband would probably fall into the same bunch of bigots that would pass judgment onto some innocent little kid trying to be a kid.  Such parents can't seem to look inward at what caused them to worry so much about what other people think.  Such parenting is what leads to kids bullying others in school for being different.

Americans are such a judgmental lot.  No wonder we have such an international reputation of being ugly self-absorbed ass hats.  For fuck's sake, people, put it in perspective.  I think Daphne and the Mystery crew would say the same thing.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

memories


"I've never drunk a case of Tab and told a cop to blow me."  Bobcat Goldthwait  

(Damn, I miss him!)

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Innocence is gone.

The period on the end of that sentence represents the finality of it all.  My little guy is four-years old (okay, on his way to five) and has brought home a lot of new ideas from daycare.  He's learned words and concepts I wanted to shield him from for as long as possible.  Alas, I am powerless to protect him from the shit of the world.

In the first week another little kid bit him.  This kid's home life probably sucks, but that does not excuse him from inflicting pain on my kid.  Then a year and a half later the same kid bit him again.  We have been so lucky that our child has never been a serious biter (just my shoulder once and Granny once).  Since then, there have been two other bullies-in-the-making.  One of them is still there and continues to have reckless influence ... ugh.

Said boy has also introduced Atticus to several monikers I wish he'd never hear or at least until he was in school.  He got the "n" word exposure from this kid who happens to be black himself.  The kid also felt it necessary to use the slur "faggot," which I also vehemently hate.  I took both of these back to the daycare director, for what it was worth, because I didn't want them to think he brings this crap from home.  She was at least sympathetic, knowing where it came from, and assured me she realized the source.  This kid apparently gets it from his older brother, but I'm super pissed that little shit is a compelling force on my son from afar!  It really sucks that Little Brother Ratbag also hits on the other daycare kids.  I never imagined I'd tell my son to first yell "STOP" or "back off" to another kid before hauling off and clocking the kid one himself if he doesn't quit!

This tirade leads to the current problem that A got in the car last night asking why the middle finger is bad.  A 10-minute explanation ensued, nine minutes of which he probably ignored, about how gestures and words some times have meanings that are confusing.  There are no inherent meaning themselves, but what society constructs them to mean.  Of course, I tried the four-year old version, "If by showing that finger you mean to be rude and hateful, then you shouldn't do that to anyone."  He was apparently using it on the playground somehow, and I'm not naive to think my kid never does anything wrong, but I seriously don't think he had any idea it could be perceived that way.  His teacher told him, "That is bad."  The inevitable question came, "But why, Mom?"  What do you say to that?

I told him it's just like how the words "shut" and "up" aren't necessarily bad, but you shouldn't say them loudly to someone else in a mean way.  It's too much for a little guy to absorb, I think.  He used to point at things with that finger with no intent or purpose whatsoever.  He's not seen his dad and me doing it.  I swear he's never seen me use it in traffic per chance this situation come up.  Now he knows it has some kind of magical power that brings attention, negative or not.  And this wasn't supposed to happen until later, damn it!  I'm afraid it's all down hill from here.



Thursday, September 8, 2011

Feminism defined (thanks Cezanne)

This is the most amazing feminist blog post I have read all year.  I wish everyone who has ever questioned feminism in any way would read it. 

http://hellogiggles.com/im-not-a-feminist-but#comment-87165

If only anyone followed my blog, they'd see it, too.  Damn.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Do your feet hurt?

Last weekend I tried on platform heels for the first time.  It was a ridiculous experience.  And they weren't even that wild or outlandish.  How can you get that crazy at TJ Maxx?  In fact, they were pretty plain considering.
  So how do normal women wear these things?  Younger women walk around in shoes like this who look like they're one half-step away from a face plant.  They're walking on the balls of their feet, putting pressure on every tiny tarsal (metatarsal?) that can scarcely stand a person's weight, no matter how much it is.  Ever heard of a stress fracture?

I know I'm getting old. There is a bit of pre-judgment here from just getting too damn old and critical.  Yet there's simply no way to grasp why women choose fashion over function to this extreme.  Is it really to look good, or is it to catch the male eye?  And wearing them to work is a special form of nonsense, unless you're working the corner.  You're not so cute all bent over trying to keep your balance.  It's really not so important to conform to style to this degree.

There comes a time to surrender the fantasy of how wonderful you think you look as being directly proportional to how wonderful everyone else thinks you look (sadly, for you, even the males whom you must be hoping to attract) when you are inching along with you ass out behind you because your platforms do not allow otherwise. Don't feed into the patriarchal expectations set out for you (and all women) of what is "beautiful."

As Naomi Wolf says, it's all a myth.  (http://www.amazon.com/The-Beauty-Myth-ebook/dp/B0014H32D0/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1315424037&sr=8-1)