Horrible Bosses, Horrible Ads

Okay, this movie looks terrible all around.  Though I do love a lot of the cast, it just doesn't look funny.  Then there's that line (that is in the trailer), where when Charlie Day's character describes his ongoing sexual assault by Aniston's character, one of the other dudes replies "yours doesn't sound that bad."  Hey! Sexual assault is HILARIOUS.  And when it's a woman doing the assaulting, it's not really assault because the menz want sex ALL THE TIME, and wimminz are weak and don't like sex and can never be a threat to anyone! Hur hur hur! Ugh. So there's that.

And then. AND THEN. I see an ad for it on Facebook today.  It's a picture of Day and Aniston, him looking afraid, her looking sexy. Under the title, it reads

"Is your boss a sex crazed maneater? Take out the boss July 8."

Observe:

Wait. I thought the problem was that she was, yanno, ASSAULTING HIM.  Not just...liking sex.  Which one is it?  This ad argues it's both. If you are a woman and you like sex and pursue for its own sake, you are BAD.  And we're GOING TO KILL YOU FOR IT.

Or something along those lines.  Either way, it pissed me off. UGH UGH UGH.

So while I'm sure there are other movies coming out soon with equally offensive subplots, I'm definitely not going to see it.

-Starbuck

"Over"Reacting

A few hours ago I was headed into the apartment building with the boyfriend.  Two small boys were also entering the same door, both maybe 7 years old.  We all get into the elevator and I hear one say to the other, “...scratches leave evidence.” And it was really sad.

Now, maybe I am assuming WAY too much about the nature of their conversation, as that was really all I heard clearly. But I know the first thing that made me think of was assault. Specifically, a sexual assault against a woman.  Not that dudes never claw each other in a fight, but swinging fists are more the norm, yeah? This isn’t about pearl-clutching about kids knowing about violence and engaging in mock violence.  I know when I was a kid, me and my 3 brothers and 1 sister would fight each other all the time, with hands, sticks; we called the bigger games that involved other kids “War.”  I also recall having a pretty intense fascination with gore and violence, and I still do, to a degree. Anyway, it’s normal for a child to be curious about things outside their realm.

But at 7 years old, that thought would never have crossed my mind.  Because why would I care?  If I smack my sister, she’ll get pissed, and then my parents will intervene, or not, whatever.  I’m not worrying about the cops and being tried and imprisoned.  But, then, that was then, this is now, and for all my family’s dysfunction, I still experienced a very privileged upbringing. So, there’s that.  But it just struck me as tragic that THAT was the topic of two little boys discussion.  On top of that, I read a statistic recently that talked about kids being aware at an earlier age of the concept of rape (specifically, little boys) which just made me want to stab the nearest anything.  

I don’t know if they were talking about attacking/fighting another little boy, or a little girl; neither is  pleasant prospect.  There isn’t really a point to this post, so much as I wanted to express how much overhearing that exchange bothered me.  And I’ve hear and seen plenty of horrible things, but it was a “from the mouths of babes” kind of thing that just really depressed me.  How fucked up is our entire world when babies are talking about this shit?  When babies are having it done to them?  Ugh, I just can’t.

All that said, I’m trying to find a balance between how fired up I get about The Issues and how to stay sane.  I know the “Personal Is Political” and yada yada, which is a GOOD thing, but as a hot-off-the-grill feminist I wonder if I don’t overreact to things sometimes.  My boyfriend, who I started dating at the start of the real change of my world outlook, has been very patient with me, and I with him.  He thinks I go too far sometimes, I think he’s brainwashed sometimes. All within rational discussion, and it varies topic to topic. But I don’t want to be so fire-and-brimstone that I push people away from or out of discussion. I want to make the people I engage with THINK. And I know that’s not going to happen often, if at all.  

Taking that a little farther, even if I am, hypothetically “overreacting” to things, as a member of an oppressed class, isn’t that EXACTLY what I should be doing? Because it’s not really and “overreaction” is it? And why should I be rational, and patient and NOT point out blatant misogyny when it all too frequently rears its pernicious (totes Word of the Day, yo) head? People rarely change their mind via rational debate anyway.  You debate with others in order to rationalize your own POV.  And as that’s the case, why bother even having rational discussions. The facts are out there.  Anyone can find them, I managed to, and I’m not exactly a pro at navigating through bullshit.  So instead of trying to present facts that are very easily found, shouldn’t I just be yelling and screaming and setting shit on figurative fire?  Because that’s how points are made these days, it seems.  I remember several years ago, when I was still -gasp- REALLY conservative, my also conservative brother made a point that the Right needed to be louder and more obnoxious in order to win.  That’s what the Left was doing, and at the time, shit was getting done.  And whaddya-fuckin-know, my brother was right.  Because now we have dangerous TrueBelievers like Bachmann.

So, you know, it’s something I’m still trying to figure out.  I am only just now really learning about the gross inequalities present in the world, maybe I should be a little patient with my friends.  Also, now I have a blog with which I can publish my rants! Yay!

-Starbuck

I Like it When Girls Look Like Boys.

[Edit: really going to try to post more often. Really. No, really.]
 I want to talk about my personal struggle with traditional beauty ideals. Here is Agyness Deyn lookin' awfully schmexy all trussed up like the Rebel.

So James "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Not Exactly Better But I Can Still Do It" Franco did this photoshoot for Elle. Meh, whatever, cool photos, pretty ladies. I dig.

Continue reading after the jump:

Becoming

This is my second blog, and while I will keep the other one, it will probably be used solely for poetry and art posting.  I feel time and again that I have not been talking about the things that I really want to talk about for fear of family/friend backlash, and I've been letting that fear stop me from writing. So by going anonymous, I'll hopefully free myself up a bit.  And let's face it, there's some stuff my siblings just don't need to know about me.

So, those of you that I have invited to read this and are friends of mine IRL, I am trusting you to not share too much. Cool? Rad. If that's too much to ask....um, don't read it.

Anyway. Have a lot bouncing around the ol' birdsnest these days.  Learning to be in a serious, longterm (for me) relationship and also how to co-habitate.  I'll be probably be moving back to Brooklyn soon, but it's been a learning experience.
My intellectual study of feminism, gender and sex is becoming more and more personal. I am starting to put together the pieces of my past that I either blocked out or didn't realize were important, to bring myself closure and acceptance of the person I am becoming.  More on that in coming posts.

Right now the thing on the biggest thing on mind is the burrito that should have been here by now. I am frakking starving. And yes, the nom de plume is an all too obvious Battlestar Galactica reference. Sue me. No, don't, I have nothing! Be kind to me!

Also I'll probably/hopefully be more eager to post without fear of criticism from nearest and dearest; this is a safe space to figure out my writing voice.

YES, food is here.

Out.

Testing

Test post

Hellooooooooooo

Hi there

Heya

Hey

'Sup