Archive for April, 2009:
How Attractive Are You? Answered in Claymation.
The voices of the claymation animals are Americans being asked the questions; How Attractive Are You? Do You Think You’re Sexy? What is Your Best Physical Feature?
John Michell Rest in Peace
John Michell, born 6 February 1933, of whom there is a retrospecitve of his work in the latest issue of Fortean Times, passed away this morning at 12:30 am from cancer. John died at the home of his son in Poole, Dorset, 24th April, 2009. He was 76.
John wrote over 40 books on subjects such as ley lines and sacred geometry bringing the modern earth mysteries movement to public attention. His subject matter was known as Forteana. The best description on Forteana comes from the International Forteana Organization:
For 27 years, the American writer Charles Hoy Fort worked full-time researching scientific journals and old periodicals to gather material on phenomena on the borderland between fact and fantasy – the wide range of mysteries that orthodox science either ignored or improperly explained away. His pioneering researches appeared in four books: The Book of the Damned (1919), New Lands (1923), Lo! (1931), and Wild Talents (1932).
In these volumes, Fort gathered, organized, and commented on a wild host of phenomena: UFOs, falls of living animals; poltergeists, ghosts and psychic phenomena; earthquakes and volcanoes; astronomical and archaeological mysteries; stigmata; mass hysteria and panics; spontaneous human combustion; disappearing people; and much more. The Original Fortean Society founders included many leading literary lights of the day including Theodore Dreiser, Booth Tarkington, Ben Hecht, H. L. Mencken, Alexander Woolcott, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Fort’s work also influenced science fiction and horror writers through the introduction of Fortean themes which is often evident in the work of contemporary luminaries such as Stephen King. Science fiction great Robert Heinlein was also a long-time member of the International Fortean Organization (INFO) until his death.
I am incredibly fortunate to say that John Michell was a very dear friend of mine. Several times I was a guest in his home in London. I cooked dinner for him, we drank wine, and he introduced me to fascinating people. We enjoyed many wonderful walks during which I asked questions and he patiently explained the way he saw the universe. I can hardly believe that I won’t be seeing him again.
Here is John, doing what he did so well, entertaining and educating an audience. The camera work and the sound is a bit difficult but it’s the best I could find on short notice.
John Michell: FortFest 1998
For more information on Forteana and the FortFest, contact The International Fortean Organization (INFO). At least once or twice a year there is a weekend of speakers and great conversation, and there have also been Fortean cruises. It’s where I first met John and so many other wonderful, interesting, smart and really fun people. Video courtesy INFO.
Do we really need another greeting card day?
I just found out that this morning is Administrative Professionals Day. I have been an administrative professional for about 20 years and I feel as moved by this day as I did about International Women’s Day, which is to say, not at all.
March 8th was International Women’s Day (IWD). Did you have as much fun as I did? All those glamorous parties honoring the achievements of famous women, the dancing in the streets, the costumes, the awards shows, the televised parade with high school marching bands and (not safe for work) giant vulva* floats in a parade down Fifth Avenue? Sigh…no, I must have been imagining it all because this day passes in the United States without so much as a whisper of mention except for a post on BlogHer, which is really kind of expected considering it’s where all the cool blogger chicks hang out.
Naturally suspicious and always looking for the catch, I started poking around the IWD website. It is a fairly simple website with no social media tools, no Web 2.0 in site, and after spending about an hour clicking around I have some idea who they are, but no clue about what they do. There is a place to upload your local International Women’s Day events to an International Women’s Day calendar with links to events being hosted by organizations around the world, seemingly of many different ideological viewpoints. There are articles about women’s issues, that come to the website via a Reuters feed if the article includes the keyword “women.”
The one mention of organizational background on the the IWD website is this:
The International Women’s Day website provides a free service to women around the world wanting to share and promote their IWD activity, videos, opinions and ideas. Please feel free to submit gender-related items for the site that you consider relevant and useful.
This service is provided by Aurora, a company that connects business and professional women and actively supports the promotion of employer brands and career opportunities in progressive organizations. Aurora believes in equality, access to information and networks, and choice. Dr. Glenda Stone who leads Aurora, has worked in various gender equality roles for almost two decades. Amongst other gender-related products and services, Aurora runs the annual Where Women Want to Work Top 50.
A quick Google search supplied some background information on Dr. Stone. She has held several public positions both in in her home country of Australia, and in England where she now lives. And according to this Rueters article, “Glenda Stone is chief executive and founder of Aurora, a recruitment advertising and market intelligence company, and co-chairs the UK Women’s Enterprise Taskforce established by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.” And in this article in the U.K. paper the Telegraph, she is quoted saying; Women should focus less on their “favourite red handbag” and more on “making money”, says the head of the Government’s new women’s enterprise taskforce.
Aurora seems to be several things: a) a job search website based in the U.K., and b) a marketing firm with lots of famous brand name clients. They have put up the IWD website, which seems to be merely a place for users with a free account to read articles (without source information) that are imported with the Reuters feed and they also seem to be the people acting as webmaster for the site.
I find this website, which was supposedly created for women to communicate with each other, completely lacking in any real means to communicate, and to be merely a front for an employment agency doing some data mining and gathering e-mail addresses. Oh wait, there is a “Networking” section where you can follow IWD on an inactive Twitter account, or join a Facebook group. Of course, you can also network with IWD on Linked-In and I guess share your resume with Aurora while you are at it? Puh-leeze.
The first thing I noticed on every page are the very large banner ads with links to corporate “sponsors.” I have to wonder what that money funded. Micro Loans? Women dying from a lack of proper obstetric care? Ending violence against women? It certainly doesn’t seem so.
Overall, I’m not impressed with this website and the more time I spent clicking around, the more upset I felt. There is nothing I find more irksome than bandying about “facts” without any links to corresponding research. Such as the fun “gender facts” about women. Did you know that females in developing countries on average carry 20 litres of water per day over 6 km? And because I am the kind of woman who asks these questions, I want to know why they don’t provide any kind of backup to this claim. Which developing countries specifically, and how did they gather their data? I’m not saying that it might not be true, but I like to have some backup.
They also, sadly, include misinformation since retracted by its author, Dr. Louann Brizendine (clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco) in her book, “The Female Brain.” Dr. Brizendine asserted that women use 20,000 words a day and men only 7,000, which I always thought was a bunch of hooey and Mark Liberman totally agrees with me. Men are stoic and silent, women are gabby, blah blah blah. Same old misogyny. It’s total bullshit, another example of contagious misinformation. The truth is that men and women use about the same amount of words every day. By the way, the same is true about the Inuits and snow – they have about the same number of words for snow as anyone else.
Among the many accomplishments of this day that no one has heard of, are thousands of women marching down the freezing cold streets of Washington, D.C. on March 8, 1908. Seriously gals, if we’re so advanced, can’t we just move this whole thing to Cancun?
So why do this at all? Why have a website for a day celebrating women? Why should there even be a day singled out specifically to celebrate women?
Maybe I am too critical, and I should be looking instead at the fact that this day is recognized all over the world and that the exception is the United States. But honestly, all over the world this day is celebrated as a second Valentine’s Day. I don’t know that the lack of interest in the U.S. has to do with a patriarchy as much as the possibility that American women don’t like to be conned and this just feels like a con. See little lady, we gave you an entire freaking day so why don’t you just stop whining all ready?
For 20 years I have seen women with business degrees hired as new employees to be admins because “there would be room for advancement,” only to never advance, and men with equal degrees, ability, etc., get hired as a new employee to be an Associate Vice President. For years I have seen executives promote men and have their female assistants fetch them coffee. For years I have seen women like me, do the work their bosses give them which often includes writing the reports that their boss (both male and female) take to the Board Room with their own name on the front page. Injustice and inequality around the world and in the workplace won’t go away just by having a once-a-year, socially acceptable spa day.
- Author’s Notes
:
Mark Liberman is Trustee Professor of Phonetics at the University of Pennsylvania, on whom I have a huge geeky linguistic crush.
*Thanks for the Vaginacycle created by Finnish artist Mimosa Pale.
Two from The Onion
What do you think of these two? Did they hit the perfect balance between snark and satire or have they missed the social relevance boat completely?
In The Know: Should We Be Shaming Obese Children More?
FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Annoyingly Cheerful
Help Remove Derrogatory Radio Commercial Against Fat People
I just received this message from the NAAFA Group on Facebook:
Darliene Howell posted an announcement to the cause NAAFA – National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.
—————-
WE RECEIVED AN EMAIL FROM KATHY HERNANDEZ OF CLUB CATALINA IN SAN DIEGO ON A DERROGATORY RADIO COMMERCIAL AGAINST FAT PEOPLE.
KATHY STATES:
A commercial that is currently running on a San Diego radio station starts out with two females talking to each other about why the one girl has her refrigerator stocked full of beer. She is asking her questions like are you having a party?
The other girl says no I’m using it to get guys. She than starts telling her friend that she’s too fat to get a guy unless she gets him drunk so that’s why she has a refrigerator full of beer where she lives to be able to have sex.
The commercial goes on to say if they call Anti Gym and lose this weight in their fat stomach and fat butt than they won’t need to put beer goggles on the men they want to have sex with.
I have NEVER heard such a disgusting and nasty commercial. I know the economy is bad and everyone needs money but 93.3 FM needs to be boycotted until they get some morales and realize this commercial is HIGHLY discriminatory against people of size. This commercial is telling our young children, teenagers, and anyone who is a person of size that they are not worthy of a person to love them because they are fat, and we have to trick people into sleeping with us because we aren’t thin.
I urge everyone to take 2 minutes out of your day and call the manager at 93.3 and let him know EXACTLY what you think of this type of vulgar and discriminatory advertisement. His name is Jimmy Steel at 858-715-3155. I talked to Tanya from 93.3 who is an intern there and she agrees as most do who work at 93.3 that this commercial needs to be removed. I also talked to Hula who was also very sympathetic but also told me this commercial has been running for about a week and a half.
I will be posting this in 38 yahoo groups today, my space, direct emails and of course NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance). I am asking everyone to repost this on my space, forward to everyone in their email address and call Jimmy Steel at 93.3 @ 858-715-3155 to let him know your feelings on this discriminatory commercial they are now running on 93.3 I will NOT be listening to 93.3 until I get a phone call from Jimmy Steel letting me know that this commercial is no longer being aired.
Kathy Hernandez
Club Catalina in San Diego
93.3 do the right thing and take this garbage down now!!
After a quick Google Search I came up with the following article from Daily Camera. Here are some tasty bits from the article about the way Anti Gym operates:
Emily Akers forgot to turn in her food log. As penance, she has to carry a rubber chicken throughout her workout.
If you slack off too much, personal trainers will chuck Hostess Cup Cakes at you and “moo” at you. Sometimes they shoot you with Nerf darts or handcuff you to the treadmill.
This is the home of slogans such as “Too chubby; never find a hubby,”
CBS television and radio dropped Karolchyk after thousands of complaints. In one commercial, Karolchyk shoves a crying, overweight woman onto a couch so that her cake smashes in her face.
On Feministing, readers question how such discrimination is even legal, calling it degrading, junior-high, stereotyping and sick.
And instead of talking about health benefits of fitness, Karolchyk talks about sex.
“We’re honest. People go to work out to look better,” he says. “We don’t care about your cholesterol and blood pressure. If you look better, it will come down anyway. We measure sexiness.”
I’m actually feeling exhausted and a bit nauseous from reading about Michael Karolchyk. Please help make these ads go away. I know that Big Fat Blog wrote about this gym, which has intentions of spreading its evil in franchises around the country, but I’m still looking for that link. If you can find it please post it in the comments.
By the way, in addition to having a “Ravish Room” — the private exercise room for members with acceptably low BMI, and hosting cocktail parties for “hot” members only, they also offer barf buckets in the exercise area.
Comic Writer’s 14 year-old neice is missing
Frank Frisina, writer of the online poker related comic, “Life’s a Bluff,” posted on the website today that his 14 year old neice is missing.
This is an excerpt from the information posted on his website.
My 14yr old niece is missing….
April 15th, 2009
I was really hoping I would never have to write this here…..
- My niece Jennifer has been missing since Saturday night. She left here at 3pm to go to a friend’s house and was to be home by 8. None of her friends have talked to her since 7pm that night and there is no sign that she ran away. No clothes.. no cell phone charger.. nothing to suggest that she had any intention of being away that long. She has never been more than an hour or so late and this is beyond her character. There was no trouble here and she was in a good mood when she left.
She is 14 years old (5/5/94) and is approx 5 foot 5, 120/130 pounds. Brown hair / Brown eyes.
For those of you who know me… know these kids are my life. I am the legal guardian of both my neice and nephew. I consider them my children and have dedicated my life to their happiness. I have always been there to make sure they had a father figure and someone to count on. I am living pure hell and each day that passes is killing my soul. I have been through too much to be burdened with more heartache. This has gotta be resolved soon… I would give my life to bring her home.
If you live in the Denver area, or if you just want to help, then please forward this information through your social network.
In your face Matt Lauer!
This morning the Today Show talked about fat that helps you burn fat.
I wrote about it back in August 2008 when I wrote “Can fat make you thin?”
Oh yeah! I totally scooped Matt Lauer! Open bottle of wine and let the celebration begin!
Luscious Living: Sales and Events
APRIL DISCOUNT COUPONS
MAKEUP AND SKINCARE DISCOUNTED UP TO 50%
From eyes lips face: Save 10% on your next Purchase from EyesLipsFace.com. Use Coupon EGTENAZ. Limit one Use per Customer.
From Strawberry.net : FREE Stila Eye Shadow Duo Pan with any purchase over $25 USD at StrawberryNET!
SPRING FASHION
From Designer Shoes: World’s largest selection of designer brand name shoes for women who leave a larger footprint!
Also – 5% off for any Samanta brand shoe when the customer uses the code SAM430. The offer is good through April 30.
From Kiyonna: Posey Patio Dress at Kiyonna.com!
And this from Kiyonna: 35% Off All Lingerie with the Coupon Code: LUCK09 at Kiyonna.com!
From Swimsuits for All: Mix & Match Swimwear for the Perfect Fit. Tons of Styles Under $29. Shop Now!
FOR THE KITCHEN
From Cyber Cucina:
In consideration of the Earth Day celebration on April 22nd, Cyber Cucina has designated April to be All Natural & Organic MonthFrom Cooking: Closeout Prices on Top Brands! Now at Cooking.com!
====================================================================================
Happening around New York City
Golda of Body Love Wellness will be giving 3 workshops in April at Re/Dress in Brooklyn. All sound like wonderful evenings and you have a chance to do some shopping too!
Healthy Eating Without Dieting, Tuesday, 4/14 – 7:30pm
This class addresses the basics of healthy eating, healing foods, and how to manage eating without dieting.
Intuitive Eating, Tuesday, 4/21 – 7:30pm
This class is to help women get in touch with their intuitive sense of what, when, and how much to eat. We’ll work on savoring food, gauging hunger and fullness, what to do when you find yourself “eating to forget”.
Body Acceptance and Love, Tuesday, 4/28 – 7:30pm
As our cultural images of beauty have become more and more rigid (or at least thin) and there are more and more diet programs trying to convince women that being thin is the ultimate goal, women have to work harder to redefine and identify with their own beauty. This class will deal with and give techniques for owning our beauty and our bodies right now.
Come to one, two or all three workshops! Each class is $15, or $40 total if you sign up for all three.
All workshops are being held at this wonderful plus sized vintage store!
Re/Dress NYC
109 Boerum Place
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(Take the F or G train to Bergen Street.)
TO REGISTER:
Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/UpcomingWorkshops.html
OR stop by Re/Dress NYC OR email Golda at bodylovewellness@yahoo.com
Walk-ins are also welcome.
==================================================================================
Belle-Noir’s Curves & Cocktails event is three weeks away. Being billed as “The Ultimate Girls Night Out for Women with Curves”, Curves & Cocktails is taking place on Saturday, April 25, 2009 from 12 Noon until 6:00pm at the Avents Loft, located at 15 W. 28th Street in New York City.
Attendees will have access to vendors that cater to & show love to plus size women, including Qristyl Frazier Designs, Yania Creations, Collective Elements, and Lia Sophia Jewelry, among others. Attendees will also be treated to tasty treats and delicious cocktails sponsored by ToMA Vodka & Riunite Wine, as well as beverages sponsored by Izze Juice & The Water Shoppe. There will also be raffles every hour, with prizes that include $100 Igigi Gift Certificates and Gift Coupons from Samanta Shoes, and more!
Christina Mendez and Editor-In-Chief of Plus Model Magazine, Maddy Figueroa Jones will be presented with our 1st Independent Woman Awards.
VIP attendees will also be treated to a goodie bag filled with coupons from Igigi & Samanta Shoes, as well as products from Dove, Yardley of London, and gifts from our vendors.
The event is going to be one to remember, and will be the official kick-off as we start the Curves & Cocktails Tour with stops in Washington DC and Atlanta this Fall, and the West Coast in 2010.
OMG They’re Here! Advance Copies of The Fat Poets’ Society First Volume of Poetry
I have just received a few advance copies of Fat Poets Speak: Voices of the Fat Poets’ Society. How freaking cool is that?! I have two poems in this edition, which will be available on May 6, 2009.
The book is the result of a poetry workshop that was offered at the 2006 NAAFA convention. It was a wonderful experience for me personally as a writer, because I primarily write prose fiction. That poetry workshop had a tremendous impact on my creative writing and the writing that I do for this blog. A few of us from that workshop started a private online group where we could share our writing in a safe space. We laughed, we cried, we fought and we kept writing and we kept coming back. And now, three years later, I am holding a physical book in my hands. I am beyond happy. This is absolutely thrilling.
I am proud and honored to be published among such talented, boisterous, and outrageous women writers. This month I will be interviewing my co-authors, and our poetry coach and editor, Frannie Zellman, who recently published her novel, Fatland, as well as our magnificent publisher, Dr. Peggy Elam of Pearlsong Press. I will be post a link for Amazon pre-order soon but until then, you can get a sneak peek if you come to my vending table tomorrow.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’ll be at the Fat Girl Flea Market tomorrow, April 4, 2009 from 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m and maybe longer. Hey, who wants margaritas?
The flea market is held in the LGBT Community Center at 208 West 13th Street in Manhattan. Located between 7th + 8th Avenues in Greenwich Village.
You can reach the Center easily by subway: on the IRT Broadway/Seventh Avenue line, take the IRT 1, 2, 3 or 9 (the red line) to 14th Street at Seventh Avenue; or on the IND line, take the A, C or E (the blue line) to 14th Street at Eighth Avenue.
I will be there from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. as a personal shopper and I am really looking forward to working with any and all to put together outfits and find the perfect size. My husband will be joining me at a vending table with some of the items that I sell at various events. I have beautiful large-size, hand sewn beaded shawls, gorgeous costume jewelry, truly lovely fairy figurines, and I am giving away lots of This Lush Life t-shirts in anticipation of the extremely exciting massive redesign and site re-launch coming very very soon.
If I don’t see you tomorrow, have a great weekend!
Tempting Male Shoppers with Booze
Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article called Belly Up to the Bar And Buy Some Jeans, profiling a trend to serve beer and hard liquor in men’s clothing stores.
Emphasis mine:
By offering in-store drinks, a growing number of retailers are trying to get men to shop more like women, who often linger and browse, buy items on impulse, and return time and again to a favorite store. The recession is driving stores to search for anything that gives them even a small edge over rivals. And generally slower traffic gives sales staff more time to offer drinks and talk with shoppers.
Beware all men who enter here! Drink to avoid being thought of as a sissy, metrosexual, woman wannabe! Ugh. “Get men to shop more like women?” I think that there is a gross generalization here about women shopping on impulse and doing more browsing then men. I’ve seen my husband do the same thing at Home Depot, wandering aimlessly up and down aisles just to see if there was something that caught his eye. I think we both browse, but we have different interests. And certainly there are straight men who are interested in wearing nice clothes and they try things on while browsing in a store.
Retailers say they use discretion when deciding to whom they offer drinks and avoid offering liquor to minors. In many states, stores don’t need a liquor license because they are serving drinks free, not selling them. New Jersey and Georgia are among the states which do require a license, even for drinks offered free.
They aren’t carding guys in the stores but merely offering the use of “discretion.” Um…right. It’s a full proof plan! (See what I did there…Fool Proof vs. Full Proof – Tee Hee!)
“Men are more purpose-driven as opposed to window shoppers, so the addition of lounges and/or bars provides a club setting that can give sales associates a natural entrée to engage with this guy,” says Tom Julian, president of New York-based brand consultancy Tom Julian Group.
Excuse me?! Fuck off Tom Julian, president of a company you named after yourself with one employee who happens to be yourself. You think because I look in a store window that I have no purpose? And why the fuck do you think giving a customer a “club setting” translates into more sales?
There are several Prima Facie reasons but for the moment just consider that if you give your customer a relaxed environment where they feel comfortable spending some time browsing, and then you give them something for free that further relaxes them like, oh, I don’t know, maybe some alcohol, then maybe a customer will feel like they want or even feel obligated to give you their money. You see, Wall Street Journal, customer manipulation like offering a free gift with purchase, beer/champagne, and groovy music works with women too because we happen to be human beings.
This article about stores finding ways to bring in the boy dollars is full of oozing contempt for women while discussing ways to entice men to “shop more like women” while browsing and trying things on. Blech. This article had real potential to focus on ways that retailers are being creative and competitive to bring in customers but instead the reporter just relied on the same old boring “men shop smart” and “women shop on impulse” bullshit stereotypes.
As for me personally, I hate shopping in a brick and mortar store. This is the reason why I prefer to shop online, have clothes sent to my house, try them on at home and then return whatever I don’t like. I’d rather pay for shipping than have to schlep to a mall, fight traffic, etc. Browsing through aisles and store after store is tedious for me and I much prefer browsing online.
Please tell me what you think about this. Am I overreacting?
