[Miscellany]

I've watched the show on and off for the last few weeks and it's not bad. Basically How to Look Good Naked takes a new woman every episode who hates her own body (with a gut wrenching passion) and shows her how to love it, just as it is - perhaps with a little bit of frosting by way of a better bra/hair do but essentially without an extreme makeover. Pretty good idea, huh?*

There are so many women who hate their bodies. I have never met one woman in my life who is completely at ease with her body. I don't even know OF any women who are completely at ease with their body actually. I do however know size 6 (I think that's size 0 in the US) women who complain they are fat, who live at the gym, who think their legs are fat. It's wrong. Perhaps one might be more accepting of their own body after years of dieting or after the extreme makeover like you see on the those TV shows but as a whole we women are very good at hating our bodies. I think the stats the show talks about is that 4 out of every 5 American women hate their body and people who we see in magazines are skinnier than 98% of us. It's really no wonder we have a problem with normality when what we compare ourselves to is completely unrealistic?

Know anyone with an eating disorder?
Ever had one yourself?

I'm guessing there would be a lot of yes answers to that - it's sad.

I think the biggest problem with all this is that hating your body means that:
1) you don't get out there and live your life.
2) you are more vulnerable to feeling less worthy than a magazine cover that has been airbrushed.
3) you feel like shit.
If 4 out of 5 women feels like that then wow, how easy would it be to keep us girls down? Pretty fucking easy. It's always easier to make people with low self worth feel even worse about themselves.

Easily my favourite part of the show is when the girl in question is asked to slot herself into a line of near naked ladies - in accordance to the size she thinks she is. Every woman's self image so far has been of herself being larger than she is. They slot themselves into the larger side. That says a lot about self perception.



Even if the girls were being modest during this and don't see themselves as large (even though they put themselves down the larger end of the line) it says a lot about how we women represent and view ourselves. If 4 out of every 5 women feel like crap because they're not good enough for some reason or another then 4 out of every 5 women are not big noting themselves, even when they do deserve it. I'm reminded of this:

Research in Linda Babcock’s 2004 book Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide, found that 93 per cent of female graduates from a US university simply accepted the starting salaries they were offered in their first job, while more than half of the male graduates tried to negotiate up.

Is it any wonder this happens? 4 out of 5 women can't even look at themselves in the mirror, do you really think these same women are going to ask for a pay rise? Um, no. I'm not saying this is all due to hating our bodies but I do think that yes, it's all tied in with a greater feeling of unworthiness for us. Who knows where it really comes from originally (do we go back to Eve?), and who knows why we willingly adhere to it so readily by buying into the beauty myth time and again but yes, it exists, yes it's very real, yes it affects our everyday lives.

Probably though the biggest question I have coming out of the show How to Look Good Naked though is why it takes a gay man to tell us women to love ourselves? You'd think a woman would be willing to tell us because we should love ourselves, or perhaps the straight men who are supposed to love us for who we are could let us know. No? Not going to happen any time soon huh? Interesting.

In the meanwhile - while we all scramble to get our acts together. Thank you, Carson (and Gok Wan - also openly gay and hosted the original series) <3


* Honestly I've heard some people argue that this kind of show is horrible simply because we shouldn't let people believe that they are beautiful when they so obviously are not (ie: they are too fat and since fat is not beautiful by society's standrads then they shouldn't be allowed to love themselves because if they loved themselves then they wouldn't lose weight). This kind of argument disgusts me to no end.

On to music - Their first album Lesser Matters has been on constant rotation in my car over the last few weeks. I can't tell you how much I am loving this band lately. This song is particular makes me want to run through a valley of golden wild flowers for some reason. I have strange fantasies.

Where Damage Isn't Already Done - The Radio Dept.

Labels: bodies, crap reality tele, dirty femmo, messy women, questions, real women, the price of beauty, TV, women, wonderings

posted by M at 10:09 pm 16 comments

My television watching hours have gone from 1 hour a week (ANTM) to about a bazillion hours a week with the return of what I've heard being called "the biggest load of crap to ever be on tele". Yes folks BIG BROTHER is BACK!

Bring it on!

Yes, there are a few changes this year, but let's face it - how much can they really change in a show like this? So they've made the house mates sleep outside for the first night instead of giving them a big party. Wowee. So they're making them evict early - ooolala let me catch my breath. BB the way you make changes is by the quality of what goes in and in this, as far as I can tell an effort to change has been made.

1. For the first time ever, they have remembered that we in the humble land of Oz have more than one race living here! For the record (for people about to say "but mate, we HAVE seen many races on BB before), "I'm Irish ...back 5 generations" does not count as a "race". News FLASH, if you don't have an Irish accent which no one can understand and don't see leprechauns everywhere you look then you ain't Irish - you're just boring old Australian. Telling everyone you celebrate St Patricks day doesn't make you culturally aware or Irish. It just makes you a drunktard who is trying too hard to forge an identity with ancestors 500 years ago. Let it go - you're not Irish at all. Stop talking about it. Embrace the swag, billy and damper mate!

Aaaaanyway, the point is - it was nice to see someone other than the so called *real* Oztraaaaalyns represented. As far as I can tell no major bogan accents either (though the bogans may still be lurking and awaiting their moment to fully shine). It was GOOD to see an Asian bloke for once. It was great to see an Aboriginal woman. It was good to see an Italian (though they have been represented before). Yes, they all exist in this "Aussie" culture - crazy but true. The lack of Asian people on Big Brother so far has actually been one thing that has really annoyed me about the show. In fact it annoys me that there are so few representations of our closest neighbours on ANY television show in this country. What's up with that?

2. The cult of the pretty and pretty ugly. The last few years have seen BB employ women who all end up in Zoo magazine (magazine for blokes who are idiots) and men who are bogans but are build like brick shit-houses. I love me some build like brick shit-houses, don't you worry. Bogans in extremely small doses make me laugh and I like watching the female form as much as anybody else but enough is enough. I vote for substance instead. Just because someone is good looking doesn't mean they are interesting. It doesn't mean they aren't interesting either mind you - but let's not assume that being good looking actually makes someone worth watching, or worth anything on its own merits. I read a comment on the forums recently where someone said that the lack of female eye candy this year would result in a dwindling of the already iffy male viewers.

Maybe this is true. It sort of makes me want to get out the drool bibs, padded helmets and pat these kind of "eye candy only" people on the head while saying 'there there' though. I don't usually mince my words but I feel sorry for people who think like that. I can't respect it either. Bottom line - I think it's ignorant - yesh, u r dum. I've yet to be proven wrong on that but anyway. The other thing is that I don't think there is a lack of female eye candy (or male eye candy) this year. There just aren't that many fake boobs. Do fake boobs make people more attractive I wonder? Personally, they turn me off. I'd take tiny ones over fake ones any day. I think the housemates look great - just not in such a homogeneous way. It makes me wonder if I just view the world in a completely different way to everybody else around me though. That makes me sad. I think I have brilliant taste in what is "beautiful" but maybe I don't after all.

3. Age. Most of them seem to be in their early 20s - mid 20s. I would have liked to see more people in their late twenties or 30s (much like my *gulp* self) - but where the past house mates have been younger/about the same age - they were certainly more immature than what we're getting in 2008. The youngest, at 18 doesn't seem to act idiotic or treat life like a big nightclub, which is more than I can say for most of the house mates last year. It's early days yet though. Maybe there's a lot to be said for being 18 and seeing life in those terms - hell why grow up so fast anyway? As a viewer however, that shit gets old fast. I don't watch BB for the drunken escapades..

You might ask what I do watch for...

4. Psychology. I love watching how people interact. If I could get away with people watching all day I would. I just love it. I love how people react to each other at first go. I adored watching how the blokes reacted to Bianca with her big chest - no filters, no excuses (no "yeah, I'm really good at sneaking a look without anyone noticing" -yeah RIGHT!). I loved watching them try to keep a poker face when Rima the woman who stands at only 100cm tall walked in or when Travis the man with a woman's voice first talked. All this stuff makes the world go round - people's reactions and interactions. I love watching people tick and analysing how their past created the person they are today. I'm interested in their triggers and how chemistry with others will make or break them. When else do we get the chance to really see people interact that we aren't emotionally invested in like we are with our families and friends? This is why I watch the show.

This year they've tried hard to create a diverse bunch - some of it an obvious attempt to entice aggression or irritability but not all of it is like this. There are similarities at play too.

Terri is a grandmother and Pauline Hanson fan.
Nobbi is an Asian man.
Dixie is an Aboriginal woman.

Nobbi looks like a gym junkie
So does David
Rebecca is a personal trainer.

Travis with the high pitched voice is deeply religious.
David escaped from the Brethren cult when he was 19 and is now excommunicated from his family.
Saxon is 100% sure that UFOs exist
Terri hates religion.

Terri hates overly positive people (Terri hates a lot of stuff)
Travis is an overly positive person who can't understand people who are not always happy.

Alice is a vet
Renee works in an abattoir and LOVES it.

Bianca looks like a Bimbo and has the world's best knockers but actually hates Bimbos and is a bit of a brain (remains to be seen - though she seems very level headed)
Rebecca is the very definition of a bimbo - but quite possibly doesn't actually think that she is one (zoo magazine here we come).

And so on. It's going to be interesting housemate wise, and this is where the show may be made or ruined. I would have LOVED to see many more overtly political people in there though. I love a good argument. But we'll see if they come through with the goods this year.

As for the hosts - I miss Gretski, even though she always flirted with all the men under 20 and then tried to have sex with them backstage. I wonder if she watched the show tonight?

Did you?
Will you?
If not..
What show can't you miss on tele or you have a conniption fit? If you say Four Corners or "I only watch the ABC" I you'd better include your address in the comment because I will seriously look you up - not in a good way either.


And for a song completely out of the blue that has nothing to do with BB or television, just because I been listening to it lately. It makes me smile. It's either the coolest song or the most annoying. It has one of my all time favourite instruments in it - the calypso steel drum (does any other instrument just scream 'holiday' like that one?). And...well I just freakin' love this song! I'm gonna go dance around while listening to it on high volume.

Wings of a Dove - Madness

Labels: big brother, crap reality tele, musical monday, the price of beauty

posted by M at 9:38 pm 16 comments

It's nearly the end of the school year and everything seems to be piling up on me. I'm desperately trying to finish off my program, while keeping the kids happy, clean up the art room, put up new displays, assess the art work, write reports (hahahaha) and think about the orientation program I have to teach for the next 5 weeks. Meanwhile everyone seems to be having a birthday lately, or is holding a dinner I'm required to attend, or I'm dealing with urgent family business dramas while also house hunting. My plate is a little full, and since everything is piling up I feel like I'm rushing everything I do.

This is all important as today in between finishing late at work and going out for dinner with the girls I found myself in front of the mirror with only 5 minutes to tidy up my eyebrows. I was in so much of a rush (yes, okay I was already late) that I accidentally ripped off half the bloody hair on my right eyebrow! I just stared at my hideous reflection in the mirror with my mouth gaping open and no sound coming out. I look like fucking Vanilla Ice. I HAVE THE EYEBROWS OF VANILLA ICE! I always wondered what kind of people draw in their eyebrows. You know what kind of people they are? Unco Vanilla Ice kind of people who can't control a wax wand, that's who!

Fark.

Labels: dumb entry, news, the price of beauty, women

posted by M at 11:42 pm 20 comments