- Spontaneous Haiku
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msblenkins- July 10th, 2009
giddy
Question mark tail cat
walks down the hall. My shoes are
scattered everywhere.
I said the above this morning, watching my kitty head from the bedroom to the (messy) livingroom. Actually, at first I left out the word "cat," but when I realized it sounded haiku-ish, I counted the syllables and found I was one short.
- In which I ramble about some of the crap being pulled by clothing companies
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- msblenkins
- July 8th, 2009
cranky
So I was perusing a Nordstrom catalog yesterday. I don't think I have ever been in a Nordstrom, so I'm not sure how I came to be on their mailing list. I should probably get them to stop sending it to me, since their sale prices are more than I can afford to spend. Anyway, I came across a brand of jeans called "Not Your Daughter's Jeans." They were being modeled on a "plus-size" woman, although closer scrutiny of the catalog copy and the NYDJ website revealed that the jeans actually run sizes 2-24. Also, even more annoying, their tag line is "The Original Tummy Tuck Jean."
Still, I think my original quibble with the brand name--as follows-- stands: my response to the name "Not Your Daughter's Jeans" is, "Why no, in point of fact, they are not my daughter's jeans. This is because I do not have a daughter (or a son, for that matter)." It sort of touched a nerve for me because, while fatness is not considered acceptable for anyone in mainstream US culture, I often see it framed as being "excusable" if one has given birth. Mind you, I know that the tabloid media is obsessed with celebrities' struggles to shed their post-baby-weight, and this has, without a doubt, placed increasing pressure on regular mothers to do the same. And I think this is bullshit. Yet, there have been multiple times when I have heard or read a person saying something to the effect of, "My body is this way (eg. not-thin, stretch-marked) because I brought a new person into this world, and I am proud of that." Ok, I can't argue with this. At all. If a woman is able to love her body because she connects it with the love she feels for her child, far be from me to minimize that or deny it or try to take it away from her. I am childfree by choice, but I think pregnancy has to be one of the most amazing things that happens in this world. Still, from my non-baby-having side of the fence, it's hard to hear a statement like this and not feel as if I'm being told that I have no right to have the body that I do, because I didn't get it by reproducing.
So seeing the name Not Your Daughter's Jeans made me bristle, particularly when I thought they only came in 14 and up (because only women who've had children need larger-sized clothes, obvy). However, after seeing the website, I have discovered that, actually, even women who wear a size 2 may have bodies so unacceptable that they would benefit from so-called "tummy tuck" jeans. The site also uses other typically offensive and condescending language, such as "real women" and "real curves." You know, thin women are not real. Srlsy. Figments of your imagination. My favorite usage of this terminology on the part of NYDJ is this: "Praised by celebrities and real women galore..." LOL. Apparently, "celebrities" are a separate class of lifeforms than "real women." And oh, how I love it when companies use faux-flattering language ("real" "curves," etc) to get women to buy products that seek to minimize or conceal the very parts that make them "real" and "curvy"!
Also? they proclaim that these jeans "allow you to wear one size smaller." One size smaller than what? Do they mean that the jeans themselves will be one size smaller than the size you regularly wear? Because I have news for NYDJ, due to the lack of standardization in the fashion industry, this will likely happen sometimes anyway. And, since these are jeans we're talking about, not, like, Spanx, I don't see how they could possibly allow you to wear one size smaller of anything else. Are you supposed to put one size smaller trousers on over NYSDJ?? Perplexing.
Anyway, I guess this ended in a slightly different place than where I started. In sum, I do take issue with the idea that my fat and be-stretchmarked body is extra-unacceptable because I've never cooked a bun in my oven. However, I take far greater issue with stupid companies that market "body-improving" bullshit, especially in the guise of "you go girl!" type ad copy. No matter what we do or what we look like, there is always going to be somebody telling us that we fail in some way--especially if they think they can sell us something.
- Well, did you???
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- msblenkins
- July 7th, 2009
sleepy
- From my subconscious
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- msblenkins
- July 5th, 2009
groggy
Last night, a woman in my dream used the expression, "It's hotter than dick pie out there."
- Just a reminder
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- msblenkins
- July 1st, 2009
mellow
(courtesy of my lovely friend miz s.d.m.)
- We knew this already, right?
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- msblenkins
- June 26th, 2009
- cranky
So, on Yahoo! the other day, I come across one of those ubiquitous "flat stomach: obey" ads--they're always an irritating sight. This particular one, however, really caught my attention:
( Read more...Collapse )
Something about this "before" picture seemed...familiar.
Oh. Right. I'm pretty freaking sure that this model (below) from the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty ads is the same "headless fatty" seen above.
Ok, I have always known that these scammy diet adverts aren't real. But if there was ever a seed of doubt in my mind, it's gone now. I suppose it exists in the realm of possibility that this woman lost weight, but c'mon. "Here, use a picture of me from a well-known ad as my 'before' shot, but make sure you crop my head out of it" ?! Seems unlikely. It's particularlyfunnysad irritatingpathetic that the diet-scammers chose a stock photo from a campaign that celebrated (well, kinda www.stylelist.com/blog/tag/dove/) the beauty to be found in a diversity of shapes and sizes. Oy.
(Eye-rolling fake diet ad found here:
Two Caps, Two Gowns, But Not Too Busy | NBC Los Angeleshttp://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Two-Caps-Two-Gowns-But-Not-Too-Busy.html?y hp=1 Screen clipping taken: 6/23/2009, 10:48 AM
Matching pic of Dove lady found accompanying this article [also linked above]:
Posts tagged Dove at StyleList Fashion Bloghttp://www.stylelist.com/blog/tag/dove/ Screen clipping taken: 6/23/2009, 10:57 AM )
- Summer Solstice
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- msblenkins
- June 21st, 2009
- pleased
The solstice brings out the hippy in me. It makes me feel joyous. Here's a poem that I love that sort of evokes the feeling.A Blessing
by James Wright
Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl's wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.
- First Post! Guerrilla Love Pics!
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- msblenkins
- June 19th, 2009
- moody
Here are some photos I took of "love graffiti" around my city. It makes me happy to see this kind of anonymous, random message. These pics were first posted on my MySpace page. I have more of them, and will probably add them over here. I am still getting the hang of LJ, and I don't really know what I'm doing.
