Well, I have decided to turn off the comments option on my blog. For a while I was being irritated by this person who kept arguing with my interpretations of sexism in the world at large. And that is this person's prerogative but it is my prerogative not to engage in such conversations on my blog. I have to defend myself enough in real life, I have no patience for doing it on my blog. And I just don't get people who find blogs that piss them off and read them and argue with the author. Just move on to the next blog if you don't like it. I don't spend my time reading ultra-conservative blogs and writing scathing comments. If you don't like my politics, don't read my blog. Simple. Plus it pisses me off because the people leaving these sorts of comments always do it anonymously. So irritating. Let me see your name so I can go to your blog and see what it is you believe in.
Anyway, after that I moved comments onto moderation, which allowed me to preview them before allowing them to appear on my blog. And it's been quiet for a while so I turned moderation off, thinking that it would be okay. And within three days I got a snotty comment, anonymously posted of course. So I've just turned them off altogether. If you want to leave comments, let me know, and I'll put you on my allowed commentators list. Otherwise, you'll just have to keep your witty responses to yourself.
In other news, poor Buddy got stung by a bee. It was the first time he's ever been stung. He was walking through some longish grass and a bee got caught up in his leg fur. He got stung on his ankle. Of course he promptly ate the bee and then pulled out all the hair around the sting so that he has a little bald patch. But he wasn't allergic and recovered within a few minutes. But I was having a very stressful couple of days and it was just one too many things for me to be able to handle and I had a little bit of a meltdown. It took me longer to recover than it did Buddy but we're both okay now.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Monday, July 17, 2006
Finally, a little recognition
So today, for the first time, it finally happened. A total stranger noticed I was pregnant. Now, to be fair, I was holding a pamphlet on caring for children, so if she was looking at me and thinking "Is she or isn't she?" she had a little help. Still, it was very exciting for me. It was also funny because up until she said something, I had been secretly hating her and this other woman that she was with. I was waiting for the streetcar on Spadina and it was about 35 degrees. I had my choice of waiting in the shade provided by the streetcar shelter where there was zero breeze or standing in the blistering sun where there was a nice bit of air flow. The streetcar was nowhere in sight and took at least 10 minutes to come. I seriously thought I was going to faint. But I was first in line so I knew I'd be getting on the next one so I was toughing it out (well, actually I was debating whether or not I could justify the cost of a cab but I decided I needed to be at least 8 months pregnant for that).
Then this 100-year-old lady with a cane came and stood in front of me. Well, I was irritated but she did look very old and she did have a cane and a little shopping cart (or bundle buggy as my mom likes to call them) so I thought that her case was definitely solid for getting on ahead of someone who was 6 months pregnant. But then these other two women came up near the front and I was annoyed with them. I don't know what it is with Spadina but people do not obey the basic structure of the line. Everywhere else in the city, people line up. Spadina, the just walk past a line of 30 people to stand in the front. Yesterday someone cut in front of me with a frickin cooler during rush hour. Not cool. It's also the only station where they have to have TTC staff in the subway station to control people as they get on the streetcar. Every other station, people line up unsupervised but in Spadina, they have to have people babysit us otherwise it can get pretty ugly as people swarm the streetcars. I have my own theories as to why this happens on Spadina but they are too boring to expand on here.
Anyway, the streetcar came and I, of course, let the old lady on first. Meanwhile, these two women tried to muscle their way around her while she struggled with her shopping cart. The streetcar was packed and I was not sure that all four of us would get on, never mind the other 20 or so people in line. So I totally cut them off, thank you very much, and was feeling very indignant about it until one of them asked me if I wanted her to guilt someone into giving me a seat. We then had a very nice chat about how people in Toronto never give their seats to pregnant women anymore and really hardly even give their seats to elderly people or those with disabilities. I was so pleased to have strangers acknowledge my pregnancy that I didn't even care that these women had butt in front of a whole line and tried to force their way in front of me to get onto the streetcar.
For the record, I'm 25 weeks pregnant so only 2 weeks away from my third trimester before someone finally noticed that I was pregnant. Sometimes I think I'm going to actually have to have a baby coming out of me before someone gives me their seat on the streetcar.
Then this 100-year-old lady with a cane came and stood in front of me. Well, I was irritated but she did look very old and she did have a cane and a little shopping cart (or bundle buggy as my mom likes to call them) so I thought that her case was definitely solid for getting on ahead of someone who was 6 months pregnant. But then these other two women came up near the front and I was annoyed with them. I don't know what it is with Spadina but people do not obey the basic structure of the line. Everywhere else in the city, people line up. Spadina, the just walk past a line of 30 people to stand in the front. Yesterday someone cut in front of me with a frickin cooler during rush hour. Not cool. It's also the only station where they have to have TTC staff in the subway station to control people as they get on the streetcar. Every other station, people line up unsupervised but in Spadina, they have to have people babysit us otherwise it can get pretty ugly as people swarm the streetcars. I have my own theories as to why this happens on Spadina but they are too boring to expand on here.
Anyway, the streetcar came and I, of course, let the old lady on first. Meanwhile, these two women tried to muscle their way around her while she struggled with her shopping cart. The streetcar was packed and I was not sure that all four of us would get on, never mind the other 20 or so people in line. So I totally cut them off, thank you very much, and was feeling very indignant about it until one of them asked me if I wanted her to guilt someone into giving me a seat. We then had a very nice chat about how people in Toronto never give their seats to pregnant women anymore and really hardly even give their seats to elderly people or those with disabilities. I was so pleased to have strangers acknowledge my pregnancy that I didn't even care that these women had butt in front of a whole line and tried to force their way in front of me to get onto the streetcar.
For the record, I'm 25 weeks pregnant so only 2 weeks away from my third trimester before someone finally noticed that I was pregnant. Sometimes I think I'm going to actually have to have a baby coming out of me before someone gives me their seat on the streetcar.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Ads that piss me off: Nokia
So while Mark and I were in Vancouver, I spotted this ad on the ceiling of a city bus.
I think you can guess what pisses me off about it. The ad itself is for a phone that lets you copy an image from the world and have it appear as the skin on your phone. Which, okay, is pretty cool but come on. Where do I even start with this? I mean the most obvious is the boob thing. Of course, of course, it has to be a woman in a skin tight dress and of course the sample is going to come from her cleavage. And of course it's going to be big enough that we can see a bit of her sexy bra and the perfect globes of her boobs. Seriously? Breasts don't look like that. That is not a shape that nature created. That shape only results from silicone or push-up bras. And just once, just once I would love to see breasts with moles, scars, or even an uneven skin tone. Cause in real life, they just ain't so perfect. But whatever, realistic breasts in advertising only seem to appear in Dove ads and even then they look pretty good.
But back to the exposed cleavage - I mean, really, there is just no subtlety left. Let's use boobs to sell a cell phone. You might as well just have her stuff it in her cleavage and walk around like that instead. And I love the look on her face as she looks down at her own suddenly exposed cleavage. She's shocked but turned on. Her breasts are so gorgeous and she finds being exposed so sexy. The hand pulling at the hip/groin region of the dress down in the bottom corner lets you know how sexy she really finds the whole situation. I mean, if they have to use sex to sell phones (and really, don't they always have to?), they could be sensual and provocative and have the sample come from her shoulder or her back. It doesn't always have to be breasts and bums, you know.
And of course we have to use an animal print dress. That just sexes it up even more. Let's make her look primal and animal, associate her with basic instincts cause that's so hot. Women who wear animal prints are only after one thing. Especially women who wear skin tight animal print dresses.
But the thing that bugs me most about this ad is the thing that bugs me about the majority of print ads for camera phones - they always refer, either directly or obliquely, to taking sexy pictures of women. TV ads don't often go this route because I think it is hard to do without being really fricking obvious in a TV commercial but print ads always seem to have women in bikinis or bending over and pouting or things like this, where the women's picture isn't actually on the cell phone but still the her sex and the phone are linked. And it bugs me because of all the incidents where women's pictures are taken without their knowledge, the way girls are cyber-bullied with pictures taken of them in change rooms. The whole business of camera phones frankly reeks of sexual exploitation to me and that advertisers capitalize on that just really makes me sick. And this ad totally plays on it. The sexiness of the model, the cleavage, plus her own reaction to the exposure of the cleavage - which suggests it wasn't her that removed the sample from her dress - it just all presents the picture of "playful" and oh so disturbing sexual victimization and exploitation.
When I see ads like this, I just get really really angry. Because it's a fucking cell phone. Stress the communication functions. Stress the appearance if you want. But stop linking it with sex - especially non-voluntary exploitative sex. It's just a further example of how women's bodies are taken out of their own control and become objectified public property. The subtext of this ad and the actuality of what happens with camera phones underscore our society's totally lax attitude about women's rights to privacy and ownership of their own bodies. You may see this as a big stretch, but I don't. It's all the same thing. When women's bodies are objectified, sexualized, and treated without dignity, then women themselves are objectified, sexualized, and treated without dignity. And that opens the door for a whole range of negative outcomes from low self-esteem to rape and domestic violence.
And while here in North America these attitudes have enough negative impact (think rape, sexual harassment, the $11 billion diet industry, girls who are afraid to quit smoking for fear of getting fat, girls who can't go to school because of bullying and harassment) these attitudes have far more horrifying outcomes in other parts of the world, like the Congo where 8 year old girls are raped so violently they have to been sewn back together. And we just let it happen because we don't value women. So don't tell me ads like this don't mean anything. They signal an implicit approval of the poor treatment of women around the world and a devaluing of women here at home.
I think you can guess what pisses me off about it. The ad itself is for a phone that lets you copy an image from the world and have it appear as the skin on your phone. Which, okay, is pretty cool but come on. Where do I even start with this? I mean the most obvious is the boob thing. Of course, of course, it has to be a woman in a skin tight dress and of course the sample is going to come from her cleavage. And of course it's going to be big enough that we can see a bit of her sexy bra and the perfect globes of her boobs. Seriously? Breasts don't look like that. That is not a shape that nature created. That shape only results from silicone or push-up bras. And just once, just once I would love to see breasts with moles, scars, or even an uneven skin tone. Cause in real life, they just ain't so perfect. But whatever, realistic breasts in advertising only seem to appear in Dove ads and even then they look pretty good.
But back to the exposed cleavage - I mean, really, there is just no subtlety left. Let's use boobs to sell a cell phone. You might as well just have her stuff it in her cleavage and walk around like that instead. And I love the look on her face as she looks down at her own suddenly exposed cleavage. She's shocked but turned on. Her breasts are so gorgeous and she finds being exposed so sexy. The hand pulling at the hip/groin region of the dress down in the bottom corner lets you know how sexy she really finds the whole situation. I mean, if they have to use sex to sell phones (and really, don't they always have to?), they could be sensual and provocative and have the sample come from her shoulder or her back. It doesn't always have to be breasts and bums, you know.
And of course we have to use an animal print dress. That just sexes it up even more. Let's make her look primal and animal, associate her with basic instincts cause that's so hot. Women who wear animal prints are only after one thing. Especially women who wear skin tight animal print dresses.
But the thing that bugs me most about this ad is the thing that bugs me about the majority of print ads for camera phones - they always refer, either directly or obliquely, to taking sexy pictures of women. TV ads don't often go this route because I think it is hard to do without being really fricking obvious in a TV commercial but print ads always seem to have women in bikinis or bending over and pouting or things like this, where the women's picture isn't actually on the cell phone but still the her sex and the phone are linked. And it bugs me because of all the incidents where women's pictures are taken without their knowledge, the way girls are cyber-bullied with pictures taken of them in change rooms. The whole business of camera phones frankly reeks of sexual exploitation to me and that advertisers capitalize on that just really makes me sick. And this ad totally plays on it. The sexiness of the model, the cleavage, plus her own reaction to the exposure of the cleavage - which suggests it wasn't her that removed the sample from her dress - it just all presents the picture of "playful" and oh so disturbing sexual victimization and exploitation.
When I see ads like this, I just get really really angry. Because it's a fucking cell phone. Stress the communication functions. Stress the appearance if you want. But stop linking it with sex - especially non-voluntary exploitative sex. It's just a further example of how women's bodies are taken out of their own control and become objectified public property. The subtext of this ad and the actuality of what happens with camera phones underscore our society's totally lax attitude about women's rights to privacy and ownership of their own bodies. You may see this as a big stretch, but I don't. It's all the same thing. When women's bodies are objectified, sexualized, and treated without dignity, then women themselves are objectified, sexualized, and treated without dignity. And that opens the door for a whole range of negative outcomes from low self-esteem to rape and domestic violence.
And while here in North America these attitudes have enough negative impact (think rape, sexual harassment, the $11 billion diet industry, girls who are afraid to quit smoking for fear of getting fat, girls who can't go to school because of bullying and harassment) these attitudes have far more horrifying outcomes in other parts of the world, like the Congo where 8 year old girls are raped so violently they have to been sewn back together. And we just let it happen because we don't value women. So don't tell me ads like this don't mean anything. They signal an implicit approval of the poor treatment of women around the world and a devaluing of women here at home.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
The Budman
So in all the pregnancy excitement and vacation excitement, I realize it's been a while since I've posted about our sweet Buddy. Poor Buddy's been having a hard time lately. While we were in Vancouver, he stayed with an awesome dogsitter but the day before we got back he seemed to lose hope that we were going to come get him and stopped eating, which I didn't think was possible for Buddy. We've been back for a month now and he still hasn't sprung back to his old self. He no longer eats his breakfast, though he will eat kibble as treat on his morning and afternoon walk. He's also started drinking twice the amount of water, irrespective of the weather. And he's extra clingy with me but also often irritated - we never seem to be petting him right (though in all honesty, this was an issue before we left too, we just never seem to get it).
And then last week he had to go to the vet - here's a picture of Buddy at the vet from this spring -
twice in four days, once to get his anal sacs done (ouch!) and then two days later he burst out with a massive ear infection and had to go back. The infection was quite inflamed and painful and having it cleaned out was not pleasant for Buddy. After the vet cleaned out Buddy's ear, he brought him into the waiting room to show me how to put the medicine in his ear. Poor Buddy had had enough though and ran two circles around the vet trying to get away from him and then hid underneath the bench I was sitting on and looking balefully at the vet from behind my legs. Mark and I have had better luck but it's still rough on poor Buddy. We bribe him with milkbones, which worked at first but then he decided even the milkbones weren't worth it so now we just tag-team him, hold him down, pour medicine in his ear, and ply him with milkbones after. Unfortunately, he isn't 100% responding to the medicine so it's back to the vet on Thursday.
It breaks my heart, poor little guy. If only there was some way to let them know why you're doing this to them. Overall, it's been a hard month for our sweet Buddy. And in a few more months, it's going to get even worse.
On the plus side though, Buddy flushed three rabbits while at the cottage this weekend - major score for our little hunter. He also saw a mama skunk with two babies in the back yard on Friday night. We was looking out the screen door and started getting excited. Mark went to see what it was and, spotting the skunks, quickly closed the door. But Buddy remained really excited. We decided to take him in another room in case he started barking and scared the skunks. Only problem was my sister's cat, Simon, was sitting in the doorway and had become very agitated at Buddy's level of excitement. Simon refused to move, being unresponsive to shooing and too scary to pick up (he's a bit of an attack cat). In all the jockeying about, Simon suddenly lunged at Buddy and followed him around for about 30 seconds, hissing and biting at him. This was very upsetting as they had been enjoying a peaceful coexistence for many months now. But it was over quickly, no one was hurt, and the next day it was as if nothing happened. Frankly, I think Buddy felt it was worth it to see the skunks. He didn't calm down again until we left the cottage a day later. Silly Buddy! :)
And then last week he had to go to the vet - here's a picture of Buddy at the vet from this spring -
twice in four days, once to get his anal sacs done (ouch!) and then two days later he burst out with a massive ear infection and had to go back. The infection was quite inflamed and painful and having it cleaned out was not pleasant for Buddy. After the vet cleaned out Buddy's ear, he brought him into the waiting room to show me how to put the medicine in his ear. Poor Buddy had had enough though and ran two circles around the vet trying to get away from him and then hid underneath the bench I was sitting on and looking balefully at the vet from behind my legs. Mark and I have had better luck but it's still rough on poor Buddy. We bribe him with milkbones, which worked at first but then he decided even the milkbones weren't worth it so now we just tag-team him, hold him down, pour medicine in his ear, and ply him with milkbones after. Unfortunately, he isn't 100% responding to the medicine so it's back to the vet on Thursday.
It breaks my heart, poor little guy. If only there was some way to let them know why you're doing this to them. Overall, it's been a hard month for our sweet Buddy. And in a few more months, it's going to get even worse.
On the plus side though, Buddy flushed three rabbits while at the cottage this weekend - major score for our little hunter. He also saw a mama skunk with two babies in the back yard on Friday night. We was looking out the screen door and started getting excited. Mark went to see what it was and, spotting the skunks, quickly closed the door. But Buddy remained really excited. We decided to take him in another room in case he started barking and scared the skunks. Only problem was my sister's cat, Simon, was sitting in the doorway and had become very agitated at Buddy's level of excitement. Simon refused to move, being unresponsive to shooing and too scary to pick up (he's a bit of an attack cat). In all the jockeying about, Simon suddenly lunged at Buddy and followed him around for about 30 seconds, hissing and biting at him. This was very upsetting as they had been enjoying a peaceful coexistence for many months now. But it was over quickly, no one was hurt, and the next day it was as if nothing happened. Frankly, I think Buddy felt it was worth it to see the skunks. He didn't calm down again until we left the cottage a day later. Silly Buddy! :)
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