I just saw Eve Ensler speak at Kresge Auditorium tonight. She spoke about V-Day -- the campaign to end violence against women -- and shared anecdotes, insights, and history of how she was "chosen by the Vagina goddesses to give her life to her work." This woman, who roots her work in the pain of her rape and abuse at the hands of her father, is amazing -- so articulate, so honest, so inspiring, and so down to earth. She paints so impassionedly the stories of women from Kabul to Kansas City, weaving the joy and intense pain that life can bring into a short, honest snapshot of an existence.

And this woman, so intelligent, not only gets away with, but reclaims the un-self-conscious phrases of teenage girls, repeatedly exclaiming, "I was, like, 'Oh, my God!'"

Some choice anecdotes:
Two girls at a southern Christian university were encountering intense resistance from the men they had to convince in university administration. Describing one of the girls' encounter in a meeting with three administrative men and the one woman, Ensler drawls irritatedly, "Now, we will have nooh tawk of such things. It's crass, inappropriate, and dirteh!" Then, taking on a polite, charming, woman's drawl, she retorts, "Now, exc-ooose me, gentlement. But did you nawht come out of a vaginah? I believe we all came out of vaginahs. And isn't it true that Jesus Christ himself came out of a vaginah? If it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for you!"

Describing a woman in Africa who performed the Vagina Monologues, Ensler said, "She got arrested for vulgarity and inciting women to riot -- both of which sound really good me."

Ensler speaking with a Masai woman about body image:
"Do you see that tree?" the woman asks Ensler. "Do you love that tree?"
"Yeah," Ensler responds to the woman, nodding.
"What about that tree? Is it beautiful?"
"Yes," Ensler answers emphatically.
"Do you look at that tree and say 'I wish that tree would look more like that tree'? No! You're that tree. I'm that tree. Love that tree."
- posted by gleemie @ 2:49 AM

 
Has anyone else seen the issue of More with Jamie Lee Curtis photographed in oh-so-unflatteringly-everyday sports underwear as counterpoint to her cosmotological miracle magazine glamour shot? She's got a belly like the rest of us! While someone could accuse her of sinning against us by helping perpetuate unrealistic body images in the first place, I honestly think many nay-sayers would have done the same in her position. Her effort to out the luscious, human belly fat behind our favorite false idols is more audible because of her position. I say rock on.
- posted by gleemie @ 8:03 PM

 
Have you ever seen those People Magazine or New York Times social features where they show photos of people with name, age, and career listing? Every so often, you'll find someone whose position is listed as "Socialite" -- Paris Hilton and their ilk.

What the hell is a socialite and how does one become one?

Poor "socialites" are called "bums."
- posted by gleemie @ 10:31 PM

 
George Bush, you are so amazingly full of shit. And I know it, you know it...I just don't know how to tell you. If you want to know the true nature of our foreign policy towards Iraq, see this analysis of Bush's Oct. 7th speech.

I'm not your everyday bleeding heart -- I'm sadly skeptical of *everything* these days. But many of the hipocracies echoed in the analysis of Bush's rhetoric are things I've known about for years, independent of September of 11th.

Our nation is constantly using the rhetoric of human rights and improving the lives of others to justify its power grabs and oil plays. Bush says that we're friends of the Iraqi people, and removing Saddam is not only in service of our interests but the Iraqi's rights to freedom. But we've been bombing Iraq, killing those civilians not starved by sanctions, for years since the Gulf War. Collateral damage?

And we're selective in this freedom that we purport to bring to the world. We backed Indonesia for 25 years during their occupation and torture of the East Timorese, despite the Security Council's resolutions ordering Indonesia to withdraw from the freed Portuguese colony promptly invaded by Indonesia. Bill Clinton explained to one congressman (whose letter I read four years ago, and can't find now) that Indonesia is an important trading partner, which must be considered when considering the situation in East Timor.

I know that we can't save everyone, but it just kills me how we play the self-righteous imperial missionaries, sent to bring enlightenment to opressed masses, when our policy makers shamelessly lie as they make doe-eyes to the constituents. It leaves me in a place where I can't believe the government even when they are telling the truth.

And I am torn. Sadaam Hussein is an asshole (that we supported against Iran in the 1980s). But I think we're missing the point in targeting him. Giving the benefit of the doubt and saying that Bush really wants to improve the lives of the Iraqi people, then he still has plenty of work left to do in Afghanistan. Once a nation without law, the Taliban brought deadly, oppressive order, and now Afghanistan is lawless and just as dangerous in different ways. (To Afghanistan and Back is political cartoonist Ted Rall's graphic novel travelogue describing day-to-day sights experienced by journalists covering Afghanistan, as well as the area's history.)


We're hastily chipping away at the Middle East like a little kid running through a sand castle. But the problem is that you can only move so many stones in a tower before it begins to crack and topple. And nobody knows how and where the pieces will fall, or who they will crush on the way down.

I just want to know what to believe. If only it were that easy. And who will hear my voice? How can I divert this flood?
- posted by gleemie @ 4:22 AM

 
There are friends with whom you connect intellectually and enjoy hours of conversation. Then there are friends you can trust -- who care about you, look out for you. Occasionally, you find people who fall into both categories -- they're special ones. Seems obvious, I guess. But I'm just starting to understand these things.
- posted by gleemie @ 1:37 PM

 
Nads, the amusingly named "Aussie" hair removal product, now has a commercial targeted directly at men. Rather than the typical sisterly praise-fest that features woman reveling in their newfound hairlessness and acceptability, it suggests that men should also remove their natural carpets, implying that greater desirability awaits. It also appeals to the usual performance gains for swimmers and bikers, but the main message is that the seductive woman who is embracing the hairless male model is more attracted to hairless men. The hairless man's back, facing the camera, is the center of all the attention.

I have to admit, I do take some pleasure in companies giving equal attention to profiting from male insecurity as they do female self-image concerns. If concerns about beauty are an unavoidable fact of life, as Nancy Etcoff argues in Survival of the Prettiest, then these signs that men are worrying about it more, like women tend to, encourages me.

In Survival, Etcoff argues that men find men's perceptions of women's attractiveness depends more on the woman's physical attributes, while women are more influenced by socio-economic status indicators. Key to accepting this argument is acceptance that women have depended on men for survival -- at least during the time that these tendencies were selected for in our species. So, in some way, augmenting men's vanity signals to me that perhaps the dependence relationship is thinning and men and women are growing closer in levels of empowerment and independence.

This is just me trying to explain a visceral reaction. This isn't a thesis to which I've thought of and accounted for counter-arguments. So discuss, develop, but don't get all hopping mad.
- posted by gleemie @ 2:16 PM

 
One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life.The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.

- Albert Einstein

- posted by gleemie @ 4:43 AM