Augh.

This. And not because of the main point of the article, but because of this:

"Earlier this week, underwear firm Triumph International showed off their new bra offering, which boasted a ticking clock on the front.

The bra is designed for women who are looking for a husband, and the only way to stop the clock counting down is to slip an engagement ring into the mechanism.

When the jewellery is put in place, the clock halts and Felix Mendelssohn's 'The Wedding March' begins to play."

Augh. AUGH.

Be careful who you call plus-size.

I really should stop reading things I know will make me angry. But: Perez Hilton posted recently about Mia Tyler "looking like... well, a plus-size model." Not necessarily as bigoted as his commenters made it out to be, and she is a plus-size model. My quarrel is with the concept of "plus-size" and who considers who to be fat.

I've posted about Beth Ditto. I think she's beautiful. She's over the recommended weight for her height, too. Which is all overweight means. It doesn't mean she isn't pretty. It doesn't mean she's going to die earlier. If it makes her happy why does it matter what we think or anyone thinks?

Meanwhile, there's Mia Tyler, who apparently wears somewhere from a 12 to a 16. Who by the way is gorgeous. Can we pause a second for some Mia love?



Yeah, she's hot. I'm pretty sure we can all agree here. And are we shocked? She's LIV TYLER'S SISTER.

The average American woman, need I remind you, is 5'4" and wears a size fourteen. Yes, the average model is much smaller. But what right do we really have to call Mia Tyler, out of anyone, plus-size? Especially since she's the same size we are?

Or is this a self-hatred thing? We aren't what we think we should be, we don't look how we think we should look, but damn it we know how people should look and that's not it.

I don't know. I'm not sure what to think about this. What I'm sure about is the fact that we need, as a society, to reconsider "fat."

Top Ten.

Top ten things I have always wanted:

1. Blue eyes
2. A cat
3. Not actually always, but for a long period I wanted to BE a cat
4. Some way of perpetually having warm waffles delivered to me
5. An indoor slide
6. A castle, or some castle-like building with turrets and secret compartments and spiral staircases and maybe some mysterious clues occasionally
7. A Great Dane
8. To be able to un-see things
9. A wolf (which I now have, to an extent, so check for me)
10. To be good at any sport at all

Top ten things I wish I could do:

1. Climb Everest without dying
2. Help teenage girls understand that they're really, really not fat, and that complaining about being fat constantly isn't winning them any friends
3. Go back and give my ten-year-old self a hug
4. Control more things
5. Control fewer things without freaking out
6. Go to the grocery store without buying something totally idiotic that I will never eat just because the wrapper makes it look like the best thing since sliced bread, especially since I already like sliced bread so much
7. Learn things just by reading the instructional booklets on them
8. Start thinking more like the badass I've always wanted to be and less like the wimp I actually am
9. Be an activist and call my congressman about rape victims being forced to pay for rape kits and petition for equal pay and equal marriage and equal rights for everyone and not just get outraged about things but really do something about them
10. Go to sleep

Miss California and Christianity

A lot has been made of Carrie Prejean's topless ("scandalous") photos, the breast implants that were paid for by the California Pageant Association, and, of course, her comments about gay marriage. There's been a lot of discussion about religious persecution, about intolerance, and a lot of discussion about Christianity.

There was a comment made on Feministing's coverage of the controversy that I liked:

"Well, let's define Christianity. Christianity is the belief that Christ, the son of God, fulfilled God's law by sacrificing his life. And what is God's law? It is the Torah, or Pentateuch -- the first five books of the Bible, one of which you quote from. Much of the Torah, in fact most of it, deals with the practical law of day to day life 2,000 years ago -- which should bring in to focus why, yeah...it might not be a good idea to eat pork and circumcise a boy child.

So the banning of flesh from cloven-hoofed animals, eating scaled animals, sowing mixed seeds, weaving mixed fibers, the bathing rituals for menstruating women, hair length -- not required of Christians by definition of their faith. Following the Bible to a T? Jews do (have to). Christians don't (have to). Blunt, but that's the nutshell.

Even your own ignorance of what the Bible means to Christians undercuts a fabulous point that could be made from the "cherry picking" argument. There is not a lot said about homosexuality in the New Testament. So little is said, in fact, that defending homophobia from a Christian perspective is almost indefensible -- because the focus must, from a Christian perspective, be made from the New Testament and not the Old."

I may not be among the majority here - in fact, I know I'm not - but I really agree with this. I truly believe that a lot of the things fundamentalist Christians believe are wrong - and not only wrong, but I feel like God dislikes those beliefs. Being against an entire group of people, for example, is not really what God is for. And if He was, I wouldn't be Christian. Because I don't believe anyone should be persecuted for their beliefs. It doesn't matter what they believe.

Which is a lot of why there's been so much conversation about Miss California - she's challenging people's standards of things they can accept. If we approve of free speech, then necessarily we must accept her freedom to say things we disagree with. We also can't resort to slut-shaming - putting her down because she's been in topless photos or had breast implants - to discredit her arguments.

Read:
Feministing's article on slut-shaming Carrie Prejean
and the comments I liked most from that article:
here and here