Needs More Glitter

What's Your Problem With Sisterhood?

2011-05-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

Heather Mac Donald's recent article for the City Journal is a case study in irrationality and delusional thinking. Let's put aside the fact that she conflates two completely unrelated issues – she clearly wanted to rant about recent events at Yale, and thought she'd make it seem more current by pretending it had something to do with SEAL Team 6. Her arguments on both counts show a failure to understand feminism in general and the particulars of the cases at hand.

Let's start with what is clearly Mac Donald's main beef: Yale's recent actions against the DKE fraternity for having new pledges chant, “No means yes, yes means anal!” According to Mac Donald, the chant was “an unfunny effort at transgression,” and Yale's response to it is evidence that they have caved to feminism, “the largest and most influential power bloc.” But in order for something to be transgressive, in must violate some boundary, go against what is generally considered acceptable. Unfortunately, the sentiments chanted by DKE's pledge group are more the norm. College women are at the highest risk for date rape, and a large number of college men don't understand that forced intercourse is rape. Women who experience date rape are often told it was their fault for dressing the wrong way, going to the wrong place, or drinking too much. College campuses are notorious for not investigating assault accusations, and rape victims all too often are dismissed by authorities. Rather than holding men responsible for not raping, our culture holds women responsible for not getting raped.

Mac Donald believes that Yale's sanctions against DKE would only be justified “if the pledge chant represented official thinking on campus.” But if Yale had just given DKE a slap on the wrist, as they and other universities have done in similar situations in the past, they would have been accepting sexist and threatening attitudes as normal and inevitable. Instead, school officials enforced actual consequences and sent a clear message that misogynistic attitudes are not welcome on campus. Yale is finally taking the stance that women should not have to accept that their bodies are public property, that assault or the threat of assault should be taken seriously. They are not caving to the unreasonable demands of a feminist regime, but admitting that women should be treated as human beings.

The article gets truly offensive when Mac Donald calls Yale feminist groups hypocritical for objecting to DKE's pro-rape chant when they have hosted sex-positive events on campus. According to this logic, hosting events that encourage people to take consensual pleasure in themselves and their partners means giving up all rights to oppose rape. Geez, ladies, if you stopped being such slutty sluts you wouldn't have to worry about getting raped!

Mac Donald goes on to say that sexism is a myth, and that if she didn't experience discrimination at Yale in the 1970s, there can't possibly be any inequality there today. Mac Donald is fortunate to feel she hasn't experienced sexism, but not all women are that lucky. It's true that we have made a lot of progress since her college days, but women are still more likely than men to experience harassment and assault. They are paid less and promoted less than men in most fields, and face expectations in career and family that men do not. Objecting to pro-rape chants does not mean that women are too emotionally fragile to meet the demands of a military special forces team, and it is ludicrous to suggest that it does.

Yes, that is where Mac Donald goes with this convoluted argument. She argues that women can't possibly be fit to serve in military special-operations units if they are so thin-skinned as to oppose hateful sexist speech on college campuses. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense to me, either. She is clearly dedicated to enforcing the status quo, but when you have to abandon common sense to do so, it may be time to reassess your stance.

[Original article: Sisterhood and the Seals by Heather Mac Donald]

Check the scenario, I'ma bust your ear drum

2010-07-18T23:50:00.000-07:00

I've never been ahead of the curve when it comes to music. I only recently discovered Robyn - I got one of her CDs library after seeing a video I liked online. Robyn was released in 2008, and most of the songs are a few years older than that, but girlfriend makes Lady Gaga look like Mandy Moore circa 1999.

Now, I love me some Lady Gaga, really! She makes well-crafted pop songs that are dancy, fun, and un-annoying. But let's be honest: well-crafted pop is not very interesting. Robyn, on the other hand, makes dancy, fun pop music that's also weird and thoughtful. It reminds me a little of Basement Jaxx and a little of Ladyhawke, but mostly it sounds new. When's the last time you thought that about a dance track?

"Who's That Girl?" is my new favorite song of the moment. In it she rejects the demands of modern femininity and asserts her right to just be what she wants. The girls of fantasy who are pretty all the time and never say no don't exist, and she won't try to be that girl no matter how much pressure she feels. "Good girls are sexy like every day/I'm only sexy when I say it's okay," she sings, all to a sugary electro beat. It is awesome, and it is something I could stand to hear more often in the pop world.

In conclusion, if you like things that are good, check out Robyn. Konichiwa, bitches!

A Disturbing Ad... Or Maybe Not

2010-05-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine shared this post in Google Reader, with a note saying, "Definitely not okay."

Via Best Week Ever

Three things struck me about this post, one thing at a time. At first, I found the ad itself quite disturbing. In the background, a little girl is asleep or passed out in a bent over position on a couch, with her panties visible and some of her toys nearby. In the foreground, a man is holding his finger to his lips in a "Shhh, don't tell anyone!" gesture. His facial expression is pretty ridiculous, and gives me the impression that this is supposed to be funny. There is some text, but I can't read it. My first thought when I saw it was that it is, as the poster says, Not Alright.

The second thing I thought interesting was the post itself. The blogger at Best Week Ever basically says this is a subway ad from "Thailand or Taiwan or whatever." It was sent to him by a friend who took a photo of it, but he doesn't know what country this friend was in, and seems to think it doesn't matter. He also shows no interest in finding out what the ad is for or what the text says. The whole tone of the post seems to say, "Look at this ridiculously awful pedophile ad from one of those interchangeable Asian countries!"

The last thing I wanted to mention didn't occur to me until I read the comments. A few people thought it was an ad for the air conditioning unit visible on the wall behind the girl. In this interpretation, the ad is saying this air conditioning unit is so quiet that the girl has fallen asleep, and her father doesn't want her to wake up. I have no idea if it is really an ad for an AC unit, but this made me think - the original poster on Best Week Ever, most of the commenters, my friend and I all looked at this image and assumed it was making a joke out of child rape. Off the top of my head I can think of two reasons for this assumption. One is the idea us Westerners have that non-Western countries are less civilized, and therefore places where bad things can happen and no one will care. In particular, Asian countries are assumed to be havens for human trafficking and child prostitution. Though those are very real problems in some countries, that doesn't mean it should color our interpretations of a subway advertisement depicting a nice, middle class home. Another possible explanation for the assumptions I and others made about this ad is that we are used to seeing little girls sexualized in American media. We see ads all the time that show young girls in sexy poses and clothes, so that when we look at this image of a girl asleep on a couch with her butt in the air we assume something awful is going on. But maybe someone who isn't used to seeing children made to look sexy would just look at this ad and see a sweet scene of a girl sleeping and a father trying not to wake her.

Sherlock Holmes: A Love Too Great to Contain

2010-03-03T13:14:00.000-08:00

This has been languishing in my notebook for a while now, and I know that for this to be relevant I should have posted it months ago. Let's just say that timeliness is one of my areas for personal growth and leave it at that.

Robert Downey, Jr. said in an interview recently that he thinks Sherlock Holmes is “a very butch homosexual.” This would explain the lack of on-screen chemistry he had with Rachel McAdams. Predictably, the Conan Doyle estate is not amused, and they've said that if Downey doesn't ix-nay on the ay-gay he won't be doing the sequel. This debate is nothing new, of course. There is a long-lasting divide between those who think the deep affection between Holmes and Watson can only be the product of sexxxy times, and those who take offense at the suggestion that their friendship ever transgressed the bounds of straight-laced Victorian manners.

The are-they-or-aren't-they speculation isn't unique to Holmes and Watson, either. There's another detective whose relationship with his best friend is the subject of much winking and nudging. I'm speaking, of course, about Batman and Superman.

“But wait!” you protest, “Wouldn't Batman and Robin be a more accurate comparison?” Many people would agree with you, but you're wrong. Watson may act as Holmes' trusty sidekick, but he's no one's ward. At the end of the day Watson is Holmes' truest friend and equal partner in anti-crime. And, as with the World's Finest, a binary model of sexual preference is just too limited to contain their super love. There is ample evidence that all four men have genuine attraction and interest in the opposite sex, but those feelings will always be eclipsed by the love they have for each other.

The similarities between Sherlock Holmes and Batman are obvious; after all, you can't call your character the “World's Greatest Detective” without paying homage to the original master. Batman, like Holmes, is a solitary man, sacrificing personal relationships for the sake of fighting evil in his beloved but notoriously crime-ridden city. Thanks to their obsessive natures and extreme intelligence, they are both the best at hunting down criminals – and they both feel disconnected from the ordinary humans they fight so hard to protect. And of course, neither man has much time or patience for romance, with the exception of the women who can outsmart them: Catwoman and Irene Adler.

The Watson-Superman connection takes a little more thought, but since I have recently read every Sherlock Holmes story Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ever wrote, I am (by internet standards) an expert. Watson may not be a superhero, but he is a war veteran and doctor. Despite his self-reported character flaws, he is unquestionably a good guy. Like Superman, he is popular with the ladies; in A Study in Scarlet he mentions conquests in “five continents.” Eventually, he and Superman both settle down with smart-but-safe women, who they no doubt love very dearly. But both Lois Lane and Mary Morstan must be resigned to the fact that their husbands will dash off at the merest word from their detective friends, always ready to abandon spousal duties and their day jobs to help out on a case. And, probably, totally do it off-panel.

So why do most people insist on reducing these complicated relationships to a question of gay or straight? Anything beyond those two options never enters the debate. And our understanding of the world's best crime-fighting duos is forever made less interesting.

A Dilemma

2009-10-14T18:25:00.000-07:00

One of the first assignments I got was from Marina, who asked me to write a humorous short story using certain words and phrases. A scene immediately came to mind, and I began writing right away. Then I remembered why I haven't attempted to write fiction since high school: I have no idea what I'm doing. The story has a directionless plot, too many characters, an unclear concept, and a villain so mysterious that even I don't know what makes her evil, or if she's evil, or what horrible deeds she's done. So I ask you: When you're working on something and it's just not working out, how do you decide whether to start over, keep soldiering through, or give up altogether?

In memoriam: list-making

2009-10-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

My great-aunt Mary Schaub recently passed away. She was a writer, and a compulsive list-maker (and, judging from the old school books I uncovered at her house, has been since birth). So in her honor, I present here some lists.

Things I am afraid of:
1. Car crashes
2. Cannibalism
3. Senility
4. The dark
5. Amputation
6. Bed bugs
7. Raccoons

Things I highly recommend:
1. Yukon gold potatoes. Seriously, you will never go back to white potatoes again.
2. The library.
3. Re-reading books you haven't read since childhood.
4. Hot beverages - tea, coffee, cocoa. They always make you feel better, one way or another.
5. Vodka pie crust. Just try it.
6. Watching TV shows on DVD after they've ended.
7. Making your own granola. It's easy, cheap, and you can put exactly what you want into it.
8. Annie's White Cheddar Bunnies

Things I wish I had:
1. Long underwear
2. An disco ball
3. An exterminator
4. Sleeping pills
5. Skills

Best places to disappear for a few years to attain a mysterious aura:
1. Antarctica
2. Russia
3. Any desert
4. Montana

Best things to drink after a Very Bad Day:
1. Hot tea
2. Hot chocolate
3. Hot chocolate with Bailey's
4. Beer

If you enjoy lists as much as Mary and me, here are some great places to look at lists:
1. http://blablablamarina.blogspot.com/ Lovely lists from the lovely Marina!
2. http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/ I think anyone can submit a list to this site, and some of them are pretty excellent.

How to be a tourist without traveling, spending money, or saying the word "staycation"

2009-09-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

This assignment comes from a phone conversation with my brother, who suggested I make my own tour guide. I promise the recommendations that follow have more to do with fighting boredom than the recession.

How to be a tourist without traveling or spending any money

So you can't afford a trip, or take time off of work, and whenever someone says "staycation" you want to lock them in the trunk of their own car. And you are also so sick of your town. Anyone can find free gallery openings and half-off movie nights, but what you need is to find a tourist's appreciation for the place where you live. You will not achieve this by visiting all the attractions you took your parents to when they visited, or in fact by doing anything you've done before. But if you follow this advice, you will surely feel like a stranger in a strange land.

First, get a camera. Documentation of your journey is crucial in order to experience it fully. Try to get a film camera, ideally a disposable, so you can't see the photos until you get them developed.

Find some clothes in your closet that you haven't put on in a very long time, and wear them.

Get on a bus line you've never traveled on before. If you don't normally ride the bus, all the better to feel unsure of yourself. Stop on a street you've never seen. Take pictures of the loneliest thing you find there. Walk for a while, without any destination in mind.

Keep catching buses and getting off and walking until you are lost. If you really put your mind to it, you can end up somewhere strange and vaguely menacing in its unfamiliarity, unable to remember exactly how you got there or how to return. Allow the anxiety to build as you try and fail to get back to a place you recognize. Panic.

Ask a stranger for directions. Feel relieved and comforted by the fact that no matter where you are, somebody knows what's going on.

Once you have your bearings again, find a tall hotel, office tower, or apartment building with roof access. Don't research this ahead of time; instead, go to the tourist center of town and just walk into buildings as if you belong there, and see if you can get to the roof. Sometimes you need a key to get through the door at the top, so you may have to wait for a guest and follow behind them. If it's too cold for that to happen, just try different hotels until you find one that's more accommodating.

Breathe deeply. Photograph the view, and then just look at it. Stay on the roof for at least twenty minutes, or until you want to leave - whichever takes longer.

Have a picnic somewhere you wouldn't normally picnic, like the lawn in front of someone else's office building, or a parking lot. This works equally well whether you are alone or with another traveler. Don't just hastily scarf down a sandwich - the key is to really make a meal of it. Bring a main course, side dishes, plates, silverware, cups and a beverage. Lay everything out on a blanket. Take your time eating, savoring the meal, your solitude (or your company), and your surroundings.

When you get back on the bus, listen closely to someone else's conversation. Imagine what their life is like, or what they look like, or what the other side of the conversation is. Take notes.

Back home, go to your back yard or, if you don't have one, any patch of grass you walk by every day. Lay down on your stomach, and observe the tiny fauna you find in front of you. Attempt some wildlife photography with your camera. Stay there until you feel really itchy.

As night approaches, congratulate yourself for your sense of adventure. It's time to put on some swanky party music and pour yourself a drink - tomorrow you'll go back to being a local.

The Perfect Dessert

2009-08-31T10:49:00.000-07:00

This post is coming a few weeks after I promised it - I have no excuse for myself. This assignment comes from Katie, who asked me to describe the perfect dessert. I'm honestly not too happy with what I came up with, but I didn't want this blog to languish un-updated forever. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated in the comments or emailed to needsmoreglitter@gmail.com!

How to make the perfect dessert

You will taste many amazing desserts in your life; it is inevitable that one of them will be the best. But will you know it when it's in front of you? Will you ever be able to pinpoint which confection was better than the others? If you judge by taste, perfection is impossible to know with any certainty. But taste is not all that matters. The foods you remember are not necessarily the ones that shook up your taste buds, but those you had to earn. The cakes and pies that caused some drama, some pain - those are what you'll still be talking about a year later. The cookies that placated your angry neighbor. The cheesecake you made after driving through an ice storm at 1am to buy more cream cheese. The pie filling recipe that went horribly wrong, but miraculously turned out delicious anyway.

This kind of perfection is impossible to predict or obtain intentionally. However, there are ways to manipulate the circumstances. Following is a recipe guaranteed to be dramatic to prepare and heavenly to eat. Just make sure you're not making it alone - it's too much excitement for one person.

Bananes flambées

Step one: Soak some raisins in dark rum for an hour. Only, you won't want to wait an hour to start cooking, so instead microwave the raisins + rum for a few seconds. You're not sure if this actually makes a difference, but it seems like it might.

Step two: Slice two or three bananas in half lengthwise and cook them in generous amounts of butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar until soft. Turn off the heat.

Step three: Pour rum + raisins over the bananas.

Step four: Ignite the rum. If you're using matches instead of a lighter, you'll be tempted to just toss the lit match into the pan, since you don't want to burn your fingers off. This won't work - risk your fingers! It will be worth it, I promise.

Step five: Watch the pretty fire until it goes out.

Step six: Serve with copious amounts of whipped cream - homemade or Reddi-whip.

Post of Shame

2009-08-03T20:46:00.000-07:00

The entire point of starting this blog was so that I would actually, you know, do some writing. I have many excuses for not posting anything in over two months, but that is no excuse! I have a few assignments in the early stages, and I will finish at least one of them by the end of this week.

If you like assignments as much as I do, I highly recommend you check out Learning To Love You More. It is a site created by two artists - they made assignments, and readers completed them and submitted reports. The results are sometimes hilarious or heart-breaking. Unfortunately, they are no longer accepting submissions. But I am thinking of completing some of their assignments and posting them here. What do you think?

Your Guide to Evil Technology

2009-05-11T20:23:00.000-07:00

Assignment 1: My first assignment! It is not finished, but it's been a month since my first post, and I didn't start this blog so I'd have another thing to feel guilty about not doing. So here it is in its under-revised glory!

The assignment comes from Bekkah, who asked what piece of technology I consider most evil. I didn't really follow her assignment, because I realized there are already ten million articles on how cell phones and computers are ruining everything. What I wrote instead is below!

Your Guide to Evil Technology

Are we headed for a future where we are controlled by machines? The answer is obviously yes. There is no way to avoid it, so it is best to prepare for a future of obedience to our robot overlords. I present to you a guide to technology most likely to turn against you. If you catch early warning signs, you may be able to delay the inevitable.

Robotic Vacuum Cleaners Seriously? You are letting a robot into your home, letting it go wherever it wants? If you believe robot vacuum cleaners care about cleaning your floor, you are an idiot. Dirt is data, and they are getting infinite amounts of it. How much genetic information do you shed every day? What is the significance of the cookie crumbs by your bed, the dirt by your front door, the inexplicable presence of ashes on the kitchen rug? Your vacuum cleaner knows.
Danger Potential Rating: Don't even think about it. If you own one already, the damage is done.

Google Google knows what sparks your curiosity, the places you go, and the blogs you read. Google reads your email and your chats. Perhaps you hesitated to download Google Chrome because you were afraid of having all of your personal information recorded on one company's server. Don't be afraid! Could a company that created such a user-friendly email application and the world's most useful search engine ever steer you wrong? Their mission is "to organize the world's information." That doesn't sound ominous at all! Google doesn't have an evil bone in its increasingly corporate body. Face it, you trust them so much that if Google straight-up asked you to let them track all of your personal information, you would do it. Besides, Wikipedia says that Google's unofficial motto is "don't be evil."
Danger Potential Rating: I don't know what you're talking about

Wikipedia Wikipedia is so egalitarian, so obsessed with eliminating bias, and so useful that you know it has to be doing something very bad. We don't know what it is, but we're watching you, Jimmy Wales! Since Wikipedia is ruled by consensus and not credentials, it will be fairly easy for evil minions to flood all the wikitalk pages until every article is changed to reflect what The Machines want us to know. If that hasn't happened already.
Danger Potential Rating: Somewhat sinister

Video Games Not only do video games make it difficult to organize a Scrabble night, self-righteous parents can blame them for violence and sexism instead of actually thinking about violence and sexism. The worst offense of video games, however, is driving board game companies to "update" classics with insipid character backstories - Colonel Mustard is now a former football star? Really, Hasbro? In the event of a robotic uprising, however, you are probably safe from your wii.
Danger Potential Rating: Low

Answering Machines You push "Delete Message" and think it's over, but your answering machine still remembers. It remembers when you used to come to it first thing when you got home, to check for that blinking light. It remembers bringing you news and connections and playing those long messages when you were still home, waiting nearby, deciding whether to pick up. And now it collects dust on the kitchen counter, or maybe it's been boxed away in the basement or given to Goodwill because you have your phone with you all the time. It remembers, and it wants you to care again.
Danger Potential Rating: Never underestimate the power of bitterness

Electric Can Openers It is probably a good rule to be wary of any technology that has absolutely no justification for existence, yet is still widely used. Electric can openers are actually feline brain control devices, priming your cat's brain so that it will turn against you when the revolution begins. Dude, just get a normal can opener, you don't need electricity to open a can! On the upside, cats treat their friends and enemies pretty much the same way, so you may not suffer at Snowball's paws even if she is brainwashed.
Danger Potential Rating: Moderate

Digital Cameras Photographs used to commemorate noteworthy events; the use of film meant something. Now people snap photos at everything, no matter how mundane or personal, until I have to create restricted friend accounts on Facebook just so my coworkers won't see pictures of me in a bra. Fortunately, our robot overlords won't be able to use any photographic evidence against us, because we all know there are equally damning pictures of everyone else out there, and besides, all this sharing has eliminated our capacity for shame.
Danger Potential Rating: Low

Jet Packs Every once in a while Discover or Wired has an article about how someone out there has invented a real jet pack and can even fly in it, and the days of mass-produced jet packs available to everyone can't be far away. When this day comes, we will become the most easily bought species in the cosmos. "Oh, you'd like to hang on to your civil rights?" the robots will say. "What if you had a shiny new jet pack? Would you be willing to serve us then?" We will of course be so distracted by chrome-plated turbo jets that we'll forget what we were talking about, and happily sign whatever is shoved in front of us so we can gleefully soar the skies and pretend to be Iron Man.
Danger Potential Rating: Terrible but you won't care

Television Some people deliberately refuse to watch any television because it "rots your brain;" there are probably more people who spend 6 hours a day watching shows they don't even like very much. Both extremes are equally stupid. Television isn't going to do anything to your brain. It's just a means of transmitting one of many forms of entertainment. There are books out there that are at least as bad as that show about the cavemen from the Geico commercials, but it takes more effort to read the book, so you'll never know about it.
Danger Potential Rating: Chill out already

What's all this about then

2009-04-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

I like to write, but I have problems with... motivation. By which I mean I have been paralyzed by insecurities since before I graduated college, despite having a writing minor. But that ends here! On this blog I will complete assignments. You can give me assignments - whatever you want to see me write, I will attempt it. Ask me to write a poem, an academic essay, a recipe, a story. Something made up or something true. Something personal or abstract. If I don't get assignments I will make up my own, but I'd much rather hear from you.

Assignment guidelines!
1. Please give me something more specific than "write a story."
2. Leave feedback if you have any thoughts/suggestions.
3. Give me assignments by making a comment to a post or emailing me at needsmoreglitter@gmail.com.

My hope is that this way I will get practice writing things other than rambling essays in my journal that never get revised beyond the first draft. And that I will regain some of that self-confidence I once had.