watch this doc: Il Corpo Delle Donne

Il Corpo Delle Donne (Women's Bodies) is a 24 minute short doc that explores the way that images of women are manipulated and exploited in the Italian media (and everywhere else on earth) and the consequences on a larger cultural scale.

"This project took off as a matter of urgency. It all started with the observation that women–real women–are an endangered species on television, one that is being replaced by a grotesque, vulgar and humiliating representation.

We sensed the enormity of this loss: the erasure of women’s identity is happening right before our eyes, but without a proper reaction, not even from women themselves.

This led us to select television images that share a common manipulative exploitation of the woman’s body, to let people know what is happening–not only people who never watch television, but especially those who watch it but “don’t see.”

Our aim is to ask ourselves questions, and to pose questions about the reason behind this erasure, a real “pogrom” of which all of us are silent spectators.Our project grants special attention to the erasure of adult faces on television, to the use of plastic surgery to erase any sign of the passage of time, and to the social consequences of this erasure."

I first came across this Italian short documentary on one of my favorite blogs: SexGenderBody. I really, really wish I could post this video for you here, but could not find an english version I could embed. Here is the link from the official website:

http://www.ilcorpodelledonne.net/?page_id=91

Seriously, this film is brilliant and thought provoking. Totally worth 20 minutes of your time!! 

quote of my life

"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind"- Aristotle

What would you do in life if you didn't have to make money?

true romance

I have no words of my own tonight; I'm just weary from routine and a lack of purposefulness. I dug (literally went through all of my old boxes of books and random junk in the closet to find the little scrap of paper I had written this on in 2007) up this inspiring little number courtesy of Charles Bukowski's Henry Chinaski. This passage makes my heart flutter in the best way.

"If you're going to try, go all the way.

Otherwise don't even start.

This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and maybe your mind.

It could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days. It could mean freezing on a park bench.

It could mean jail. It could mean derision, mockery, isolation.

Isolation is the gift; all the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it.

And you'll do it.

Despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine.

If you're going try, go all the way.

There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter.

Its the only good fight there is."

yeah you are!

I just finished watching Margaret Cho's "Beautiful" (which is awesome by the way). While most of her jokes get right down and dir-taay, they are littered with seeds of truth and wisdom about sexuality and being female. And its her honesty that makes her so damn funny! When she's tellin' it like it is, she never shies away from the political roots that shape our culture. You are left with an important and empowering message after the hilariousness wears off:

"We gotta compliment ourselves because we get enough shit in the world... I think its very important to feel beautiful. I think its very political to feel beautiful. Especially if you're queer; because if you're queer you have to take on the world every single day of your life and you have to feel beautiful to survive. And you are so beautiful!!!"

more to Life than this.

I know perhaps it would be more glamorous and interesting if I could regale you with tales of wild nights out and debauchery, but I abandoned those pastimes years ago.

Now what I really enjoy is to kick up my feet and watch documentaries. Especially if there is nature involved (and maybe David Attenborough to narrate). BBC first rocked me with their mind-blowingly gorgeous 'Planet Earth', then with 'Blue Planet' and now I am anxiously awaiting the next episode of their newest masterpiece 'Life'. (Thursday night on Discovery Channel!)

Boring you say? What could be better than traveling to exotic locales and witnessing incredible creatures from the safety and comfort of my own couch? Every time I watch these shows I am reminded of how vast our planet is and just how insignificant us humans really are in the grand scheme of things. Good to have a look at that big picture every now and then. There is life outside of the city.

Oh and by the way, Oprah will be narrating the upcoming season!

for cat moms & dads

We all need a little fun on Tuesdays.

Taking Root- the Vision of Wangari Maathai

I was blown away by the documentary film "Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai". It follows Wangari from her childhood in rural Kenya to her founding of the Green Belt Movement and going on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. This amazing woman, Wangari Maathai, is so inspiring I don't even know where to begin!

"Planting trees for fuel, shade, and food is not something that anyone would imagine as the first step toward winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet with that simple act Wangari Maathai, a woman born in rural Kenya, started down the path that reclaimed her country’s land from 100 years of deforestation, provided new sources of food and income to rural communities, gave previously impoverished and powerless women a vital political role in their country, and ultimately helped to bring down Kenya's twenty-four-year dictatorship."

Wow, right?!
Surely if this one woman can manage to initiate these amazing things in Kenya, we can all stop blindly consuming for a minute and do something worthwhile too. She gives me hope.

starting somewhere

This is what you shall do;

Love the earth and sun and the animals,

despise riches,

give alms to everyone that asks,

stand up for the stupid and crazy,

devote your income and labor to others,

hate tyrants,

argue not concerning God,

have patience and indulgence toward the people,

take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men-

go freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the mothers or families-

re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book,

and dismiss whatever insults your own soul;

and your very flesh shall be a great poem..."

Thank you Walt Whitman; that is what I shall do too.

just so we're clear, I don't know where this is going...

One day I woke up and I was 30 years old...

I have no idea what happened to my twenties, or even to my teenage years... It was all a whirlwind of soul searching that ended in something close to panic in my 29th year. Still, I come up empty handed when pressed for answers about what I am going to 'do' with my life.

From the time I was just a little thing, there were only 2 things I was ever really interested in:

1) changing the world (for the better of course!)
2) telling stories

I'm still fairly clueless as to how to actually do either of those things in life.
We grow up hearing (and often believing) that Not Exactly Practical = Not Really Worth Pursuing.

The way I see it, unless you are tapped into some old source of wealth that allows you to indulge yourself in changing the world, you had better come up with a way to make some dough if you're going to survive out here!!

I have some regrets: I wish I would have believed in myself a little more, given myself the opportunity to do something that felt true and important. - Oh hindsight, you maieutic teacher!!- Instead, I've settled for whatever fell in my lap, whatever I could tolerate doing to feed myself. Thankfully, it is not too late. (I'm going back to get that philosophy/creative writing degree when I'm 65 and tuition is free in Canada!)

There is so much pressure to conform to what we are all culturally conditioned brainwashed to seek from the time we are born. Apparently, if you're lucky enough to go to school, you might be lucky enough to go to college/university, after which the world of work will open itself up and swallow you up for 40 years! The goal is to make lots and lots of money and with that you can buy lots and lots of stuff! The more the better!! Gather as much material wealth as you can and hoard it all to yourself. This is the road to happiness we are told. Play the game and you will be rewarded!

I've avoided it for as long as possible, and now finally in my early 30's I am getting on board out of desperation and lack of viable alternatives. I'm treating this new lifestyle as a bit of an experiment; lets see where it goes! I figure either I will end up happily placated by surrendering or my inability to participate will further ignite my motivation to find an alternative way to live.

It's amazing how much praise you receive when you finally stop fighting for your dreams and give in.

a few good women

Dear Makers of Law & Order S.V.U,

It is so great to be able to turn on my television and see a strong woman character like Detective Olivia Benson. Women like Det. Benson are so shockingly refreshing and RARE against the backdrop of saccharin young pseudo-reality stars of the day who are clogging up our channels. Sure, you could've made her into Detective Eliot Stabler's useless "comedic" female side kick, or even into his lover, but you didn't. You keep her tough, independent and compassionate episode after episode. And you didn't stop there; you also gave us a female Medical Examiner and a female Assistant District Attorney.

Actually, thank you to crime shows in general for giving us a few serious and dedicated women who are much more than a sum of their physical parts. These characters can take care of themselves, do everything their male counterparts do and are not treated as mere sex objects for the men of the show. That's not to say the actors who play these characters are not conventionally beautiful- of course they are, but at least they are giving young women something to aspire to other than being perfect plastic socialites.

I just have one question for you:

Why is it that being a strong woman on television means being completely alone and having no personal life to speak of?

Elliot gets his wife and kids, love affairs and Olivia doesn't get a thing outside of her job. Not really fair is it? Are you telling us that women can't have power, respect and equality without it costing them love and happiness?