Holy Shit Salvador Dali Was Pretty Fucked Up.

Our 20th Century Art professor wanted us to do some background research on Salvador Dali's painting "The Great Masturbator":


















Yeah, it's pretty fucked up to say the least. We discussed the possible meaning of a lot of the imagery in class, and in addition to that, I found out that when Dali was a child, his father made him look at a book filled with pictures of STD-infected genitals. This apparently caused Dali to have an intense fear of sex, sexuality, and being touched. He was a virgin* at 25 when he met his future wife, Gala.

No matter how you feel about the artist, his work, or his views, it is sad that he was raised to fear his own body and his own desires. It is sadder still that this sort of fear and shaming of sexuality continues today.





*Whether or not he actually had sex with the poet Lorca is debatable. There are a lot of contradictions on the nature of Dali's relationship with Lorca, tho Dali did say that he was in love with him.

Super Bowl Ads: The Highs and Lows.

News Flash:

There are women who watch sports. There are women who watch the Super Bowl. There are women who watch the Super Bowl commercials. If you're an ad company, and you want to be smart and savvy, it'd be nice if you decided to avoid creating ads taht could possibly piss off women.

Like, uh, this:



And this:



Seriously??? What makes you thnk I'd want to buy your car or your flowers if you continue to use the same stupid stereotypes about me? I mean, it is entirely possible to make great superbowl ads WITHOUT offending women.

Such as this:



And this:



Also, I'm not going to even talk about the total drek that are the GoDaddy/Focus on the Family commercials because they do not deserve anything more than a stiffly raised middle finger in their general direction.

Good News, plus the only good clip from SNL

Well, I contacted the artist who made my awesome, yet currently broken cunt necklace, and she's going to repair it. YAYYYYYYYY! Seriously, Etsy rocks.

Also, I'll be doing a photoshoot today in which i'll be channeling wrath (the theme is the seven deadly sins). I'm v. excited.

Also Also, the two best sketches from SNL last night:





Have a great Sunday, and GO SAINTS!

Broken Jewelry, Fat Pigs, and et cetera.

My cunt necklace broke! Boo.

Also, I went to see a lab production of Neil Labute's play "Fat Pig" yesterday night. If you're not familiar with the show, "Fat Pig" is about a man who dumps his skinny co-worker and falls in love with a fat woman. Although he loves her, he has difficulty in being confident about the relationship because his co-workers do nothing but give him shit for dating someone who doesn't fit their standards of beauty. According to them, being fat is something within their control. One man talks about screaming at his mother for buying candy while at the grocery store. Overall, it's very effective and brutal and heartbreaking.

I think that a lot of people use the "health" argument to justify their cruel hatred of the not-skinny. Many of my classmates at SCAD and Stephens are very thin, but can barely climb a flight of stairs without needing to take a breather halfway through. That's NOT healthy. And as the daughter of a woman who has struggled with her weight for years, I know that losing weight isnt' just a magical case of Salad+Treadmill=OMGSKINNY! Trying to eat healthier or taking on a new physical excersize routine should come from a place of confidence and happiness, not fear and shame.

I went jogging for the first time in literally 7 years yesterday. I felt great, and was happy that I didn't have to stop to catch my breath. The most enjoyable part was being able to be active and have fun with my friends---which should be THE ENTIRE POINT of physical activity, not worrying about calories burned.

Also, please send some love to Lilly, who has had to deal with a lot of internet assholes behaving like, well, internet assholes.

Please Excuse Me While I Rant...

...it's been a rainy day here in Savannah.

...And I wound up trekking through the rain in order to get posters for The Vagina Monologues stamped by Student Media Services. I couldn't get them stamped by the Student Services office in the Student Center (which was much closer) because "the posters were not affiliated with a SCAD sponsored event."

And, the Student Media Services people charge up to $20 to rubber stamp posters.

*blinks, then gives a bitchface*

It seems like the biggest difference between Student Media and Student Involvement is just that one office charges for their stamp, and one office doesn't. Which is bloody annoying when I'm already paying a very hefty sum of money in order to attend SCAD in the first place. At the very least, couldn't they aat least have one Student Media person stationed at the Student center in orer to save people the hassle of having to trek out to east jesus nowhere?

Vanity fair, The Whitewashing and Whittling of Hollywood, and "marketability".

I often blog about my many experiences as a student at Stephens College, experiences which ultimately drove me to transfer to SCAD.

As a theatre major, I spent a lot of time liing, eating, working and learning with 35 women and 5 men. Something that I kept hearing over and over and over again by some professors, but mostly my classmates was "marketability". What is marketability? Essentially, it's like prostitution minus the sex. The questions everyone kept asking was "how can I get the professors/casting directors/agents to want me?". Friends started crash diets and manic exercise routines because their curves made them "unmarketable". People thought I was strange for cutting and dying my hair because apparently having short, red hair made someone "unmarketable". They obsessed with how to dress for auditions. They overloaded their schedules, sometimes taking 24 credit hours a semester so that they could learn new "marketable" skills. If you asked them "What is your type?" they could answer you immediately: Ingenue. Mezzo-Soprano Broadway Belter. Character Actor. I'm more of a director/stage manager. Et cetera.

I never bought into all of the marketability bullshit. How on earth could I know what my "type" was at eighteen/nineteen? Why would I want to rob my body of nutrients when I had such an intense schedule with classes, rehearsals, and crew credits? Why did I have to keep my hair at shoulder length when I found that to be really annoying and unflattering? Why did I have to buy into all of the sexist bullshit that exists in the entertainment world instead of trying to fight it?

I thought about all of this when I saw the Vanity Fair "Young Hollywood" cover:












Vanity Fair literally calls these actresses "dolls". This is disturbing on all kinds of levels. It's an insult to the actresses (why aren't there any young, up-and-coming actors featured?), because actors are living, breathing human beings that must actively transform into another person, while dolls are lifeless and inanimate. Don't get me wrong, these women are very talented and have been in a lot of great films. But to say taht they were only chosen because of their "doll-like" qualities is an insult to them, and its also an insult to the many young, up-and-coming actresses that *aren't* thin and white (*cough* Zoe Saldana *cough* Gabourey Sidibe *cough cough*). Sidibe has shown us that you don't have to be pale and waif like to take on an "edgy" role and get nominated for an Oscar. Zaldana has shown us that you can take awesome action roles that arent *just* about being sexy/sexually available.

If Hollywood is about making films about life, then ther should be (if you'll excuse my hyperbole) A GAZILLION different roles for young actors of all shapes, sizes, colors, religions, backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender identities. VF can's say that there weren't enough not-white-not-skinny women in Hollywood for the cover, and pass the blame off to directors and screenwriters, who'll then pass off the blame to someone else, and so on and so forth. Each aspect of the entertainment industry, including the magazines that report on it, should take charge and call for a. more great women's roles in general, and b. more diversity, and c. create an environment where actors can live and work without the fear that they'll lose any chance of success if they do not fit a specific, and often unhealthy "look".

...and today's pre-rehearsal WTF moment comes courtesy of...

...The Vagina Monologues.

For those unfamiliar with The Vagina Monologues, it's a show compiled as a series of monologues about vaginas. And sexuality. And overcoming rape, abuse, and ignorance. It's traditionally done on Valentine's Day, and proceeds from the show go to causes such as rape crisis centers, women's shelters, and other organizations that benefit women and girls.

I've been rehearsing for the Savannah Vagina Monolouges, and during the time waiting for the entrance of the cabaret to be opened, several of my castmates talked about the following:

--whether or not to participate in the amateur night at a local strip club.
--why the pop singer Rhianna appears to be "emotionless"
--whether or not she ever beat or abused Chris Brown (which would obviously explain why he had to "fight back")

Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything wrong with sex workers. However, I do have a problem on the many people who will prey on sex workers, so I wondered if the girl who was talking about this knew what she was getting into.

And regarding Rhianna, if she appears to be "emotionless", it might be her way of coping with being such a massive celebrity, as well as being a celebrity who is linked to a very high profile domestic violence dispute.

And regarding any insinuation that Rhianna "deserved" the abuse she received:

NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING warrants acts of domestic violence.

NOTHING.

Part of me hopes that the experience of participating in the Vagina Monologues is an eye opening experience for some of my cast mates.

I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE (or, Eve Ensler makes me cry buckets)

This interview with Eve Ensler is so amazing and stunning and awesome.

This year, for the Vagina Monologues, the spotlight monologue has to do with the City of Joy in Bukavu that Eve Ensler talks about. The piece is called "A Teenager's Guide To Surviving Sex Slavery", and is included in Eve's new work called "I Am An Emotional Creature". The piece is heartbreaking. (SHAMELESS PLUG: If you are In Savannah GA, check out the Vagina Monolouges at Club One Feb 12, 13, and 14).

Looking at connections: The Women And Hollywod bloggers versus the filmakers at Stephens College

I love reading the Women And Hollywood blog, written by Melissa Silverstein. I took even more of an interest after reading that Silverstein had attended, and spoke at the Citizen Jane Film festival, a festival started by a professor at Stephens, Kerri Yost. I read Yost's post about films she has been seeing at Sundance, and it caused me to take a minute and think about the film students I met and lived with during my time at Stephens. One student could not hear the words "penis" or "vagina" without literally crawling up into a ball and gagging. My friends brushed this off as a cute quirk. I wanted to say "If you can't say the proper names of sexual anatomy without such a strong reaction, maybe you should see a therapist"*.

One of the films Yost profiles is called The Freebie and is about a couple that decides to liven up their marriage with respective one-night stands. I wondered what would be the student reaction to this film if it were shown at Citizen Jane. Would students talk about the characters and their motivations, or would they focus on whether or not the characters were "good" or "bad"? Many of my classmates from Stephens are in the don't-have-sex-till-you're-married crowd, and as I learned firsthand, often have a visceral negative reaction to sexuality in art.

I earnestly hope that one thing that Stephens faculty does is discuss the complicated relationship between art and social mores, and continues to push boundaries with the films screened at festivals such as Citizen Jane. One of the (many) reasons I decided to transfer from Stephens was because my classmates seemed to spend all of their times analyzing whether or not their characters were "right" or "wrong" instead of analyzing their intentions and actions, and how the playwright/filmmaker/director went about telling the story.





*Frankly, being able to say words like "penis", "vagina", "vulvae", "clitoris", "testicles", "prostate", etc is beyond any issue of religious/political/moral beliefs. Everyone, from bitchy redheaded bloggers to the wives of Baptist ministers should be able to talk about their anatomy without fear or shame. Period.

Justice Is Served. Alleluia.

According to Ron Sylvester, reporter for the Witchita Eagle, Scott Roeder has been found guilty on all 3 charges in relation to the murder of Dr. George Tiller. These charges include a 1st degree murder charge. Sentencing will occur March 9th.

This verdict allows me to believe that there is justice in America, and that people do recognize that yes, even white "Christian" men can be terrorists.