Fans of independently produced music unite. Via Nathan I just found pHluid and I'm listening to some stuff released on the acid100 pack (I'm still getting my head around the ascii/art/music scene - these folk make this stuff for fun and art and distribute it for free). Not all of it is my cup of tea but there's some really interesting beats in there. If you like a bit of electronica, check them out!
29.1.04
26.1.04
[Anybody out there...? Just checking.]
I'm watching this thing on VH1 called "InsideOut". The program description on the digital cable thingy says "Nelly: The Search for Miss Applebottom. Nelly and company search for a girl with an irregular waist-to-bum* ratio." It documents the search for the perfect model for Applebottom clothes, the label designed by rapper Nelly. As a girl with a booty (actually, a booty and a half... maybe even two - I'm definitely rocking more than my fair share of booty), sure, it's nice to see someone actively seeking a model with an unconventional body type. It must be noted, though, that most of the Applebottom contenders seem to have bodies that are conventionally proportional with the exception of the booty. Some of it is natural, but on some of those girls, I suspect padding.
I'm sure it's all in good fun and all the girls are enjoying the experience (and I'm sure Nelly and cohorts are getting something out of some free perving masquerading as a "talent search"), but this whole detachment of bottom from girl is bothersome. It appears that they are not whole girls, just a disembodied butt. Perhaps the point of this program is to illustrate the sexism and objectification going on (the montage currently showing of Nelly giving his candid opinion of the butts currently on show would be a perfect illustration - there doesn't seem to be any way that it can be justified, or statements like "pull those down a little" and "let me see that tattoo" spun to look like reasonable requests). But it's on VH1. The same channel that aired a program entitled "100 Hottest Hotties" and listed at #11 not Jennifer Lopez, the whole woman, but "J.Lo's butt". Seperation of woman and booty! Oh yeah, it's only her gluteous maximus that got her as far as she did in movies, music, clothing and fragrance marketing, and the fine art of whoring out supposedly sacred relationships for the purposes of increasing fame.**
The attitudes towards women and their bodies in the mainstream media is a huge bugbear for me. Body types, clothing design and fashion trends, the pushing of all sorts of fad diets and their accompanying products (such as Slim Fast meal replacement shakes, diet pills and supplements, specially marketed foods under insidious labels such as 'Atkins friendly', etc.), even down to the cover models on fitness magazines such as "Fitness" (during the time I had a subscription to this title, every model was in a skimpy outfit of some sort, usually a bathing suit or bikini, with a fakey beach-type background. I often wondered what would be wrong with their model being fully clothed in actual exercise gear)... we're so used to it that it's hard to question it. It just seems to be the way everything has always been. Well, a hundred and fifty years modesty would have ruled all - not even pants, really, more those big floofy skirts and aprons and all the trappings. And while it's nice that we don't have to go to such efforts today, is it really so great to be "allowed" fashions that might reduce us to parts - breast, thigh, buttock, abdomen?
[Bear in mind that these are some rambling thoughts spouted at 2 in the morning, not a well-researched thesis of some sort, and that I'm a feminist woman with body/food issues who tends to question all of these things on a daily basis. If you think I'm being oversensitive or dumb, well, that's what the comments are for, G.]
I'm going to get some sleep and dream myself into a world where our bodies simply don't matter. Night!
* since when did "bum" become a common part of the American slang lexicon? I thought it was more of a European/Australian/NZ thing.
** I'm not contesting Ms. Lopez's actual talent here - I'll admit to enjoying some of her songs, and as far as I know she's a decent actress.
I'm watching this thing on VH1 called "InsideOut". The program description on the digital cable thingy says "Nelly: The Search for Miss Applebottom. Nelly and company search for a girl with an irregular waist-to-bum* ratio." It documents the search for the perfect model for Applebottom clothes, the label designed by rapper Nelly. As a girl with a booty (actually, a booty and a half... maybe even two - I'm definitely rocking more than my fair share of booty), sure, it's nice to see someone actively seeking a model with an unconventional body type. It must be noted, though, that most of the Applebottom contenders seem to have bodies that are conventionally proportional with the exception of the booty. Some of it is natural, but on some of those girls, I suspect padding.
I'm sure it's all in good fun and all the girls are enjoying the experience (and I'm sure Nelly and cohorts are getting something out of some free perving masquerading as a "talent search"), but this whole detachment of bottom from girl is bothersome. It appears that they are not whole girls, just a disembodied butt. Perhaps the point of this program is to illustrate the sexism and objectification going on (the montage currently showing of Nelly giving his candid opinion of the butts currently on show would be a perfect illustration - there doesn't seem to be any way that it can be justified, or statements like "pull those down a little" and "let me see that tattoo" spun to look like reasonable requests). But it's on VH1. The same channel that aired a program entitled "100 Hottest Hotties" and listed at #11 not Jennifer Lopez, the whole woman, but "J.Lo's butt". Seperation of woman and booty! Oh yeah, it's only her gluteous maximus that got her as far as she did in movies, music, clothing and fragrance marketing, and the fine art of whoring out supposedly sacred relationships for the purposes of increasing fame.**
The attitudes towards women and their bodies in the mainstream media is a huge bugbear for me. Body types, clothing design and fashion trends, the pushing of all sorts of fad diets and their accompanying products (such as Slim Fast meal replacement shakes, diet pills and supplements, specially marketed foods under insidious labels such as 'Atkins friendly', etc.), even down to the cover models on fitness magazines such as "Fitness" (during the time I had a subscription to this title, every model was in a skimpy outfit of some sort, usually a bathing suit or bikini, with a fakey beach-type background. I often wondered what would be wrong with their model being fully clothed in actual exercise gear)... we're so used to it that it's hard to question it. It just seems to be the way everything has always been. Well, a hundred and fifty years modesty would have ruled all - not even pants, really, more those big floofy skirts and aprons and all the trappings. And while it's nice that we don't have to go to such efforts today, is it really so great to be "allowed" fashions that might reduce us to parts - breast, thigh, buttock, abdomen?
[Bear in mind that these are some rambling thoughts spouted at 2 in the morning, not a well-researched thesis of some sort, and that I'm a feminist woman with body/food issues who tends to question all of these things on a daily basis. If you think I'm being oversensitive or dumb, well, that's what the comments are for, G.]
I'm going to get some sleep and dream myself into a world where our bodies simply don't matter. Night!
* since when did "bum" become a common part of the American slang lexicon? I thought it was more of a European/Australian/NZ thing.
** I'm not contesting Ms. Lopez's actual talent here - I'll admit to enjoying some of her songs, and as far as I know she's a decent actress.
