Isn't It Ironic? A New Meme For Feminists

     Thanks Alanis Morissette, "It's a free ride when you've already paid". Well put. I have to say, it figures, because there's some irony brewing in this story -

    I type this as I listen to the song Ironic. Bad joke?

    OK. My blog now has 1,770+ hits thanks to my last blog/rant titled "Do I Look Fat In This?". How is this possible? Is feminism just so relevant that people around the world google radical feminist blogs? I would like to think so, but I doubt that's the truth. This specific blog entry is successful due to three key words: MILEY. CYRUS. FAT. Isn't it ironic? 

    Vain, celebrity-obsessed  people in desperate need of a feminist rant about why I don't always shave my legs, stumbled upon this blog by searching those 3 words of delicious body observation : MILEY CYRUS FAT. Count 'em, 1, 2, 3....hundreds of people typed those words in the google search engine, and was redirected via images and tags, to my lonesome, @ news ridiculed, radical feminist blog. I know this because my blogspot knows what website you came from. Perhaps they even read some of my radical ideas? Maybe they threw out their lipstick and went to work with their real face - GASP! Maybe they thought for a moment, "Hey your right, I'm a woman, but I'm not a sex object, I have a mind too, ya know!!" Then, upon coming to that realization blasted some Bikini Kill in their work office. 

"Revolution Grrrrrl Style Now!!" and the whole office would shake. Just try and fire me. 

    Of course this isn't so, they accidentally wound up in the midst of a cyber hole of feminist opinion, that they probably thought didn't exist. That's awesome. So I propose the most radical action to date: every post from now on will have the tags MILEY CYRUS FAT, as a way to lure the people who need feminism, as opposed to those of you reading this that actually read physical books. You already know how messed up society is and how your boyfriends talks over you, and that you never get the job promotion. Now let's fight back, by typing those three silly word MILEY CYRUS FAT on all radical feminist blogs/things you want out there to mainstream people. Type it and they will come. Ironic? This is the new feminist internet meme.

Do I Look Fat In This?

    I have been reading an interesting book about the psychology of the fat/skinny dynamic in women's lives called Fat Is A Feminist Issue (authored by Susie Orbach), that poignantly describes many women's desires to beautiful and judged by their body, how they are scared to actually fulfill this goal and how to overcome these expectations. Her focus is not eradication of fat through diet or making one feel bad about being fat, and neither does she judgmentally put her own notion of what 'fat' is; the women have already decided they feel fat or overeat, (or in some cases are skinny and overeat/binge), then has them assess their true feelings about why they want to be 'skinny' in the first place.
    She helps them pinpoint what sort of fantasy they have about skinniness - which is almost always synonymous with attractiveness - being more outgoing, more successful, etc. while the patients themselves figure out what originally made them form these expectations they prevent themselves from fulfilling. She never suggests for them her analysis, that is just commentary for the reader, or tries to shove in their face a political theory about gender roles (although upon the patient discussing their expectations of 'skinny', the patient comes to that conclusion themselves by their own reasoning). Through discovering the the unfulfilled desires of themselves, their potential, obligations and goals have all come from their complex relationship with their mothers, which of course, manifests within food.
    For readers this may sound metaphoric, though it is symbolic, but our notions of love and family revolve around food, especially the mother, so daughters and mothers have a unique relationship based around food consumption and preparation. Not only does your mother breast feed you, which is your first knowledge and direct experience of love, but the milk itself also has an opiate-like effect on the brain (which all dairy does) that makes you feel close, even euphoric. Upon being fed, with your cries being answered, you find relief and satisfaction. Then, later on in life, it is your mother who makes the family meals, prepares lunch for you, teaches you how to bake, gives you food to feel better. Of course this book was written in the late 70s, so it's possible that your mother wasn't the only one making meals, but considering gender roles, that's beside the point.
    Since these are women in a changing world striving for something more than their mothers (aren't we all), they are really asking for help the only way they have ever been taught how to resolve problems - with food. I recommend anyone with an unbalanced relationship with food to read this, and being an anti-diet book, it's about making you feel comfortable with however you are healthiest. I just want to post some images that I've seen recently on the internet that really make this book a valuable read -

    Maybe you've heard about this "controversy", but Lady Gaga is being critiSIZED for gaining  (according to her) 30 pounds or so. Not only did she come out as formerly being bulimic, but people online are actually asking "Is she fat?". They don't even know! But, the question is, does she deserve the publicity considering her job is being half-naked and objectifying herself? Either way, despite if she's healthy, over-weight, or underweight, the clothes she wears are crazy, and this certainly isn't a flattering outfit.

    This is the Miley Cyrus picture that triggered everyone to start calling her anorexic. So not only if you gain weight a small amount of weight you are fat, but if you actualize the skinny ideal you are anorexic. She's a young girl with the pressures of her Hollywood career, obviously just coming from yoga or the gym or something, and gets railed on. She's thin, but not dangerously so. Wasn't she just sized up last year for gaining weight? Isn't this what everyone wanted?

    This is the picture that popped up under "Miley Cyrus fat", which apparently is a popular search. Really?

    Since Kelly Osbourne has lost her dirty mouth fat girl image, she is now on a style network show where she makes fun of how celebrities dress. Nice. Now that she has her skinny goal reached, she has the authority to call Christina Aguilera fat because she years ago made fun of Kelly. Ironic. By looking at the Christina pictures from her Genie In A Bottle days, she obviously has drastic weight fluctuations, which indicates extreme dieting, which along with having a baby probably destroyed her metabolism. Although, I am not a doctor. True or not, it's wrong and painful to make statements like that and insensitive coming from someone who felt the same criticism.

    This is the hottest celebrity right now, the ideal beauty. From some sources they claim she eats only 600 calories a day, which according to the clinical definition of anorexica nervosa, classifies her as anorexic, if this is true. How many people do you know that think she's hot, or aspire to be her?

    Have you heard of pro-anorexia sites? This is one of the first images under the search "Thinspiration", commonly known to frequenters of these sites as thinspo. This is a women named Felice Fawn, I'm guessing a model of some type which women who have body obsession look up to look like.


    With these images, for disbelievers of pressure and gender roles, I'm sure you can at least conclude women, more so than men, have a dysfunctional relationship with their bodies which would obviously have something to do with food. Without getting into an anarchist perspective, I believe it's obvious what social roles that are enforced by laws and regulations along with media which, is one of the main tools of oppression of capitalism, has everything to do with these disturbing notions of beauty, self, and celebrity. But I just have to ask, does this blog make me look fat?

No, Objectifcation is Not Considered a Compliment

    Relevence of a feminist essay comes from genuine experiences. No pretenstion, no scholarly exposition of what women theoretically should want or what utopias we can dream up as we clean up the messes of patriarchal society. Some of the best examples of sexism come from other women's mouths.
    I made a comment, to an undisclosed person, along the lines of "I'd rather be pale and pasty than have a fake tan [or sunburn]" and was subsequently accused of feeling self-conscious about "being pretty". The reasoning was that since I do not appreciate men hitting on me, I do not like to wear makeup, I shave my legs about once a week and also (I'm guessing) I do not dress myself in typical mainstream attire, I must have a fear of pretty-ness.
    Offensive as it was, I did not try to argue about the myth of beauty and what constitues 'pretty' in reality physically and mentally with/out consumer-culture. I defended myself to some degree, but sometimes it's more beneficial to talk to a wall.
    Confidence about one's appearance is not dependent on making it a superfical fixation nor is it dependent on what other people's force-fed perception of beauty is. People look beautiful naturally without gimmicks, clown makeup, expensive accessories and in very unique, indivdual ways. Stop trying to be a Barbie and then making everyone else feel bad for not being a Barbie. These are unrealistic expectations that few can achieve, and are irrelevent to the broader scope of existence. I would rather be a humanitarian than a super-model. Neither do I want a man in my life who's relationship with me is based around my appearence, (which if you're belief of beauty comes from pop-culture deteriorates in your mid-thirties) as opposed to my character traits (read: intelliegence, humor, kindness, etc.).
    Keep in mind, this ideal beauty being sold to us through advertisements/consummerism/media is coming from big time companies owned by white men that have political influences that keep perpetuating the myth that women are so stupid because they care more about superfical shit than the myriad atroscities that are going on in the world and would rather starve and buy anti-wrinkle cream at risk of death or cancer than to read a book (besides Twilight) - which is not always true and I'm an example of that.
    Undisclosed person, if you are reading this, that's why I only shave my legs like once a week, and I don't care.

The Dichotomies of Consumer Culture

    The most fundamental dichotomy, man/woman, or if you like, day/night, is the basis of modern thought, stemming into religious morality and thus government and rule. Throughout culture, sexism has been persistent. Even the woman-based or goddess based cultures of ancient times were eventually physically put in submission. Patriarchal societies have the upper hand when examining the polarity of feminine/masculine. To this day, in for instance, Feng Shui, the method of balancing one's environment, is based upon Yin-Yang, feminine/masculine, dark/light, night/day. These basic dichotomies are almost universally accepted and become the principal foundation for gender roles.
    At once dualism becomes the structure of collective thought, every concept is divided in two, so day/night becomes light/dark, good/evil, positive/negative. It is easy to see the relationship between day/light/man in ancient culture when the sun was the main focus of worship (sun=son?). This leaves night to represent female whereas night is dark, when the unknown occurs, naturally inspiring fear, longing for daylight. Many children have fear of the dark, vampires, ghosts and nocturnal animals come out at night, making evil interchangeable with night, dark, and female, most noticeably in Western society and religion.
    Upon examining the book of Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve gives much insight into modern association between good/man and evil/woman and the identification of men representing all of humanity. Before Eve, Adam was neither man nor woman, therefore Adam represents all people, i.e. "man kind" not "woman kind". To further reinforce  male superiority and woman inferiority, Eve, is tricked by Satan, i.e. evil, and gets both Adam and Eve kicked out of Eden the beautiful paradise God (a man nonetheless) made. Now, according to Genesis, women suffer painful childbirth for our collective misdeed. This of course is the Judea-Christian religion Western society is built upon, especially the United States, a more recent concoction of religion and state (supposedly separate).
    Religion reinforces the unquestioning of these modes of thought. Religion is one of the main culprits of the evolution of gender roles, why women are submissive and men traditionally the bread-winners. Nowadays, gender-roles have a slightly new configuration after the Woman's Right Movement and politically, on most accounts have equal rights. Equal rights, should not, however, imply overall equality. Women are still fitted into traditional stereotypes of being weaker, still take on domestic roles as well as jobs outside the home, are still paid less than men, and are still objectified through all branches of media. This atmosphere of consumer culture is where more complex dichotomies evolve.
    For instance, we are constantly being advertised and sold products, while watching a weight loss show we are also being shown McDonald's commercials, while watching a cooking show we are being sold diet pills, while looking at anorexic models we are being told "big is beautiful" (then being called either too skinny or too fat), while seeing women run for office we are seeing half-naked women in music videos. These are alot of confusing images, especially for young women. This is a result of the religion/state dichotomy - on one side we have the pure, house maker religious moral side, then the demonized over-sexed pro-women's rights, left. These polarities make it possible for gender roles to be perpetuated and for rifts between other women or feminists to persist over which side to take. Dualism in our thinking patterns makes it black/white as if there is no gray!
    People are politically divided into left/right when, in reality, they are the same people making decisions for whichever company they have sworn allegiance to. Since capitalism is based on the consumer's demand, it is necessary the companies who run our government find a way to please us, or to create demand for their products.
    For example, even if there is no real demand for cheeseburgers there is one created through advertising and other types of psychological manipulation. This is how we have become a brand-based culture and a culture that racks up debt for the newest cars and computers even if we don't need products or can't afford the products. So it becomes necessary to find to the audience to sell to and to box up their characteristics to find a way to reach their vulnerability.  For example, a company needs to sell a new oven cleaner, they have spent millions on animal testing, researching and creating something slightly different than the previous oven cleaner, so to sell it they give deals to stores so it can be sold cheap and also advertise. They figure, who does the oven cleaning in the home? Who is the majority of our audience? Women? Aged 30-50? Are they a parent with a job and busy lifestyle? What do they watch? Oprah, maybe? Soap operas? Therefore they create the right opportunity, during the right time slots have a commercial with a busy mom with alot of things to do, praising how much she enjoys having this fast acting oven cleaner to save her time, then you go to the store remember that catchy jingle and see that it's on sale, then, voila! A company has millions in their pocket and can continue to have political sway.
   This culture makes it possible to continue stereotypes even after the so-called "women's liberation movement". To indulge in this psychological manipulation is indulging in sexism, racism, animal torture, environmental atrocities and political ignorance. Our black/white thinking makes it impossible for our green parties to ever win an election and nearly impossible for individuals to be individual. This why examining the dichotomies persistent in our moral values and political structure become the crux of anarchism and individual liberty. To ignore gender roles, where they stem from and how they persist is going to be the downfall of politics, environment, and freelance information.