Friday's Fabulous Fat Chick: Ann Wilson

Sultry brown eyes. A powerful voice. And, of course, makeup provided by MAC. (According to her official site.)

No, I'm not talking about another drag queen, even though I love them so. I'm talking about Ann Wilson, the voluptuous half of the sister-act faces of Heart.


With a career spanning over 20 years, Wilson lent her voice to classics like Barracuda and Magic Man.


Unfortunately, I can't give you all of the sordid details of her life. I'm not a music person, but I can say I grew up listening to her music; her last CD was released in 2004. She's been a star longer than I've been alive, which must count for something.

I do have a complaint for her promotions team, though.

Stop hiding her voluptuousness behind her sister! Stop cutting off pictures of her to pretend she's not fat. She is. She's also one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen.

Have some respect.

The workplace is a'changin'...

Would you let the woman to the left watch your children or hire her to work in your company? Or, would her piercings be a barrier to her entering the professional world, a reason not to hire her?

I just finished an article in the St. Pete Times about a young woman who was "fired" for a small, almost unnoticeable nose piercing.

She was told by her supervisor that it wasn't in her best interest to get a facial piercing. When she was told to take it out, she told her supervisor she would take it out and give her tw0-weeks notice a few days later. That night she had a change of heart and was upset when the tax collector's office she worked for wouldn't take her back.

Should this story be in the paper? Of course. Piercings are becoming common enough among young people to warrant a rethinking of corporate dress codes. As more professionals enter the workplace with piercings and tattoos, more workers are going to clash with their companies' policies. It's almost inevitable.

However, I don't think this particular case is a good topic for a news story. The fact that the woman in question was specifically told it wasn't in her best interest to get the piercing turns this away from the realm of public interest to a personal problem she had with her company. They were within their rights to fire her.

However, this story would make a great opinion column. Here's how I'd do it:

1. I would start out with Lauren's story and how one piercing introduced consequences into her life she'd never imagined.

2. I would continue with statistics on the rise of piercings in the U.S. and the impact it's having on the workforce.

3. I would try to showcase one or two professional businesses with more open dress codes that allow piercings and other body mods.

4. I would finish with ways the corporate world has changed over the past decade and try to finish up with advice from an image consultant or something similar as well as include a sidebar with tips on surviving in the business world.

I've never been accused of being the most mainstream person out there; however, I like to feel my resume speaks for itself. Most of my professors have fielded the "Wendy, don't worry about your hair color or what you look like, just write," talk with me. I think the topic of alternative styles is going to be pretty popular in the next few years.

And, just as an added bit of information, the woman in the picture up top is my friend Virginia. She gets paid to watch three little girls as a professional nanny.

Where do we go from here?

So, I started this blog as a class project. Then, I realized how powerful a blog, if it is used correctly, can be. Now, I have to deal with questions. Questions like, should this blog remain strictly a feminist blog? Should I open it up to include more general news items and things that strike my fancy? Should I narrow my focus to writing about the process of reporting and the future of the newspaper industry?

Almost against my better judgment, I think I will open this up to become an opinion column. It's going to be my take on the world around me, with some reporting thrown in. I'm going to be talking about race. About feminism. About religion. The truth is, I think the country I love more than any other, the U.S., is slipping down a slope I'd rather not see it go down.

So, what do you think? Is broadening my horizons a good idea? Or, will my blog suffer because of it?

Yay, or Boo!

In the interest of making money, I'm going to be joining a site that allows me to write about products and.... Make money off of it!!!!!!! I need monies!

So, some of my posts from now on might have "sponsored by" badges attached to them. However, I will not be writing about products I'm not familiar with, and I will not be supporting products I don't like. You will never see me gushing about the Rose Petal Cottage!!!!! (Unless the pod-people get me. Then, who knows what will happen.) So, let's see ho this goes. If it doesn't work for me, I won't stick with it.

Speaking of capitalistic opportunities, I'm having a super-serious-goth-superstar auction, because once again, I'm drowning in stuff I don't wear/use/need.

Where do I stand.... on abortion?

Here's the nitty gritty, down-and-dirty, no-holds-bar stance I hold on abortion and related issues.

Do I believe every woman should have access to "safe" abortions?
YES.

Do I believe every woman should have access to birth control?
YES.

Do I believe every woman should have access to morning access pills?
YES.

Do I believe every pharmacy technician to have the right to deny customers their birth control prescriptions over the technician's own code of morals?
NO.

And, with the religious fervor and attacks over the Planned Parenthood Health Center in Aurora, Illinois, I am for the center's right to be open, to provide health care for women who need it, and to provide abortions to women who want them.

The best article I've read on the issue is from the Chicago Tribune.

Giving thanks, every day

Why the odd silence over the holidays?

1. I was at my mother's house for the end of the week and most of the weekend.

2. I could have done the horribly cliched "Yay, this is what I'm thankful for Thansgiving post," but that's my style. Since I'm almost late on everything (see my lack of Fabulous Fat Chick posts on Fridays) I've decided to post what I'm thankful for today.

I try to be thankful for what I have every day. I don't really see the purpose of setting out to be extra thankful on a specific day. However, as an anthropology minor, I do see the good getting together and feasting with family units can bring forth. Holidays usually create one of the following reactions from the people I know: extreme happiness, suicidal depression, or indifference. I lean towards indifference in some instances, extreme happiness in others, depending on the holiday. (Yay, Halloween!!!!!)

Before I start rambling on too much, here are the top 10 things I'm thankful for every day:

1. My mother is here for another holiday. Two years ago, she managed to almost die, because when she feels sick, she holes up in her house, hides the severity of her illness from everyone, and lies in bed without eating or drinking.

2. For now, birth control is legal in the U.S. However, groups around the country are trying to promote legislation that would consider fertilized eggs to be independent entities with their own human rights. So, every contraceptive that keeps fertilized eggs from implanting in the uterus and many fertilization procedures that fertilize a number of eggs and only implant a few would be illegal (varying from state to state, at least at first).

3. I live in a country where, if I'm raped and go to the police, I won't be punished for being a victim.

4. I have access to a university library, where I just checked out The Rape of Nanking, Fire Wife, and Alias the Cat! I plan to review at least some of these titles soon.

5. I never have the money to get caught up in the whole Black Friday affair. Those people scare me.

6. There are so many LARP groups in my area, I could almost go to a game a day if I wanted to.

7. Zombie invasions. I might post pictures of last night, if I get the chance.

8. Over at "The Poisoned Apple", I just read that Joss Whedon is going to make a new series called The Dollhouse. I almost cried. I just wonder if the strike is going to throw a wrench into the works.

9. Two beautiful cats, who hate each other.





Okay, it's just the calico. She hates Sirius Black.

10. My muse, who I've named Troxie, and looks like a little gnome. (Think of the goblins in Labyrinth. He has kept me in some pretty good scenes from my last novel endeavor. I'm still behind, though.

So, what is this digital content worth?

The writers from The Daily Show make their case for the writers' strike:

Zombie etiquette...

Or, how not to make an ass out of yourself in a few easy steps:

The article's at Sticks of Fire.

Feminist Icons: Joeprah?

One of the biggest debates in the feminist universe out there revolves around kids. Should we have them? How can mommies keep their feminist edge? Should mothers work, how often, and how many hours?

Both Bitch and Bust have studied the issue in depth. Feminist moms have their own blog, and Hugo Schwyzer studies topics like feminism and motherhood all the time.

Then, there's Joeprah. He's just a regular Joe out there, raising two daughters while his wife brings home the bacon. He cooks, cleans, blogs about toy grudge matches, and, best of all, dresses his little girls in boys' clothes, so they have enough room to roll around and get dirty as much as possible.


One of my biggest complaints about society today is that little girls aren't allowed to be little kids. They're supposed to always be looking ahead to that next physical milestone, when they can get their ears pierced, wear hiphuggers, get that tattoo plastered just above their rump, and marry that rich man who will take care of them for always.

If you're at work, turn down the volume on your computer; the following page links lead to sites that are equipped with sound.

At best, they're allowed to be children only as long as they can consume Rose Petal Cottages and the newest Disney Princess crap (it's a coincidence the Rose Petal Cottage ad is at the top of the Disney Princess Web site but not surprising). Don't forget about Bratz; I know I haven't.

Compared to mothers I know who obsess over their daughters receiving the most exciting pink accessories and painting them up to be younger versions of themselves, Joeprah seems to have a pretty good grasp on the whole fatherhood thing. Even with the weird stares of seeing a man out with his daughters or the well-meaning advice from women who think he's just another one of those befuddled but well-meaning dad's society likes to pawn off on us. Think According to Jim.

Today, more than ever, we need more male role models like Joeprah, who take what life gives them with a smile and a hug and doesn't complain that he could be doing more manly things like Nascar racing or fight-clubbing.

Instead, he has the most important job in the world.

TVLAND: Cold Case and Heroes

So, trying to find a picture of Linsey Godfrey dressed up like a boy from her Cold Case episode "Boy Crazy" is more difficult than cracking the identity of a CIA operative. Apparently, pictures of her from last night's episode do not exist. So, pretend this girl really looks like a boy from the 60s:



Even better yet, pretend she has a short wiffle cut but is dressed in a bright pink prom dress and is lying at an unnatural angle, dead and washed up in the reeds of a lake's shore. Then, you'll see her as viewers of Cold Case did last night to bring home the concept that people don't like gender-ambiguous folks.

Like Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry, Samantha Crawford doesn't see herself as a girl. Instead, she views herself as a boy, or at the least, a tomboy who should be allowed to dress and do as she pleases. And, like in the movie version and real-life happenings of the Brandon Teena case, the world around her will not let young Sam be.

This is by far one of the most moving episodes of Cold Case I've ever seen. The show always seems to explore the humanity of the characters involved, especially when they go against society's norms. There have been interracial lovers in the time before the Jim Crow laws were repealed, gay cops presented in the black and white TV format of their era, and a couple of young punks who were accused of murder and convicted after they sought to portray themselves as the despicable monsters everyone said they were. In the end, the murders the Cold Case investigators look into are more complicated than they first seem.

In the case of young Sam, she has to deal with a school system forcing her to conform, two teenage bullies who have it in for her, a love interest who questions his own sexuality over his attraction for her, a father who is confused over what he should do, and a psychiatric facility with a "cure" for her deviant behavior.

They all contributed to her demise, finishing with a tearjerker ending. I have to admit, it got the best of me.

And, as long as I'm on the subject of getting all teary-eyed, Heroes got to me tonight. I think it was the fact Claire watched her father get shot for the second time. I've noticed a trend emerging. Every season, Claire is going to witness violence that tears her life apart.

Now, she has to live with her last real exchange with her father, where she told him she hated him. In the last few minutes of the episode, they played up her guilt.

Tonight's theme was control. Matt's control over Molly and Mrs. Petrelli. Hiro's control over time and his ability to save his father from death. Claire's father's control over her. And, the question of how Elle's father controlled her in the past.

Yes, Elle Bishop is the zappity electricity girl, played by Kristen Bell of Veronica Mars fame. She's sadistic, tarty, and apparently used to be all about rainbows and unicorns before The Company got to her. The electricity baked her brain, according to Claire's father, Noah Bennet.

It's going to be interesting to see if Elle's daddy really allowed her to become one crazy experiment in electricity. It's clear Claire's father loves her enough to die for her, twice over. Does Elle's patronly unit compare, or is going to let her down in the end?

Kevin Walker is a god

So, TBO.com has a new entertainment gimmick: BOT.

Am I mentioning this because I'm technically an intern at The Trib?

No.

Am I mentioning this because I got to see the page in its test phases and thought it was cool?

No.

The only reason I'm mentioning it is because Kevin Walker is the host of the entertainment show. And, the video clip reminds me so much of something off of VH1, I have to watch it. Especially since I don't get VH1 any more.

So, who is Kevin Walker?

Well, once upon a time, I was a little girl who only read the comics and Dave Berry in the paper. Then, one day, I flipped to The Trib's entertainment section and came across "The Rail."

In the column, Kevin wrote about the hippest books, the most indie music, and tons of arcane pop culture knowledge. I read that column every time it came out, two to three times a week. I answered the trivia question he posed ever week. I wrote him letters.

And, when I got into the journalism program at USF, I set out to meet him. Which I did, and I landed a small-time gig writing book reviews for his book page in The Trib.

There, now that I've got that out of my system, check out BOT!

My idols: Anais Nin

To some, Marilyn is akin to a goddess. She had the hair. She had heads of state. She was seductive in that naughty “I’m a little bit bad, and I pretend to be a bit vapid, but really I’m just a whole lot of fun,” kind of way. Even when she was posing for Playboy, there was a glamorous bit of taste thrown in as she posed on top of red velvet.



Others like Audrey, who managed to mix her girl-next-door naivety with an equal dose of grace. Her face was unique but held a demure beauty. Generations of women have held their heads up high to emulate her bearing since Roman Holiday earned her an Academy Award and shot her name out into the public sphere.



For me, Anais Nin is the closest thing I may ever have to a feminine and seductive role model. Instead of using her bad-girl sensuality or good-girl grace to captivate crowds, Anais used words. She also lived an internal life filled with books and letters. Her external life has caused some controversy, because she insisted to live by her own moral code.

While her fiction shows off her intellectual erotic style, the diaries published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich offer a glimpse into her personal life and mind. Much like blogs try to do today, which makes sense. Blogs are diaries of a multi-media sort.

With so many authors of today and throughout history, their inner thoughts are lost unless they happen to be attached to the notes they kept for their books or in the letters they sent. Anais kept a detailed diary from the age of 11 until she died, giving the voyeurs of the literary world insight into her deepest thoughts and longings.

Probably the most well-known of her diaries, the “first” volume (from 1931-1934) chronicled her relationship with Henry and June Miller and was turned into the film Henry and June. It also set the stage for readers to question Anais’s sexuality. In her journals, she writes about her sexual and romantic relationships with women, starting with June, who she is in love with almost to an obsession. At the same time, Anais and Henry spend much of their time trying to solve the mystery that is June, who seems to lie and has made her life into a giant game of pretend.

It’s interesting to note Anais’s first husband was not mentioned in the first volume; it is unclear where he is, what he is doing, why he allows his wife to spend so much time with the Millers, and what he would think of her need to be around June at the expense of everything else in her life.

More than her literary works, Anais’s diary shows her to be a dreamer who escapes reality in her own head. For a few girls growing up today, it is easy to idealize someone over thirty years dead. To pick through her life and find clues on how to live a life more interesting and divine than 2007. However, we have a few advances over the men and women of the 30s, when her edited journals begin (not counting the later volumes of her earlier journals from her childhood on).We’ve made so many strides in social equality, it would be interesting to see if Anais would bother with erotic fiction in today’s society and if she would have stayed with her husband or left with Henry and June.

I think I love Anais the most because of all the questions she answers with her journal, her writing leaves a mysterious air about her persona. Anais Nin: lover, dreamer, vulnerable child, author, mystery.

Sickness, work, and important appointments

I am still on the verge of being sick. I'll be sick for a while (like at four this morning), get worse, then feel okayish (like right now). So, I slept for two or three extra hours today. I also went to work, and I had an important appointment up until about an hour ago, so I haven't had time to post. But, there will be a post tomorrow! Until then, here's a link to my newest published article, which ran in The Tampa Tribune today.

Check it out.

Dangerous Books: The Girl Next Door

It's easy to feel outraged over things that make us uncomfortable. That's why people ban books. Why they protest movies.

With my super-psychic powers, I can see a storm brewing. See, Jack Ketchum wrote a novel a few years back. The Girl Next Door. It's a hard read. The book describes the torture of a teenage girl; I had to put the book down multiple times before I got to the end. And, now it's a movie. It premiered on Oct. 3.

Even the horror reviewers, hard and calloused souls used to reading about all sorts of depravity, are getting the queasy "I can't believe this is happening" feeling I struggled with while reading the novel.

JACK KETCHUM’S THE GIRL NEXT DOOR is the best film I’ve seen that you couldn’t pay me to see again. Well made, flawlessly acted, clearly written. But these are just technicalities critics hide behind because, well, how often does a movie really DEAL with what it’s about? ~Dr. Royce Clemens~

I agree with Clemens when it comes to the book. It was well-written and hit all the nerves it set out to hit. It was also like reading de Sade. Something not to be taken lightly or on an empty stomach.

I can see the feminist groups now, carrying torches and pitchforks on the way to theaters playing the film.

Even the trailer makes me a little twitchy.



Poor Meg, the girl who's tortured, doesn't have a chance. The villain of the story is a housewife who sees in Meg all of her failures. She sets out to "educate" the girl on how to be a woman, which includes having the neighborhood kids tie her up, strip her, cut her with knives, burn her, and mutilate her genitals so she will never know sexual pleasure. Meg never had a chance.

The hero is a 12-year-old boy, the only neighborhood kid who sees how monstrous his buddies and the mother next door have become. Except, in the beginning, he gets caught up in it all, too. He figures out his own moral compass a little too late, and a little late to keep these events from changing him forever.

The thing is, I don't think feminists should protest. They should watch the movie and see what they're up against. Things like this really happen. Ketchum based the novel on a woman who scared him, a woman who really got the kids in her neighborhood to help her torture a young girl living with her.

Think this kind of thing wouldn't happen today? You're wrong. A woman in Naples, Fla. went on trial for piercing her daughter's genitals. Her story: her daughter is rebellious and she wanted to teach the girl a lesson by making sex painful. And, guess who is accused of having sex with the daughter? The woman's boyfriend.

Think the government really cares about us poor little women out there, getting hurt and mutilated? That it will protect us? According to Tracy Clark-Flory (wait for the site pass to process, then click on the Enter Salon link at the top right), the U.S. government doesn't give asylum to women who have suffered genital mutilation, even if they don't want their children to experience the same practice. They will, however, give asylum to women who face forced sterilization, because the loss of the ability to have children is deemed more reprehensible than the loss of a mere limb.

In some ways, it reminds me of the trial of the mother above. See, the jury deliberating over the trial had a hard time punishing the mother. In some ways, they can see where she's coming from, having to deal with a bad, rebellious daughter. And, what harm is it to forcibly pierce your daughter's genitals? It doesn't harm the ability to have kids.

Here's something else that makes me a little queasy: the power of fate. I received my copy of The Girl Next Door on Saturday. I read about the case of the mother while I was reading the book. And, I just found out about the movie coming out yesterday. Unfortunately, the timing was right.

I'm a contributor!

My new posts are up on http://sticksoffire.com. It's a Tampa blog; it's a pretty big deal, because it's been known to scoop the major papers in Tampa on important happenings. I'm covering the art beat.

Hidden hydrogenated oils, p. 1

After I ate my miso soup last night, I decided to check my bouillon label for hidden gluten/ wheat products. I overloaded my diet with carbs during Howl O Scream, thanks to the large portions of foods like lasagna and manicotti (not to mention the hamburgers) that cost next to nothing in the employee cafeteria. I use vegetable bouillon because, for less than $2, I get 25 cups of broth, as opposed to about a dollar per one or two cups for the glam, liquid veggie broths in the store.

I was reading through the surprisingly chemical names for a vegetable broth when I saw it. Partially hydrogenated palm oil. The horror!

Even in my unhealthy days, I did what I could to avoid the stuff. Then, the non-hydrogenated oil renaissance began. Even Doritos now come without the ooky, gooky, bad oils. I thought I was safe.

Now I know better.

You think I would have started scrambling through my cans and boxes, searching out the oiled fiend. But, no, I went about my nightly business until I decided it was time for a cup of hot cocoa. I picked up my super-expensive, gourmet, frou-frou box of Hershey's Cacao Reserve Mayan Blend hot chocolate and read the box once more, looking for the dreaded gluten/ wheat products. You can imagine my horror when I found, once again, the even more-dreaded partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (soybean and coconut oil).



While I knew the fatty, toxic oils still existed, I assumed a faux gourmet product like the hot chocolate and a food marked "vegetarian" would be free of the oils of death. I mean, partially hydrogenated oils are on the road to being banned, right? I mean, it explodes hearts. (Okay, maybe not. It just causes heart blockages and slowly kills the consumer.)

Now, I really do get to go through every single food product I own that didn't come in a produce bag and kvetch to the companies responsible for this. If you have any opinions on the use of hydrogenated oils in foods, please visit the Maggi and Cacao Reserve Web sites.

Domesticity

Okay, I'm not a domestic woman. Especially not when I'm sick, like today. But, it doesn't matter. I live alone; I have to be domestic. Even if I'm sweaty and have a deep cough that makes my lungs hurt.

This rambling can all be traced back to feminism. I'm a feminist because I want to have options. I want to be able to go to school, work at a job I love, and live in my own glorious apartment for as long as it suits me. I want the same thing for men. I want each man alive on the earth to have the option not to marry, to live alone, work at a job he loves, and to follow his education as far as it takes him.

This probably seems like it will go to a long rant about feminism or lack of options in third world countries. However, in my delirious mind right now, it all makes sense, because it's all going back to domesticity. And, my lack of it.

I'm not a good cooker. I'm not a good cleaner. My idea of decorating is to slap as many pieces of art as I can onto the walls and (hopefully) make sure my sheets make their way back onto my bed at some point on laundry day. When it's time to sleep, I either slide all of the day's newspapers, books, and craft projects to the side or onto the trunk serving it's time as an end table next to my bed.

Fortunately, I don't have to be a domestic goddess. I have Teh Interweb. (That's "the internet" in silly internet speak, by the way.)

So, here are my top five sites for women like me, who are young, clueless when it comes to household matters, and want to enjoy a nice, quick bowl of miso soup when they're at home and sickly.

1. Fatfree Vegan Kitchen
Pretty much all of the recipes are quick, and many of them are kid-approved by the blogger's daughter, which means I will eat it even when I'm not in an adventurous mood.

2. Gothic Martha Stewart
Okay, I protest when people call me goth in real life. That doesn't mean I can't appreciate the more sensual, dark things in life.

3. The Crafty Chica
I love crafts. I love sugar skulls (even though I'd probably never eat them). I love color and projects to clutter up my house until I'm drowning in fun.

4. Method
Like many modern women, I have allergies. I also couldn't imagine sticking even gloved hands into a bucket full of bleach or breathing in the mustard gas concoctions my mother used to make to clean the house. Instead, I use Method supplies. They smell yummy, and the gingerbread scented soy candle I bought from Tarjay hasn't died yet, even though I bought it before Halloweenie.

5. Amazon
I need my books, and there's something about getting a package sent just to me that's pretty exciting, especially if it's a book.

Friday's Fabulous Fat Chick: Marjane Satrapi (and sickness)

I know I'm actually sick when I get paranoid about my teeth. No matter how clean my teeth actually are, I decide bad oral hygiene is why my head hurts/ my tummy hurts/ I feel queasy. This is how I've been all day. Super-teeth-brushing/ sickness mode. Then, I went to what may indeed be a friend's going away party and decided my yarn falls were pulling my hair too tight and were causing my headache (which I'd had all day long). But, the show must go on. Without further ado, here she is-

Marjane Satrapi

I first found out about Marjane after reading her comic, Persepolis. Apparently, she's just made a movie based on her comic autobiography; it's showing in France, where Marjane now lives. The movie (and comic book) chronicle her childhood in Iran. Young Marjane doesn't want to wear the veil, listens to rock n roll records at home, and comes from a family where members disappear for standing against the new regime. She is eventually sent to Europe, where her parents believe she will be safer.

Marjane doesn't look fat to me, but in a Telegraph article, Sheila Johnston calls her buxom and mentions that Marjane's comic self is a lot more slender than the older, well-proportioned and healthy looking Marjane. That's good enough for me. If she's called fat in the media, she can be in my blog. Especially when her work takes such a serious and deep look at religion, government, gender roles, and so many other topics I care deeply about.

NaNoWriMo is upon us! And, non-sexy Halloweenies.

I love November. It's when I set out to write an entire novel in a month. I have never won, yet I keep plugging along. I'm very close to finishing the first draft of my first novel; today I plan on writing about 2,000 words. I have no words so far.

I think NaNoWriMo's great, because it offers an open challenge to anyone who wants to join. So, kids in school are writing their novels alongside 80-year-olds, who are talking on the forums to the weird goth kid who lives next door to them. NaNoWriMo takes a very personal act and uses it to bring people together through forums, write-ins, parties, and competition.

In other news, I noticed a lot of posts in the blogosphere and media about sexy costumes. The Tampa Tribune, where I'm interning, posted an article about risque costumes and young girls. College Fashion.net wrote about older girls and "slutty" costumes.

Being the original ghoul I am, I decided to be a little sexy while still letting my creative juices flow. I was a Fight Club Fairy. No fairies were harmed last night. At least not by me.