Born in New Jersey in 1981 and raised in the usual suburban surroundings, Youngs first picked up the guitar at the age of 14 and attended the music program at the State University of New York at Purchase at a time when that previously obscure art school was single-handedly populating what would become the entire New York “anti-folk” scene: besides Youngs and Spektor, Jeffrey Lewis, Langhorne Slim, and the Moldy Peaches’ Adam Green and Kimya Dawson were all SUNY-Purchase graduates.
Maintaining a friendship with Spektor, who chose Youngs as her opening act on the tours following her breakthrough album, Soviet Kitsch, Youngs wrote and recorded her debut album, 2005′s self-released Batten the Hatches. Although the album garnered generally positive reviews, it attracted little notice until one of its highlights, …
I do not read Glamour magazine. My sister’s friend, however, does. So when flipping through the September issue with them, I was happy to see this:
A non-airbrushed photo of model Lizzie Miller.
Miller is a 20 year old model, and technically at a size 12-14, she is not plus sized. But in the world of modeling, she is definitely not the norm.
Glamour recieved an outcry of support for the normal sized model, and emails thanked the magazine for putting a woman with everyday, normal curves and rolls in the magazine.
And Lizzi is grateful, too. She says:
“When I read them I got teary-eyed!” she says. “I’ve been that girl, flipping through magazines trying to find just one person who looked a little bit like me. And when I …
When I was in third or fourth grade, my Dad brought home an Archie comic, with some kind of sentiment like, “These used to be around when I was little!” I vividly remember being confused by phrases such as “yuk yuk” and the concept of Veronica and Betty fighting over someone as seriously lame as Archie. I mean, really? Girls fighting over a guy is ridiculous, but Archie isn’t even a stud muffin.
Eventually, I stopped reading them, because in reality Little Women pretty much kicks a comic book’s ass. But, Tuesday’s episode of The Colbert Report, and The Word – Arch Enemies – focusing on the fact that Archie recently proposed to Veronica (who knew they were still making new Archie comics?) — got me thinking about …
Just in case you haven’t seen this chart yet (via Jezebel and Feministing) it depicts the percentage of women who believe that their partner would be justified in hitting or beating them.
I know that the argument of “men are abused, too” always comes up when I bring up domestic violence. And it’s true, men are abused as well, and it’s a very serious problem.
But here’s the difference: what would this chart look like if men were asked the same question? How many men would think having their wife beat them would be okay?
Of course I can’t know the answer to that, and I could be proven wrong. Maybe men also think that it’s okay for women to abuse them, that they …
Apparently, there’s a whole range of animated sketches about Jordanians (and Arabs in general) up on Youtube. Now, I’m not saying they’re not humorous at all—a lot of people think they’re absolutely hilarious, and I have cracked a smile or two at some parts. But what’s unsettling is why they’re funny. It’s because a lot of the videos accurately depict the attitudes and situations going on around here, and ring true to the viewer. But that’s the thing. I think that because these attitudes actually do exist, we shouldn’t be laughing.
Exhibit A:
This video starts with a young man phoning home from the US. He tells his mother (in a very exaggerated injection of the American accent into the Arabic language) that he will soon be returning to his hometown, and that he wants to find “the other half” of his religion. Hence, being sick of the so-called promiscuity he’s noticing in Western girls, he wants his mother to find a bride for him: a religious girl who speaks to no other males besides her siblings, and one who will not leave the house without wearing clothing that will show nothing but her eyes.
For one, I really like basking in human stupidity in order to feel better about myself, and youtube is a particularly excellent way to do this.
But also, YouTube has launched careers. It has connected people to their favorite celebrities, proving that they are not in fact robots (for the most part). And, though this is the least utilized aspect of YouTube, it’s a way for aspiring artists to showcase their work, or to just have fun.
Show Me The Money
Let’s consider Fred. Lucas Cruikshank, who created the character of Fred Figglehorn, is going to be a sophomore this year. He also has a freakin empire because of this channel – a series of videos based on a 6-year-old with anger …
A translated part from an article appeared on the Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera” of 14/08/09.
Job & Career – Public employment: more women, few leaders “In Italy The percentage of women mayors is increasing, even if just a little. In the last elections there were some new women as candidates. But we can’t still be happy. In the municipal administrations, even in the most important institutions, in the ministries and public offices, the number of women who work is equal and also higher than the men’s one. But leader positions are left on a male planet, which is most of times also sexist. And in a country which has expressed also important female personalities among the international scientific research, for example Rita Levi Montalcini and Margherita Hack, the most shocking case …
“And you know what they say–it’s in your DNA!” -Avenue Q, “If You Were Gay”
I stumbled upon this rather classic questionnaire here:
I decided to fill it out both to
A) Have some fun looking at heterosexuality from a more, well, non heteronormative standpoint
B) Make a more serious point about some of the mistaken beliefs people hold about being LGBTQ/etc. and show the utter absurdity of asking some of these questions for anything more than philosophical reasons.
Enjoy.
1. What do you think caused your heterosexuality?
Well, I don’t completely know. I guess you could say it was some kind of genetic thing, or the amount of hormones I was exposed to in my mom’s womb. Maybe God just made me this way.
