Congruity

"When you first stop sleeping you can develop all kind of symptoms. Auditory and visual..."

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 19:54:18 +1000

“When you first stop sleeping you can develop all kind of symptoms. Auditory and visual hallucinations and vomiting are some; I got all three. As the temperature hovered above forty-three degrees, this only served to compound my delirium. I didn’t know any more whether I was asleep or awake. I was seized by a choking, irrational fear and intrusive paranoid thoughts. Particularly distressing among these thoughts—which were bullet-proof in their certainty—was that my boyfriend was going to leave me. My boyfriend, who left work to look after me, who went out for bags of ice and jury-rigged an air conditioner from an electric fan, who cooked a light dinner every night in the hope that I would eat something, who plied me with cold packs and combed my hair with his fingers. He was going to leave me because I was an insane person. This logic was sound.”

- Summer and Antipsychotics in the City · Meanjin

(via What Happens To 3 Out Of 4 Girls After Leafing Through A...

Wed, 30 May 2012 11:31:00 +1000

(via What Happens To 3 Out Of 4 Girls After Leafing Through A Fashion Mag For 3 Minutes?)

This is scary! But there is a positive (albeit neoliberal) message. Be the girl you wish more girls could be!

Photo

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:32:38 +1000

Adulting: Step 213: Do not comment on things people are, comment on things they do

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:01:56 +1000

Adulting: Step 213: Do not comment on things people are, comment on things they do:

adulting:

The simplest example of this is not telling a tall person that they’re tall.

So much of our lives are shaped by weird rolls of the genetic dice, or fate, or God, or however you choose to interpret that particular mystery. Whether someone is short or tall or originally from Canada or gay or Asian or born to rich parents or redheaded or whatever — that’s not something they chose or cultivated in themselves, and it’s not something they work for.

What makes someone good and valuable is not these traits. It’s the choices they make and the things they do. I’d always rather someone tell me I’m a good writer than that my red hair is pretty, because one of those things is something I work my ass off at, and another is some protein encoding. Both are sweet things to say; one means a lot more to me.

It’s not that you can’t be proud of/pleased by these intrinsic things, but don’t forget that the things you (and others) deserve credit for are the things you have control over.

Bikinis and Body Image

Sun, 27 May 2012 14:01:00 +1000

It’s Summer in the Northern Hemisphere (or getting there, I don’t know how that hemisphere works), which means talk (or rather, posts) about bikinis.

To be able to wear a bikini in Summer at the pool/beach, regardless of what you look like (fat, thin, whatever) is kind of the height of body-love. If you can enjoy all that salt mixed with water has to offer with only a couple of flimsy pieces of expensive lycra, then you are one Empowered Babe. Or something.

I rather like swimming. I also own a bikini (though I also have Sun Smarts, which means that in the height of the summer sun I would definitely wear something over it, lest I want to get skin cancer in particularly sensitive areas). And a tankini, and a few one-pieces (if you are actually swimming for exercise, a one-piece is by far the most practical option). So, I’m not about to say what I’m about to say as someone who doesn’t like the beach or someone who would never wear a bikini.

A bikini is not empowering. It doesn’t make sense that it would be. It’s not necessarily unempowering, though it might be worth thinking about whose gaze benefits most from a woman wearing one (that’s right, the male gaze!) or whose profit margins benefit most from you buying one (that’s right, swimwear manufacturers who get to charge you the same amount for less fabric!).

All that said, if you want to wear one, there is no reason why you shouldn’t.

I have this crazy idea that maybe talking and worrying about our body image is a distraction. For instance, when I’m busy with life and doing the things I like doing and properly living ‘in the zone’, my mind doesn’t even wander to considerations about how I look. Sure, I look in the mirror in the morning and primp and what have you, but for most of the day I’m completely embedded in thinking about things which are important to me.

That is, when I’m living best, body image is irrelevant.

Is it possible that all these talks and programmes about bettering the body image of young girls is actually working against them? Is it putting to the forefront of their mind a consideration which stops them from getting on with the things that are really important to them? Perhaps the solution to body image problems isn’t so much about trying to overcome your various neuroses, but about finding something else to do.

Girls would probably be more at ease in their bikinis if they thought about the kinds of activities they could do at the beach: how they’ve going to win their next round of beach volleyball, the symbolism in the book they’re reading under their beach umbrella, what kinds of plants or shells they’d like to find, how far out they can swim before they start getting tired. They might even be given the choice to wear whatever beach outfit they’d like to wear, that gives them the most freedom of movement, whatever style or pattern they like the look of best, whatever makes the statement they want to make.

Beyond a world where body confidence registers as the only topic to talk about, there’s lots to do, lots to think about, and so much time and energy for actually having fun.

Just some suggestions.

"Lane’s views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example,..."

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:16:36 +1000

“Lane’s views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have no sense of moral responsibility.”

- Algernon (via earnestquotes)

How to carry out the perfect snub | Jean Hannah Edelstein | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:56:47 +1000

How to carry out the perfect snub | Jean Hannah Edelstein | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

"because you’re playing on the “Straight White Male” setting, gaining points and leveling up will..."

Fri, 18 May 2012 19:44:00 +1000

“because you’re playing on the “Straight White Male” setting, gaining points and leveling up will still by default be easier, all other things being equal, than for another player using a higher difficulty setting. Likewise, it’s certainly possible someone playing at a higher difficulty setting is progressing more quickly than you are, because they had more points initially given to them by the computer and/or their highest stats are wealth, intelligence and constitution and/or simply because they play the game better than you do. It doesn’t change the fact you are still playing on the lowest difficulty setting. You can lose playing on the lowest difficulty setting.”

- Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is – Whatever

explaining privilege through a gaming metaphor.

This photo came on my facebook feed, and I’m not sure who...

Wed, 16 May 2012 21:24:42 +1000

This photo came on my facebook feed, and I’m not sure who I should credit. Please let me know if you know.

Living in the Congo line | Woroni

Wed, 16 May 2012 21:11:25 +1000

Living in the Congo line | Woroni:

This is an article about “Live Below the Line”. It’s mean, but it makes good points. For instance, there is probably limited need to ‘raise awareness’ of extreme poverty, I’m pretty sure everyone realises it exists.

This method of charity campaigning is a form of conspicuous consumption, where the product being sold is an absolution of guilt, peace of mind, and, for those donating their labour, a complex process of positive social signalling.

Charity, rather than being sold as a duty, is cheapened, repackaged, and consumed as a desirable statement of taste and selfhood. At least the trust-funders who spend their gap years digging wells on African dirt farms can say they gave a considerable amount of labour and money to their cause; those Living Below the Line will have a week of saved pocket-money, horrible constipation and enough social capital to bank.

I think that a lot of charity comes from a neo-colonial perspective, and is a form of ‘conspicuous consumption’. This can be bad when resources are wasted or people are marginalised in the process of giving them resources (that said, the resources are more important, not that it’s an either/or kind of thing!).

But you know, if charity is ‘cool’, if it helps people build their CV (although I do think uni students overestimate the value employees place on volunteer work), if it gets people talking and giving money, if it makes positive contributions to infrastructure and livelihoods and policy, well I’m cool with that. Even alongside the smug!

All that I ask is that people do some research first on what they’re putting their money, time, and energy towards and that they try not to be patronising.

Because the people who participate in these sorts of things are generally well-meaning, I further don’t think it’s a good idea to insult them. Besides, I think Live Below the Line is a novel idea which in itself helps combat charity fatigue.

(via Eyewitness: Tokyo | World news | The Guardian)

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:32:44 +1000

(via Eyewitness: Tokyo | World news | The Guardian)

"The last thing writers want to do – and this is a terrible secret – is actually write. That’s the..."

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:04:48 +1000

“The last thing writers want to do – and this is a terrible secret – is actually write. That’s the hard part. Maybe I’m wrong, some writers say they love the process. On days when it’s going well it’s the most sublime experience , but most days it’s really just trying to swim through a creek of shit. That’s very eloquent, isn’t it?”

- Benjamin Law | Everguide

London - Double Landscape (by Ben Heine)

Tue, 15 May 2012 12:29:27 +1000

London - Double Landscape (by Ben Heine)

"Maybe now is the time to tell you that I’ve been having some serious doubts about my place in..."

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:43:10 +1000

“Maybe now is the time to tell you that I’ve been having some serious doubts about my place in Internet Feminism. Not my involvement in Internet; that, no doubt, will go on. Because what else am I going to do with my time? But there are problems, I think, with the terms of the conversation I’ve set up here; there are problems with my own place within that conversation, the person I’ve agreed to be when I talk to you. That outraged, righteous, upright, know-it-all person who has compassion for all the right people and scorn for all the wrong ones, who’s on the right side (your side) of all the issues: I think she’s dangerous, and I think she’s at least partially false. The falseness is the root of the danger; problem with Internet Feminism, or any politics of identity, any system that purports to help you get your life and problems understood better, is when it sets up a too-easy, pre-packaged narrative for your own life. When it gives you the language, the rules for engaging and discussing, but doesn’t help you to look with any greater or more dangerous honesty at what you’re thinking, or how you’re acting, or who you are.”

- Tiger Beatdown › Dirty Girls and Bad Feminists: A Few Thoughts on “I Love Dick”

(via Delicious Design League “Darwin on the Origin of...

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:19:14 +1000

(via Delicious Design League “Darwin on the Origin of Species” on we heart it / visual bookmark #9026720)

Oh KRudd

Mon, 14 May 2012 11:20:44 +1000

Oh KRudd

Photo

Sun, 13 May 2012 20:47:38 +1000

"Imagine an alternative, in which fieldwork is reported as it happens. Site reports can be updated..."

Sun, 13 May 2012 14:00:00 +1000

“Imagine an alternative, in which fieldwork is reported as it happens. Site reports can be updated daily and followed in real time. Each interview as a part of ethnographic fieldwork can be published, each story told on its own before it is assimilated into the larger picture. Conference volumes can be e-books, published before the meeting so that they enhance the value of the face-to-face event. Meetings can be archived, linking presentations, discussions, and text.”

- anthropologies: What’s wrong with anthropology?

This is a really interesting article for all those interested in the social sciences generally (this article covers anthropology, but it is potentially relevant to any research which involves talking to and/or observing people). I don’t agree with all of it though. I think that while anthropology could stand to be more up-to-date and in touch with present culture, even up to the very moment, I think that this article misses the important point that it takes time to be accurate. Especially if you aren’t just reporting facts, but are applying theory and talking about wider implications of the way things are. Initial field observations could be valuable, but the cumulation of impressions, the sense that you know what this culture is like because you spent years there is far more valuable because it’s actually likely to be accurate. This is important when you are talking about peoples lives and where false impressions can go towards hurting and marginalising the people you are studying. With time and carefulness, one can share their work respectfully, without compromising those they observe.

(via Story of my life on we heart it / visual bookmark...

Fri, 11 May 2012 22:28:09 +1000

(via Story of my life on we heart it / visual bookmark #28050247)

Happy weekend, tumblverse!

I'd Rather Dance With You: Please don't go. We'll eat you up. We love you so.

Wed, 09 May 2012 19:11:00 +1000

I'd Rather Dance With You: Please don't go. We'll eat you up. We love you so. :

odiodiodio:

“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”