I don't think there's anything I can say about the Prop 8 ruling that has already been said, but...

I have mixed feelings.

On one hand, I'm ecstatic that Prop 8 was overturned, but on the other hand I'm practically seeing red (with steam coming out of my ears, the whole shebang) about the responses I'm reading in the articles and in the newspapers.

I am hearing a lot of people whining about how the judge "overturned the will of the people" and "what's the point of voting anymore????" And it reeeeally makes me wonder if anyone bothers to read anything anymore. The fact is, I can't even begin to fathom the amount of hypocrisy I'm seeing. All these conservative and religious fanatics are complaining NOW, when this judicial system has been around for ages! They seemed to love it when it was working in their favor, but now they bitch and moan that it's unfair, blah blah blah. They all sound like a bunch of spoiled kids, you know the kind of sore loser who tries to call in a technicality after the game is over and won't let it go!

I feel like they all need to be sent back to 5th grade to do a little reading up on their American history. There is a reason that there are three branches of government and not one. The whole point of this system is to protect the minority groups from the majority - because the whole voting system is inherently flawed. How could minorities ever get any kind of rights in a voting system that favors the majority vote? Also, how could the minorities ever stand a chance when the majority are all spiteful, intolerant morons who are desperately clinging to "the way it used to be"? If the "will of the people" and the "voice of the majority" were really what had the final say in this country, black people would still be slaves, interracial marriage would still be illegal and women would still not be able to vote. There's this thing that they don't seem to understand called social reform and evolution. Societies and cultures never stay the same, we're always supposed to be moving forward and evolving to adapt to new times and new situations. This kind of thinking, this "conservative" thinking is what is going to make American culture stagnant and obsolete (not to mention making us the laughingstock of the world as even Mexico City allows gay marriage).

It's that simple. Just because a "majority" of people vote for something, that doesn't make it right - there's a reason that there are multiple political parties and not one, multiple religious views and not one, multiple types of people and not just one standard. We all balance each other out - and the Prop 8 supporters can't see that, they're just just wallowing in their sore-loser-dom and being unreasonably stubborn.

My dad and I were talking the other day, and he said something that really stuck with me - all of the Civil rights law advancements in our history all just been fighting and dislodging discriminatory laws that were already in place. We spend all this time protecting ourselves from our government, when it's supposed to be there to protect us. And now that the government is taking a step in the right direction to offer the protection it was supposed to give in the first place, all the narrow-minded people are trying to fight it back to the way it was. I didn't see them kicking up this much of a fuss when it was the NRA listening in to our phone calls, or any of the decisions Bush made about Iraq, but now that gays are allowed to marry they're acting like the sun is going to go out or the oceans are going to dry up or something. There are so many other things to focus on that are so much more important.

The whole issue just saddens me and leaves a terrible taste in my mouth. It saddens me that there are those people who are so narrow minded that they can't even see the whole picture - they just latch on to this idea and blindly hold onto it like a rabid animal, foaming at the mouth. It sickens me to see that people can't even begin to see or understand both sides of the issue - they truly think that their way is the only way and that anyone who thinks anything else is WRONG and SICK. I always try to hold some faith in humanity, but seeing these responses makes me lose my faith a little more every day. It sickens me even more to see that people don't even read the facts, they just make assumptions and make up hare-brained ideas and stick to them blindly. Like, for instance, the idiotic notion that this judge was a "radical homosexual" judge, or an "activist" judge?!? What kind of awesome denial must be going on in their heads that they don't even see that he was appointed by G.W. Bush! He is the REPUBLICAN placement! It's like they just skim over those words and go right to the accusations. Even the fact that they use "liberal" or "lib" is like a curse word is one of the saddest things of all. Although I guess that would be hypocritical, too, as me and friends have often ripped on republicans... hmm. I suppose the other worst part is that you can't argue with them. You can just never, ever win those arguments. Their main tactic is to take your words and twist them so they can use them against you and make you look/feel stupid to others, and in their mind they are right no matter what so you can just never win. It's infuriating.

ugh. there's so much more that could be said, but this is long enough. It's a happy day, but I still somehow can't seem to bring myself to be happy, because so many people are outraged for no (rational) reason and trying to bring us down. And I know that's exactly what they want.

Sigh.

....sigh. It would be redundant to type what I'm thinking, as I'm sure you already know. 

I have one word: 

UGHHH!!

Sigh.

This thought was just floating around in my mind lately... I know this isn't a new thing at all but it's pretty depressing how I keep seeing celebrities that used to be kind of cute/quirky/outlandish/weird/etc but now society and the media and even us as viewers or listeners or what-have-you have pretty much pushed, prodded and pressured them to shape and mold themselves until they've ironed out every little kink and are just picture-perfect. Then, all the magazines and celebrity news barf shows try to sell them as the "Hollywood success story - how I got thin/pretty/fashionable/normal!!!"

like Kelly Osbourne, for example... she always kinda showing up to things and walking around wearing kind of bizarre clothes, weird hair, total drug addict, yeah, she was kind of chubby or whatever, but she didn't really seem to give a shit about any of it.

And then, I was dicking around on this fashion blog the other day and I came across.......this:

ka-whaaa? Who is that and what have you done with Kelly Osbourne??

It's really sad - especially in this article, where she says "I took more hell for being fat than I did for being an absolute raging drug addict. I will never understand that." Cool, America... good to know where our real priorities are. Now, Kelly Osbourne is pretty obnoxious and has never been someone that I would say is important or should be a role model for anyone.... but still, she's a human being. And no one should have people leaning out of their car windows and screaming "you're fat!" at them.

I guess on that note... same goes for Susan Boyle...

Everyone was basically like "lolomgwtf wow you can't be famous looking like a hag like that so we're going to make you over and put you in some expensive designer clothes, cut your hair and make you look more hip and mysteeeeerious!"

like so:

and don't even get me started on how everyone was like "lolomgwtf she's ugly so she must be bad at singing!!!!!!!" and then were just soo shocked when she gasp! had talent and was a great singer.

UGH.

Sigh.

rarg

here is a list of things that I HATE WITH A FIERY PASSION OF A THOUSAND SUNS that have been happening a lot lately:

1. Getting shocked. Apparently, full carpeting + winter = getting shocked on EVERYTHING. I hate it!!! Sometimes elle will lean over to give me an eskimo kiss and our noses will shock each other! grr!

2. Sirens. Shitloads of snow + idiot impatient drivers = muchos sirens. I also found out why our corner is so firetruck and ambulance active: a.) we live right across the street from a retirement apartment complex. b.) There is a firehouse on our street that I did not know about. Whoopee, who knew.

3. Our doorbell. I hate that thing with a fiery flaming passion - maybe even more than the previous two things. It is so fucking loud and shrill that it makes me (and all my roommates) jump a thousand feet and shriek almost every time it rings. And people have still not grasped this fact that is is the demon seed doorbell from hell and liberally apply the doorbell-pressing. And it makes me want to slam the door in the face of whoever it is waiting out front.

Yeeeeeeeesh.

You know what else I hate? Being up doing master copy drawings at 4am. But I have no one to blame for that but myself. Bummer.

I hate poetry.

I hate cold sores.

I hate yappy dogs.

I hate the word vagina.

I hate the Sargent portrait staring at me from across the room going "noooo... how could you butcher me like thissssss wahh"

but I love Sargent. A lotttttt. Especially his charcoal portraits.

Sigh.

Natural selection, hard at work. Oy Vey.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/evacuation-holdouts-again-urged-to-leave-before-mudslides-hit-.html

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/station-fire-evacuate-gold-canyon.html

Why do Californians (and rich people) always think that they can somehow miraculously "save" their house from natural disasters? Is hosing down your house really going to stop a fire with 40-foot flames? Is a wall of sandbags really going to stop a river of mud sliding towards your house at speeds of up to 35 mph? All these people ever end up doing is wasting the money that the state has to spend sending firefighters and rescue crews to try and rescue them, while they could be spending their time doing other more worthwhile things like, oh, fighting fires. Plus, why should your house be more valuable to you than your life and the life of your family? If you don't feel like dealing with evacuations and natural disasters, maybe you shouldn't have gotten a fancy-schmancy expensive house in the mountains in the first place.

Shame on the parents with children (especially young children) who made that poor judgment call.

Plus Plus Plus...

I have something I have to get off my chest. (ha-ha)

I really can't decide if I like or resent this sort-of trend of 'Plus-size" models in magazines right now. On one hand, I am enjoying that they are showing more realistic-looking women, but labeling them "plus-sizes" when they are size 12s (and the average size of an American woman is 14) is pretty depressing. Also, the fact that magazines are all patting themselves on the back and pretty much saying "look! we have token fat girls! We're inclusive!!! Buy our magazine!!!" and the fact that they usually oversexualize the 'plus-size' models, putting them in lingerie and see-through things and having them pose naked also bothers me. The focus is so much on the actual body, all the "fat rolls" and other such "anomalies" that they seem to have forgotten that they're actually modeling clothes or other products. They even sometimes pose the models and direct the lighting so that it emphasizes their curves even more, trying to prove their self-promoting point. Crystal Renn puts it plainly:

""When designers and editors choose one fat girl to salivate over, and revel in her avoirdupois, I'm not sure how much it advances the cause of using girls of all sizes in a magazine,"

I think there's something really poignant in the fact that when Glamour posted the picture of the model sans-photoshop, with a little bit of (gasp!) belly-pooch and (gasp!!!!!!) meat on her thighs, the letters from women were overwhelmingly happy that finally someone showed a picture that was a realistic depiction of what a woman actually looks like.

My psychic powers are telling me that any negative notes sent in were all probably from (you guessed it) men. They complain that things like this are "glorifying obesity" and "not warning people of the health dangers of obesity" and other such bla-dee-bla-bla. Hysteria about obesity as if we're talking about Rosalie-fuckin'-Bradford here. Finding newer, not so sneakier ways to needle women about their weight guilt-free. You know, that's really rich, considering that the current fashion situation is glorifying dangerously skinny models that whittle themselves down until they collapse and die on the freakin' runway. So, they can take that and shove it up their asses, basically.

I try to think all this 'plus size' model stuff out, weight the positives against the negatives, but the one thing that my mind keeps going to is: 12 is plus size??!! are you serious?!? My pant size is 12+ and I do NOT, under any circumstances, consider myself plus-size, nor will I let a magazine and a ridiculous fashion industry tell me so. I want to be glad that there's media attention about normal-sized girls, but my mind keeps telling me that I'm slightly offended.

It's hard to put a finger on what I find offensive about all this hullabaloo.... The only way to describe it is: It's like, even though the magazines are being all "inclusive" or "diverse" or whatever they want to call it, it still feels like one giant backhanded compliment. Like, "we love you even though you're fat." As if after every punchy, glittery headline stating "plus size," or "diverse body types" or any other name for it, there's a little needling fashionista voice afterwards going "fat!" "fat!" "fat!" We love plus size ("fat!") models! This model is beautiful ("even though she's fat fat fat!") You get what I mean. Ugh. I think, seeing as the average american lady is a size 14, we shouldn't have to endure the indignity of being called a "diverse body type." Diverse? I'd say a size 00, 0 or 1 pant size is pretty freakin' diverse. How many people have you personally met who are a size 00? Right.

Well... on that note, if you couldn't tell, I am currently obsessed with: Crystal Renn

Here's a photoshoot with a skinny twit "straight-size model"

notice how Crystal Renn looks 100% hotter than the skinny girl in every single one. Hehe.

Also: I am in love with this Swimsuit Photoshoot.

Although I am aware that this looks like a pretty much direct rip-off of Rineke Dijkstra's Beach series:

No matter.

Uh oh, I'm being all FEMINIST again.. oops (that one's for you elle, heehee)

Then again, maybe I should stop tooling around on Jezebel and get to work.

Today in Homosexuality and Civilization we learned that in England, you could get sentenced to life in jail for sodomy until 1965. And in America, there were still sodomy laws and people getting arrested for sodomy until 2003. They didn't get rid of them until two-thousand-and-three. That greatly disturbs me. Really greatly.

also: nothing makes me more angry than uneducated arguments. People who are angry and arguing just to be arguing. Or people who are so blindsided by one argument that they won't listen to the other side. There's always more than one side to something. Idealists. pure politics or ideals without being realistic or rational. like anarchists. people who are into something because it is convenient for them. Identity tourists.

honk hooooonkkkkkkkkk

I find it so interesting that we have these triggers that fill us with completely unreasonable incandescent rage. Did something happen when we were children to make us feel this way, or is it part of our personality, who knows.

Mine is when people honk their horns in their cars. Now, I'm a pretty non-confrontational person when something is annoying me. But, the other day, right outside my window, this guy started leaning on his horn. Like, really leaning on it nonstop for about 2 minutes. Which doesn't sound like a lot but when it's a REALLY LOUD HORN it's forever. I got so angry that I threw open my window and yelled SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU THINK PEOPLE DON'T LIVE HERE!??!?!?

I don't think he heard me but I was really unreasonably angry about it. I fumed about it to Allison for like 10 minutes after, like "motherfuckers don't think people live here and can't hear it, bla bla bla so rude and pointlessly obnoxious," etc etc, and it still makes me angry even thinking about it now.

We live on the corner of a very busy intersection, and I just can't seem to get over the amount of loud cars that pass by our windows. I'm guilty of this too, I guess, but people stop outside the intersection and we can hear the loud rap music in our apartment with the windows closed. The sirens probably bother me the most. A loud siren comes roaring down McMechen or Mount Royal pretty much every few hours every day, and it always unsettles me for a good while every time. Firetrucks and ambulances have the absolute loudest and most obnoxious horns in existence, and apparently people in Baltimore have forgotten the protocol for pulling over for firetrucks and ambulances, so they just leeeeean on their horns. So, in addition to the sound of sirens raping my eardrums, there's the added HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKK of the firetrucks. So, lovely.

Did I mention that I really, really, really, really hate car horns? Especially when people do it just to be obnoxious, and it's not just a perfunctory "hey, buddy, you're about to crash into me" kind of thing. That's one of the things that bothers me about east coast cities. People don't know how to drive.