Fate is Chance. Destiny is Choice.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

I've been Tagged...

I've been tagged by Amy..so here's more time wasting fun:

A - Available or Single? I've been unavailable for 6 years (yes, since I was 16), so neither!!
B - Best Friend. Lucy in the sky with diamonds ;)
C - Cake or Pie. Pie I would have to say..especially the pies you find at Borough Market in London (foodie paradise..)! I find cake a bit to dry for my liking.
D - Drink of Choice. Chai Tea Latte..perfect combination of tea and milk and perhaps coffee (and spices)!
E - Essential Item. My bottomless bag (that carries within it any number of items, including my sony walkman mp3, mobile, various items of vanity, a book, etc etc)
F - Favorite Color. PURPLE!!! All shades of purple. In fact, my bedroom wall is purple!
G - Gummi Bears or Worms. Bears. Gives me a sort of twisted satisfaction (and guilt) to bite their heads off :-D
H - Hometown. Barnet. Not much happens here.
I - Indulgence. Wahh...lots of things. Mostly of the shopping kind - DVDs, CDs, books, shoes etc. Also...chocolate, yum. Can't beat sitting back with a large bar of Green and Blacks Hazelnut and Raisin milk chocolate :-)
J - January or February. February. I find January very depressing - after all the festivities of the holiday season. Also all that new years resolution stuff, that just makes people feel insecure - blah.
K - Kids. Well, depends what they're like. Don't really like them if they're all annoying and noisy (which is most of the time). I like the ones that are curious and eager to find things out and learn about the world around them.
L - Life is incomplete without… Chocolate, my lovely manfriend, friends, my sis and parents, books, music and quirky films (howls moving castle, volver, pans labyrinth etc).
M - Marriage Date. I'm too young to think about marriage dates!! I prefer to think about moving in first (which has yet to happen cos of money and both of us going back to Uni this year)!
N - Number of Siblings? One wild crazy indie younger sister (she's not that wild but close enough).
O - Oranges or Apples? Oranges...especially Satsumas and Clementines.
P - Phobias/Fears. Quite a few things but I think some of my worst are losing someone close to me or being in the midst of a war (which due to globalization is happening already).
Q - Favorite Quote. "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering." Yoda, StarWars. Hehe, only joking (although I think they are wise words!). I've got a few but one of my favourites is 'Life is much too important to be taken seriously' - Oscar Wilde.
R - Reasons to smile. Being able to learn, Love, Feminism and Sisterhood, Being able to escape through reading and music and the arts, sign-language, many many things.
S - Season. Spring - it feels like a time for renewal and fresh starts. I feel at my most creative and inspired during the Spring months.
T - Tag Three. Witchy Woo, Michelle (Lonergrrl), Laurelin. (anyone else who wants to take the Meme!)
U - Unknown Fact About Me. I'm incredibly shy and get very nervous before meeting new people.
V – Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals. Oppressor of Animals...erk. I suppose I like my meat. I do feel guilty quite a bit sometimes, especially as I did a course in 'Humans and Other Animals' at Uni and have studied the way humans treat animals. They share this planet with us and we treat them like subordinates :-(
W - Worst Habit. I've got a lot of bad habits - among them is a tendency to be lazy, sleep in, take ages getting ready (I like to take my time), not bother to tidy up when I would rather be doing other things, waste time just mooching around.
X – X-rays or Ultrasounds. X-rays. Ultrasounds are horrible - I've had to do a few because of my PCOS. Don't like the jelly and the prodding and poking.
Y - Your Favorite Foods. Chocolate (yum), Chinese, Indian, Spaghetti carbonara, dried mango, cherries, satsumas, pizza express pizza, raspberry and mandarin sorbet (have gone off ice-cream a bit lately). I love my foooood!
Z - Zodiac. Sagittarius (the adventurer of the zodiac).

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Sunday, April 22, 2007

Whiling Time Away...

Just back from being away in Paris (aka Disneyland Paris, lol) with my partner. I'll probably post sometime in the next few days about stuff I've been thinking about..so until then, some time wasting fun (via WitchyWoo):


You Are a Ring Finger

You are romantic, expressive, and hopeful. You see the best in everything.
You are very artistic, and you see the world as your canvas. You are also drawn to the written word.
Inventive and unique, you are often away in your own inner world.

You get along well with: The Pinky

Stay away from: The Index Finger

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Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Gigi Lady

**The Look Of Love**

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Language that p**ses me off!

I've been thinking about language and the subtle messages that it sends out to people.

For example, the use of 'girl' instead of 'woman'; the use of 'bitch' and 'ho'; the fact that swear words aimed at women always seem to degrade them to their sex or to animals, therefore less than human; and also the ways in which these words are used.

Part of the problem with the usage of 'girl' instead of 'woman' is that young men are called exactly that: young MEN. Instead of 'boys', males past a certain age are definitely called 'young men'. I rarely pick up hearing (well, lipreading) the word 'young woman' when a woman reaches 18 and onwards - even into their 20's some young women are called 'girls'. I think this comes from infantilizing and viewing women as non-threatening, a way of "putting them in their place". It slips out of everyone's mouth, often without them thinking about it. Does language subconciously mean anything or is it just subtle unthinking use that filters in from the media or whatever?

I've found a lot of people, often young women, using the word 'bitch' a lot. I stopped using this word a while ago realising that it degrades women to less than men. I've got nothing against animals (I love them of course!) but degrading women to 'bitch' is like saying "she's inferior, she's animalistic, she's beneath us". Basically, people use the word in terms of a woman being loud or 'bitchy' and so on. But I've noticed young women using the word referring, for example, to their girlfriends as 'my bitch' and so on. I assume this usage comes from rap/hip hop/rnb (its all rubbbish, misogynistic crap) - which is alarming, and also where the words 'pimp' and 'ho' are coming from.

I also notice that whenever a man/boy is saying someone is 'weak' they call them a 'girl'. I get SO pissed off with the use of 'girl' as implying weak, incapable, etc etc. It just reinforces the whole stereotypical idea that women are weak.

And women are also cut down to their body parts when swearing about them (for example, c**t, fanny, etc). This pulls women right down to their body parts and nothing but. I, however, object to the idea that women's body parts should be obscene in the first place - the word 'c**t' is just another word for 'vagina' and what is so obscene about a woman's nether regions (especially in its natural, hairy state)?

The media acts as though the word c**t is the most obscene word in the world, which implies that they view the female body as obscene (incidentally, I think this is what keeps porn going - the fact that there is that polarity between obscenity and purity - the 'guilt/rush' that goes with porn as viewing something "obscene" may keep men coming back).

These are just starting thoughts and I will probably come back to this subject when I've thought about it more clearly.

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