Sorry for the delay in posting - I have been off the grid on vacation, which while wonderful was a bit exhausting and I'm glad to be back. This is another one of those "something's bugging me" posts, but I promise it will not be nearly as gross as the milk post.
Lately I have seen this ad on TV for some random Pizza Hut special. The premise is that they have some $5 deal all the time, no "blackout" dates, no restrictions. Fine. I have no problem with this. However on closer inspection of the actors hired to play out their 30 second drama I begin to get more and more annoyed each time it airs.
It is set in an office boardroom. The "geek" guy is at the whiteboard showing off his year long calendar that he has created with all the nearby pizza specials and their availability marked off. Those with blacked out boxes (and there are quite a few) indicate a day with no special. Then "hot/young" guy stands up, rips off the painstakingly created cover sheet with the blacked out boxes to reveal a clear calendar and says something about how they could just order the great and wonderful Pizza Hut special and never have to deal with restrictions. Moral of the story? Geek guy gets shut down and hot/young guy saves the day.
As someone who more often than not finds herself in the geek category, and to be honest is pretty damn okay with that, especially when I know how to format my own excel sheets, I'm getting pretty tired of television showing me that I am not in the "winner" category. It's not blatant (usually), and it's not all the time, but it's these little 30 second spots along with all the dishwashing and laundry ads that continually reinforce the male ineptitude for washing anything, that sometimes makes me look long and hard in the mirror at who I am. Nine times out of ten, I'm happy with what looks back, but I worry about the other girls out there who may be looking in their own mirrors late at night and aren't hitting as high a percent of satisfaction.
Showing posts with label women. Show all posts
Showing posts with label women. Show all posts
Monday, July 7, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
A Good Cause
About a month ago, a good friend came to me and declared that she really wanted to do the two day breast cancer walk but was nervous about trying to raise the $2,000 necessary to participate. $2K I said, we can totally raise two thousand, easy. We can build you a webpage and a chip in donation tool with a transferable widget that can virally be passed to all the bloggers we know!!! I declared excitedly (though somewhere around widget I might have totally lost her). But we went through it again and she chimed in that she could make a movie (being as she is the writer/producer/director/creator of the amazing August Birthday video I shared with ya'll last year), and from there the momentum was born.
So now my dear and wonderful internet friends I bring you Lindsay Spectacular's breast cancer awareness walk webpage! Please go check it out, play the video (I haven't seen it yet, it doesn't work on my work computer but I'm sure it's amazing), and most importantly if you can help, please chip in to make this possible. And as an added bonus for all you bloggers out there you can copy the code and share the donation widget with all your readers!
So now my dear and wonderful internet friends I bring you Lindsay Spectacular's breast cancer awareness walk webpage! Please go check it out, play the video (I haven't seen it yet, it doesn't work on my work computer but I'm sure it's amazing), and most importantly if you can help, please chip in to make this possible. And as an added bonus for all you bloggers out there you can copy the code and share the donation widget with all your readers!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Small surprises
As many of you know I have been unhappy with my job for awhile now. The job, plus my unease of staying in Chicago for another year, and my slow hibernation process as winter sets in combined to make me a relatively depressed person as of late. Deep down I knew this, but I was unaware it was showing on the outside as well. This past Friday I was delightfully shown this fact.
I went out to what I thought was a quick Friday after work happy hour with one coworker and ended up at a "Yay Jessica" party. It was fantastic, overwhelming, and amazingly heartwarming. Two other coworkers joined us to make a party of four and they presented me with a card and a surprisingly large gift to my favorite book store. The card, signed by one more coworker that couldn't make it to bring the total to 4 that cared about me, was filled with encouraging and supportive statements (which I had to read at home because as I knew it would it brought me to tears). It was a humbling experience to say the least. I had no idea that this group of women, who for the most part I usually just thought of as coworkers, noticed this much about me, cared this much about me, and went out of their way to make sure I knew it. I learned that night that I am not the only one who feels the slings and arrows of upper management, I am not the only one overwhelmed at times by the odds against me, and I am not the only one struggling these days. The most important thing I learned is that I am not alone. There is no way to properly thank them, to express truly and fully how amazing and perfectly timed that night out was, though I will do my best to try. It's amazing what 2 hours out with a group of friends can do to revitalize ones spirit. I am truly thankful for them.
I went out to what I thought was a quick Friday after work happy hour with one coworker and ended up at a "Yay Jessica" party. It was fantastic, overwhelming, and amazingly heartwarming. Two other coworkers joined us to make a party of four and they presented me with a card and a surprisingly large gift to my favorite book store. The card, signed by one more coworker that couldn't make it to bring the total to 4 that cared about me, was filled with encouraging and supportive statements (which I had to read at home because as I knew it would it brought me to tears). It was a humbling experience to say the least. I had no idea that this group of women, who for the most part I usually just thought of as coworkers, noticed this much about me, cared this much about me, and went out of their way to make sure I knew it. I learned that night that I am not the only one who feels the slings and arrows of upper management, I am not the only one overwhelmed at times by the odds against me, and I am not the only one struggling these days. The most important thing I learned is that I am not alone. There is no way to properly thank them, to express truly and fully how amazing and perfectly timed that night out was, though I will do my best to try. It's amazing what 2 hours out with a group of friends can do to revitalize ones spirit. I am truly thankful for them.
Friday, October 5, 2007
If we continue to cut, we will eventually disappear
If you know me you know that I don't want kids. But you also know that I have the utmost respect for women that do. It's a hard and often thankless job. You bust your ass to create, breathe life into, and then raise the next generation and our society does very little to celebrate you, help you, or honor you. One day a year and 12 weeks maternity leave dedicated to mothers is not nearly enough to show the women out there who bear children that we love, respect, and are dedicated to them.
Child bearing is just about as natural a part of life as you can get. Women have been going through it for centuries of centuries, in what we would now consider unsafe and unhygienic situations. But you know what - they did it anyway, and some of those babies must of made it, because we are all here today as proof of their successes.
My body as a woman has the parts within to create and sustain life. From the age of 11 to whenever I cycle through menopause, as far as I know I will be able to bring about a child (given the necessary male contribution of course). My body will change, adapt, grow, shrink, swell and manipulate itself all to house a new life. And while I hope never to actually experience it, I think it's pretty damn amazing.
So it is with great sorrow and sadness for our culture that I read this article in the New York Times yesterday. We have created an economically profitable position in our society that revolves around making sure women are "feeling self-conscious or resentful about their appearance" post pregnancy. High end parenting magazines are running articles that describe "postpregnancy breasts as “the ultimate indignity”" All in an effort to promote the "Mommy Makeover". The cosmetic surgery industry is surging in post delivery liposuction, breast augmentations, and tummy tucks. Congratulations America, we have successfully disgraced and shunned the post pregnancy body. The same body that without its scientific, life giving processes we would not be here today.
This phenomena upsets me greatly. There is no stone unturned when it comes to attacking the female form. So far we have convinced ourselves that we are too fat, our breasts are never large enough, the laugh lines around our eyes and mouths indicating a lively life are now banished from sight. Mothers are paying for their teenagers nips and tucks. There is no stage, not maiden, mother or crone, that is safe from the prying eyes and scalpels of American ideas of beauty and happiness. And now, one of the oldest rituals and experiences of the female form - childbirth - has fallen under the knife. How do we survive in a world like this?
Child bearing is just about as natural a part of life as you can get. Women have been going through it for centuries of centuries, in what we would now consider unsafe and unhygienic situations. But you know what - they did it anyway, and some of those babies must of made it, because we are all here today as proof of their successes.
My body as a woman has the parts within to create and sustain life. From the age of 11 to whenever I cycle through menopause, as far as I know I will be able to bring about a child (given the necessary male contribution of course). My body will change, adapt, grow, shrink, swell and manipulate itself all to house a new life. And while I hope never to actually experience it, I think it's pretty damn amazing.
So it is with great sorrow and sadness for our culture that I read this article in the New York Times yesterday. We have created an economically profitable position in our society that revolves around making sure women are "feeling self-conscious or resentful about their appearance" post pregnancy. High end parenting magazines are running articles that describe "postpregnancy breasts as “the ultimate indignity”" All in an effort to promote the "Mommy Makeover". The cosmetic surgery industry is surging in post delivery liposuction, breast augmentations, and tummy tucks. Congratulations America, we have successfully disgraced and shunned the post pregnancy body. The same body that without its scientific, life giving processes we would not be here today.
This phenomena upsets me greatly. There is no stone unturned when it comes to attacking the female form. So far we have convinced ourselves that we are too fat, our breasts are never large enough, the laugh lines around our eyes and mouths indicating a lively life are now banished from sight. Mothers are paying for their teenagers nips and tucks. There is no stage, not maiden, mother or crone, that is safe from the prying eyes and scalpels of American ideas of beauty and happiness. And now, one of the oldest rituals and experiences of the female form - childbirth - has fallen under the knife. How do we survive in a world like this?
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