Totally unrelated ramblings
Mar. 18th, 2006 11:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebratqueenIt's Saturday, I'm at work, abandon all hope ye who would expect segues here.
I want to buy environmentally friendly products. Whenever possible, I do. But God do I wish more of them didn't suck. Because when they do I don't use them, and then I feel horribly guilty and like it's my personal fault that the planet is going to hell in a handbasket when really what needs to happen is for 7th Generation to stop making toilet paper that's made of actual wood chips.
Also organic cereals really need to stop putting all that sugar in. I realize I've ranted about that before but it bears repeating.
***
You know, I've got nothing against Kelly Clarkson. I've got nothing for her either, but nothing against her. That being said, every time I hear that frikkin' "Because of You" song I want to call her up and go look, babe, I'm thrilled you're having your therapy moment but please to not be putting all your strength and pride into the fact that you can proclaim to the world that your father (as far as I know) turned you into a victim. Because... he doesn't care. That's the thing about guys who are assholes: if they gave a shit about your feelings they wouldn't have hurt you in the first place.
So yeah, sucks for you that your Jossesque Daddy Issues have made it so that you can't cross the metaphorical street or whatever, but singing about it with this "So there!" 'tude isn't going to get you anything. Because what it basically says is that he won and you didn't. And all the insistance that he really really really needs to feel bad about that isn't going to get you anywhere, and honestly doesn't say a whole lot about you as a person either. Harsh, but there we are.
What you should be doing is singing "In spite of you I have this awesome career where people fawn all over me, give me lots of money, and now I can go on worldwide radio to proclaim to everyone with ears that you suck, you need to die alone, and there's a high likelihood that your penis can only be found with a microscope, if at all." Then you might have something.
***
I was able to watch the Pilot ep of Big Love the other night. Since then I've been poking around on various message boards for the show. I have to admit it's fascinating to watch people discuss the idea of polygamy and yet not realize the preconceived notions that they're bringing to the table.
For example one person said something like "Clearly all these women have low self-esteem. I can't imagine thinking so little of myself that I would be content with 1/3 of a husband." To which you wanna point out that couldn't the reverse argument be made? Couldn't it be said "I can't imagine having such low self-esteem that I couldn't share my husband's love without feeling jealous and slighted."?
Obviously the whole issue isn't that simple. Of course you get the issue of those who abuse the idea of polygamy with incest, and underage marriage, and yadda yadda. But abuse is abuse. If we're just talking about the idea of consenting adults who want to be married to more than one person and everyone's in the loop and happy about it well, why not? Nobody's saying you have to do it, so why prevent those who want to?
Admittedly the religious aspects (not that Big Love claims to be representing the religious aspects - I'm talking about in general) fascinate me as well. Especially when you come up against the idea of those who think that a religion and its rules oppress people, and those within the religion who are fine with it.
And again no generalization is worth a damn, certainly some religions do cross the line and use God as an excuse to abuse people, and so on and so forth.
But for those who are into it and fine with it it's interesting to see how the restrictions (to us) work as a method of spirituality. Particularly for women. I read a book one time about Orthodox Jewish women (I'd be able to cite the title if I was home right now) and how the rules they were expected to live under come off as treating women as second-class citizens to outsiders, but for the women themselves it was a part of their religion, and they felt the rules honored them and their femininity rather than looking down on it.
Of course then you wonder about issues like cognitive dissonance, but that just feeds into my greater point, which is that I think the whole sociological phenomenon is interesting, and I enjoy reading the different points of view about it.
And yes, I will be getting Under the Banner of Heaven out of the library today.
***
Is it time to go home yet?
I want to buy environmentally friendly products. Whenever possible, I do. But God do I wish more of them didn't suck. Because when they do I don't use them, and then I feel horribly guilty and like it's my personal fault that the planet is going to hell in a handbasket when really what needs to happen is for 7th Generation to stop making toilet paper that's made of actual wood chips.
Also organic cereals really need to stop putting all that sugar in. I realize I've ranted about that before but it bears repeating.
***
You know, I've got nothing against Kelly Clarkson. I've got nothing for her either, but nothing against her. That being said, every time I hear that frikkin' "Because of You" song I want to call her up and go look, babe, I'm thrilled you're having your therapy moment but please to not be putting all your strength and pride into the fact that you can proclaim to the world that your father (as far as I know) turned you into a victim. Because... he doesn't care. That's the thing about guys who are assholes: if they gave a shit about your feelings they wouldn't have hurt you in the first place.
So yeah, sucks for you that your Jossesque Daddy Issues have made it so that you can't cross the metaphorical street or whatever, but singing about it with this "So there!" 'tude isn't going to get you anything. Because what it basically says is that he won and you didn't. And all the insistance that he really really really needs to feel bad about that isn't going to get you anywhere, and honestly doesn't say a whole lot about you as a person either. Harsh, but there we are.
What you should be doing is singing "In spite of you I have this awesome career where people fawn all over me, give me lots of money, and now I can go on worldwide radio to proclaim to everyone with ears that you suck, you need to die alone, and there's a high likelihood that your penis can only be found with a microscope, if at all." Then you might have something.
***
I was able to watch the Pilot ep of Big Love the other night. Since then I've been poking around on various message boards for the show. I have to admit it's fascinating to watch people discuss the idea of polygamy and yet not realize the preconceived notions that they're bringing to the table.
For example one person said something like "Clearly all these women have low self-esteem. I can't imagine thinking so little of myself that I would be content with 1/3 of a husband." To which you wanna point out that couldn't the reverse argument be made? Couldn't it be said "I can't imagine having such low self-esteem that I couldn't share my husband's love without feeling jealous and slighted."?
Obviously the whole issue isn't that simple. Of course you get the issue of those who abuse the idea of polygamy with incest, and underage marriage, and yadda yadda. But abuse is abuse. If we're just talking about the idea of consenting adults who want to be married to more than one person and everyone's in the loop and happy about it well, why not? Nobody's saying you have to do it, so why prevent those who want to?
Admittedly the religious aspects (not that Big Love claims to be representing the religious aspects - I'm talking about in general) fascinate me as well. Especially when you come up against the idea of those who think that a religion and its rules oppress people, and those within the religion who are fine with it.
And again no generalization is worth a damn, certainly some religions do cross the line and use God as an excuse to abuse people, and so on and so forth.
But for those who are into it and fine with it it's interesting to see how the restrictions (to us) work as a method of spirituality. Particularly for women. I read a book one time about Orthodox Jewish women (I'd be able to cite the title if I was home right now) and how the rules they were expected to live under come off as treating women as second-class citizens to outsiders, but for the women themselves it was a part of their religion, and they felt the rules honored them and their femininity rather than looking down on it.
Of course then you wonder about issues like cognitive dissonance, but that just feeds into my greater point, which is that I think the whole sociological phenomenon is interesting, and I enjoy reading the different points of view about it.
And yes, I will be getting Under the Banner of Heaven out of the library today.
***
Is it time to go home yet?
