Overheard from Yenn while standing outside the Fox shop at Plaza Sing:

"Hey, let's go F men and F women."

'Nuff said. :p U go see Yenn's blog for a more detailed account of our shopping trip.

---

Exploitation? Discrimination?

I had an interesting chat with Turtle last night on MSN. He started out by asking me:

Turtle: Do you think women these days are insecure?

Huh? What brought this on? Then he went on to complain about what he perceived as 'male bashing' in the media.

Turtle: Look at all the shows on local TV. Like Eye for a Guy. All male bashing. The producers and Denise Keller are just out to make guys look stupid.

Well, that's just one instance of male exploitation, which is a fairly recently social phenomenon. Female discrimination tends to be more subtle, and has been around for centuries already.

Turtle: Is it? Name an example on local tv.

Gee, how about just about any show that features Fiona Xie? (^^!)

OK, that's beside the point anyway. Turtle and I went on for quite a long time into the night ["Male chauvinist pig!" "Feminist!"] er, discussing this topic a la JC GP debates.

What I eventually felt was that exploitation and sexual discrimination tends to happen to BOTH sexes, not just particularly males or females, unlike Turtle's view that males were getting it worst these days, and the females were getting on top.

Everytime you watch some guy on TV getting beaten up by his pissed-off wife, or you see some advert where the male is forced to carry the numerous shopping bags of his woman, you see an example of male exploitation. The men don't get it, basically. (^^!) And a lot of advertising and marketing is geared towards making women feel superior, and more powerful than men. [which prompted him to wonder whether this was really an indication of women's insecurity. I replied it's more likely an indication of women's increased willingness to shop.]

But female exploitation is still around, albeit in more subtle forms. More advertisements feature women than men. More advertisements feature various *cough* body parts of the woman, rather than for men. (^^!) Think of the no. of ads you've seen involving naked/partially nude women. And think of the no of ads you've seen involving a male model at the same level of nudity. Get my point? (^^!)

Even more subtle is the discrimination at work, which most of us might not have really experienced yet. There is still a tendency to hire men for most top level positions. [though how much of this is due to discrimination, and how much is because men really are better leaders, I don't know. The jury's still out on this one.] There is a glass ceiling for most women at work. And if you're pregnant, or if you're a mother? Forget about it.

Even the social expectations of women are different. Women must be caring mothers, good housekeepers, and strong career women. Men...... must have good careers and bring home the bacon. (^^!) No one really expects a man to take paternity leave to take care of the baby after it's delivered.

So I think Turtle's logic is flawed in a way. Sure there is male bashing in the media. But in a way, it's just a distraction to take women's attention away from the bashing that's happening to them.

blogshares

Wonder anyone has ever played this Blogshares game? According to their website,

"BlogShares is a fantasy stock market where weblogs are the companies. Players invest fictional dollars on shares in blogs. Blogs are valued by their incoming links and add value to other blogs by linking to them. Prices can go up or down based on trading and the underlying value of the blog. "

So essentially it's like a stock exchange game, where instead of stocks and commodities and [serious] financial instruments, you trade on blogs instead.

I found out about my blogshares valuation a while back, but I never really explored the website much. This time round, I went back and decided to check out a few well-known Singaporean blogs, and compare their share prices to my *cough cough* measly little blog:

[Click on the share prices to see more detailed information on the blogs. Click on the blog name to go to that blog]

Boredslacker - $49.67

Now you might think that's decent, till you see mrbrown's share price, which is:

mrbrown - $16,738.13

Blardy cow!

xiaxue - $10,346.89

So you see that mrbrown is worth more than xiaxue, despite her popularity and publicity. :p This is probably because more people link to mrbrown's blog than hers. So Xiaxue fans, if you wanna see your idol 'rise in value', quickly link her blog on every website you have... hahaha...

Lancerlord - $174.37

Lancerlord trails far, far behind both of them though.

but no results for Mr Miyagi and Popagandhi or Kennysia. Couldn't find many other Singaporean blogs. Anyone wanna play the game and register them? Hahaha...

Can you imagine if this was real money? Anytime mrbrown or Xiaxue needed money, all they'd have to do is buy up tons of their own stock, and then write something blardy hilarious in their blog, get it linked to by thousands of fans, and then *KA-CHING*! Insider blog trading at its best! [the alternative being Google ads and a Paypal button...]

Go check it out. :) and maybe register your own blog

so go fig, I've always liked the colour black. What's not to like? It's a classic colour, goes well with any pants, bags, and other accessories you carry on your person, it instantly slims any figure [even if you wear those enemy-of-love-handles cotton spandex tees] and is always fashionably acceptable.

This doesn't go well with my very-fashionably-conscious uncle. When we were on the way to sign the bond for Mr Moe, he asked whether I had prepared my wardrobe for school.

"Sure," I said, "5 black shirts and 3 pants."

This threw him into a state of consternation. "What?? What will the students think? What will the staff think? Don't you have any other clothes in your cupboard??"

"Yea, but wearing black makes it so much easier. I don't have to think about what to wear, I just pull the nearest black shirt out and wear it with whatever pair of pants I pull out as well."

"There are so many other neutral colours you can wear! There's khaki, white..." And he railed on about the different colour combinations which did not involve black.

"Argh, too troublesome. I'm not going to think about colour combinations at 5 or 6am in the morning while I'm rushing to go to school!"

My uncle huffed. "It's pretty obvious," he said, to my dad who was driving at the moment, "That she's YOUR daughter, and no one else's." I think my dad smiled in a weird, fatherly-pride kinda way.

Then again, I did pause a bit when I opened my wardrobe one day, thinking of what to wear to tuition, and then I realised that fully half my wardrobe was black, so what was I thinking? [ok, not quite as bad as the cartoon made it out to be] I also thought back and realised that I had hardly worn any other colour the last week. [the only other colours I wear regularly are red and blue, and even then, not too often]

Then I went, ah heck, and pulled out a nondescript black shirt out of its hanger.

More Cookies

Bit tired to blog a full-length entry today [and also because nothing else interesting has happened in my boring life recently (^^!)] so here are a few more cookie links to keep you guys occupied:

Mother is Indicted for Hiring Stripper for Son - What a sweet 16 her son must have had.

My favourite line: “Who are they to tell me what I can and can’t show to my own children?” from the mother.

Questionable Content teaches us that Astro-Glide Is Not A Hair Gel. You have been warned.

But if you DO find it works on your hair, kindly do not enlighten the rest of us. Doomo Arigatou Gozaimasu.

GC, a comic for monkeys shows us the past of the man who is behind "the greatest thing mankind has ever laid eyes on".

And if you don't agree, you must be a Nintendo or a Microsoft.

Someone asked why I kept writing the boyfriend as DF rather than BF. Well, kein, and others who hopped onto this blog late, it's not a spelling error. It's short for DragonFly, which is the nick for the BF. The story of how and why he is the Dragonfly is tucked away somewhere in the old, dusty archives. :p Maybe one day I'll write out the entire saga nicely, and publish it somewhere.

Maybe I'll just write the whole thing in a diary and take it with me when I die... hahaha...

Star Wars Cookies

While we're in the craze of it:

Seen the Darth Vader version of Mister Potato? [no? Well, you should, it's blardy cute] Ever wonder how Star Wars would look through the eyes of the potato? [bad joke. heh.] Check out the Darth Tato Puns

I like this one: "May the fries be with you" and may they always come with extra sauce.

And from Quizilla, I have acquired a blue lightsaber... yippee! *Zwing* *zwong* *slice* *SMASH* Oops.................


Your Lightsaber is Blue

Blue is often associated with depth and stability.
It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom,
confidence, and truth.


What Colored Lightsaber Would You Have?
brought to you by Quizilla

Musings

Chatting online with my friends one night, I realise why love is such a universal topic with everyone.

While I was discussing with one whether a reunion with the ex was advisable, another friend was talking about her crush, another was asking about MY love life, [and the apparent lack of progress, to her, anyway] and another was talking about HER love life [way too complicated and personal to describe here]

Then with another friend, the conversation rapidly went to kissing, and then to sex (??), one night stands, vibrators, virginity, and a lot of graphic details I don't know whether I should be putting up on this blog. ???(0_0)???

[lemme state for the record: In the fields above, it's not my knowledge that's lacking, but rather my practical experience. You learn about more than fashion and makeup these days in most women's magazines]

The question did come up from a couple of friends, on whether I had done 'anything' with him since getting attached, like hold hands [oh pls, of COS], hug, cuddle, kiss, pash [pash?], french, blah blah blah. [no sex. Trust me, NO SEX]

Interestingly enough, I realised that expectations differed quite a bit between people. People differ in the acceptable time period for acts of affection, and sometimes they differ widely. One friend thought it was fast that we held hands on the day we got attached. [she was thinking, maybe the 2nd date] On that night, I remember thinking it was taking him FOREVER already to work up the guts to hold my hand and I literally took things into my own hands that night.[heh]

Somehow or another, people build a mental timeline for such acts of physical affection. BY Day X we should have already kissed. BY Day Y we should have already made cuddling a regular habit. BY Year Z we should be married and having wild, unabetted and widely encouraged sex [as I described in my previous post]

And I find it, sometimes a little interesting, sometimes a little amusing, sometimes downright irritating, sometimes a bit wistful, when people ask me whether I've done this or that or even That. [well, my emotional reactions towards these questions usually depend on which phase of my menstrual cycle I am at the moment of questioning]

How do you even begin to put a schedule on a relationship? Not that most people do so consciously, of course, but more like they have certain expectations of the progress of a relationship, and apparently one of the ways of marking this progress is through the acts of physical affection. [I'm also fascinated by how people think a relationship is 'going somewhere', but I'll leave that for another post]

For example, most people may think that to be a virgin at 40 is to be at the bottom of the Ladder of Evolutionary Reproduction. Others may think that if you haven't kissed your boyfriend at least a month into the relationship, you may be gay.

MOST would probably agree that Hands must be held on the 1st or 2nd date. :p

me? Well, I can't really say for sure, seeing as how I don't have any past relationships to extrapolate data from. (^^!) Moreover, I never really talked to most of my attached friends about this when I was single, preferring instead to wallow in Depths of Misery and Envy. [I should have spent the time in productive Research instead to prepare me for this. Hmmm...]

So my strategy for now, is, metaphorically, to put the car in gear, and cruise along, enjoying the view along the way, and stopping for any rest stops whenever I feel like it. :p I will hope that the destination at the end is good, and hope that the suspension holds up for any bumps along the way. :p

Maybe for me right now, that's just the best I can do...