Oxymoron: Beautiful Women Apr 9, 2008 5:13 pm 1491 Views If you grow up beautiful then you dont need to develop a personality or be a nice person as you will always have followers who adore you, if you grow up ugly then you develop personality but dont always become a nice person either, if you grow up ugly but become a beatiful adult you can learn to think that you dont need the personality you cultivated due to the followers you aquire. Beauty is only skin deep, most truly beautiful people are the plain ones who help you, they nurse you better and they help you through hard times. I grew up ugly and now Im a model but I think nice and nasty are inbuilt, no matter what you look like, as long as friends and family keep you grounded then I dont see why you cant be beautiful outside and in. I don't think beautiful women are mean. But, they are a wanted "commodity," and must control the demand. Like roses, they have to have thorns, or they would get picked to death. If we could just admire from afar, appreciate, smell the rose, but not cut it and put it in a vase to die an early death, I think our attitudes about beautiful women might change. Same reason some men are jerks.....people put up with it. Think about it if men didn't bow each time a cute girl walks in the door....or put up with her being mean...she would stop. I'm not sure if looks have anything to do with it. I guess if someone is more attractive they can get away with being a moron most of the time, but that's only if you let them get away with it. If someone is "mean", it best to just keep your distance regardless of how they look. 19 Comments

On Black Males, Hip-Hop, and Misogyny in American Culture Mar 24, 2008 3:32 pm 753 Views "Feminist critiques of the sexism and misogyny in gangsta rap, and in all aspects of popular culture, must continue to be bold and fierce. Black females must not be duped into supporting shit that hurts us under the guise of standing beside our men. If black men are betraying us through acts of male violence, we save ourselves and the race by resisting. Yet, our feminist critiques of black male sexism fail as meaningful political intervention if they seek to demonize black males, and do not recognize that our revolutionary work is to transform white supremacist capitalist patriarchy in the multiple areas of our lives where it is made manifest, whether in gangsta rap, the black church, or the Clinton Administration." --Bell Hooks on Black male sexism. Yet something is missing here though....mainly this: "We focus on the black artists, not the rockers and not even the white executives who are making the big money from this kind of music." "The public seems far more disturbed by misogynistic lyrics in the music of rap and hip hop artists who are largely Black than similar lyrics in rock music, perceived by most as a White genre." "The flamboyance of rock is understood as performance, rather than from the perspective of personal feelings," "These guys are seen as innocuous. They appear to be players in the fence of accumulating women in skimpy costumes, but they aren't necessarily seen as violent. The mainstream takes it (hip hop and rap) to represent real-life, so it's seen as more threatening than some of the angry, whiney white boy rock, ~even though the same messages and images are portrayed~." Moreover, in a piece titled C*ck Rock from the October 21-November 3, 2003 edition of the online music magazine, Perfect Pitch, it was revealed that when the Hustler founder and entrepreneur Larry Flynt wanted to combine the worlds of porn (the ultimate god of misogyny) and music he did not turn to rap, but rather to rock. It was stated that since porn has been mainstreamed, they wanted a more "contemporary" look - and when they looked for a contemporary look, did they seek out the likes of Nelly, Chingy, 50 Cent or Ludacris? No. Rock legend Nikki Sixx was chosen to "grace" the cover of Hustler's new venture along with his adult-entertainment and former Baywatch star girlfriend Donna D'Errico wearing nothing but a thong and Sixx's arms. It is my belief that this paradigm; this unjust paradox exists because of the media stereotypes of black men as more violence-prone, and media's disproportionate focus on black crime (which is confused with the personas that rappers adopt), contribute to the biased treatment of rap. The double standard applied to rap music makes it easier to sell the idea that "gangsta rap" is "more" misogynist, racist, violent and dangerous than any other genre of music. However, I believe that bell hooks conceptualized it best in her essay Sexism and Misogyny: Who Takes the Rap?: "To the white dominated mass media, the controversy over gangsta rap makes great spectacle. Besides the exploitation of these issues to attract audiences, a central motivation for highlighting gangsta rap continues to be the sensationalist drama of demonizing black youth culture in general and the contributions of young black men in particular. It is a contemporary remake of ‘Birth of a Nation' only this time we are encouraged to believe it is not just vulnerable white womanhood that risks destruction by black hands but everyone." "A central motivation for highlighting gangsta rap continues to be the sensationalist drama of demonizing black youth culture." Part of the allure of gangsta or hardcore rap to the young person is its (however deplorable) explicitness. The gangsta rapper says "bitches" and "hos," defiantly and frankly (once again... deplorable) and that frankness strikes a chord. However, it is not the first time that a young man or woman has seen society "treat" women like "bitches" and "hos." Like mother's milk, the American male in this country has been"nourished" on a constant diet of subtle messages and notions regarding female submission and inferiority and when he is weaned, he begins to feed on the meat of more exploitative mantras and images of American misogyny long before he ever pops in his first rap album into his CD player. Young people, for better or worse, are looking for and craving authenticity. Now, because this quality is in such rare-supply in today's society, they gravitate towards those who appear to be "real" and "true to the game." Tragically, they appreciate the explicitness without detesting or critically deconstructing what the person is being explicit about. There have been many who have said that even with the Don Imus insidence, the American public in general and the Black community in particular will still be inundated by the countless rap lyrics using derogatory and sexist language, as well as the endless videos displaying women in various stages of undress - and this is true. However, by that same logic, if we were to rid the record stores, the clubs and the iPods of all misogynistic hip-hop, we would STILL have amongst us the corporately-controlled and predominantly white-owned entities of Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler and Hooters. We would still have the reality TV shows, whose casts are overwhelmingly white, reveling in excessive intoxication and suspect sexual mores. If misogynistic hip-hop was erased from American life and memory today, tomorrow my e-mail box and the e-mail boxes of millions of others would still be barraged with links to tens of thousands of adult entertainment web sites. We would still have at our fingertips, courtesy of cable and satellite television, porn-on-demand. We would still be awash in a society and culture that rewards promiscuity and sexual explicitness with fame, fortune and celebrity (reference Anna Nicole, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears...*sigh*). And most hypocritically, if we were to purge the sexist and lewd lyrics from hip-hop, there would STILL be a multitude of primarily White bands and principally-White musical genres generating song after song glorifying sexism, misogyny, violence and lionizing male sexuality and sexual conquest. Anywhoot, ... The only thing that I can see in the way women are portrayed in rap videos in terms of perspective is the FACT that Mainstream media pundits should look at the violence perpetuated by their own racism and sexism and, thus, blow-up the myths, expose the lies and cast a powerful and discerning light on the ‘real' double-standards and duplicity of male misogyny in American culture. Much Love and Respect, Noni 6 Comments

Patting This One Right Here...LOL...So I Can laugh Some Always (*Smf) Mar 20, 2008 4:03 pm Mood: giggly, 784 Views Better yet, I'm trying to find a quote that Sir Hillary Clinton (smile...) made (I believe during her husband's campaign) that upset housewives across the country. It was something along the lines of disrespecting housewives and implied a bit that she was better than them because she furthered her own career. Can someone help me find this quote and a source? Oh yes. That would be this: "You know, I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life. " Psssh! She stated that she wasn't sitting at home baking cookies?? I believe it was in the same 60 Minutes interview wherein she trashed Gennifer Flowers, despite having had private investigators already confirm the affair between Gennifer and Bill and having already offered a payoff ot Gennifer to ~go away~. It was also the same interview wherein Hillary claimed not to be some Tammy Wynette who stands by her man. Argh! LOL! HaHa, I had forgotten the Tammy Wynette thing for awhile now. Turns out that's EXACTLY what Sir Hillary is....in the backgoround of Bill's forground ...and forever will be...*sigh* We now know pretty much everything Hillary said in that interview wasn't true, but was rather meant to get Bill in the White House. Gee, cookie-baking is fun, isn't it? (smile) <~~~Picking wiff Hillary here...sorry I had to go there. (smile) [EDIT above post..(smile)] ~~~~>Sir Hillary Rodham Clinton's Reaction to Monica Lewinsky scandal Dick Morris and Eileen McGann said that Sir Hillary Clinton "loudly defended Bill... and arranged for attacks on Monica Lewinsky... when she knew the complete and sordid truth." Loll...what a cookie baker that Hillary is...!! OK, Ok...it's out of my system, alright? qout; 8 Comments

What do I think of this quote, Johnny? Mar 17, 2008 3:07 pm 765 Views 'By defining relationships between men and women in terms of power and competition instead of reciprocity and cooperation, the movement tore apart the most basic and fragile contract in human society, the unit from which all other social institutions draw their strength.' Ruth Wisse, Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard U. Well.... This here will be a long blog..*smf* 'By defining relationships between men and women in terms of power and competition instead of reciprocity and cooperation, the movement tore apart the most basic and fragile contract in human society, the unit from which all other social institutions draw their strength.' --Ruth Wisse, Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard U. This can be interpreted literally in terms of family dynamics: "...of which ALL other social institutions draw their strength..." It means that family, as it was in the past, does not matter today in our post-industrialized society of occupationalism. Traditionally, the family had meant the utilization of those skills that have been one of the main factors to create a subjective identity in the world. Today we hear about the crumbling of family structure and family values and wonder... is this due to the post-industrialization of people who now ~instinctively~ think that the career path is much more important than the family?? People seem to have no inclination as to what will remain after the work ethic and family life is taken away. In fact, what used to be a strong interdependence on male/female relation within the family unit can now be interpreted as nothing more than struggles for power and competition..erroneously interpreted in terms of reciprocity and cooperation IF you do as I say and not as I do: it is without compromise. In essence, the movement (interpreted as the feminist movement) has indeed "tore apart he most basic and fragile contract in human society, the unit from which all other social institutions draw their strength"... the family unit...by selfishly decreasing their investments into the workings of family. The movement neglects the structure of family moreover, thus increases production of human capital at the family's expense. Women involved are no longer interested in family, the raising of children in the home, being the 'helpmate' of their husbands. their sole interest becomes not he family unit, but in their own span of income as dependant largely upon educational and occupational choices made in the form of a career. Knowledge and skill, thus, become less focused on the building of family and family values and more focused on occupation specifics along with increasing age. This leads to a situation where there remains no real or tangilbe family values overall. The psychological costs of the feminist movement in the sense of family are seen to be greater for the children involved than others, as there is no stability or cohesion therein for a better role model (dysfunctional family units). **The family location... is analysed in relation to the native places of women and men and ... that women are coming against a glass ceiling in terms of career ... Sorry Johnny. But my thoughts exactly. *smf* 4 Comments

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