Bad cruel Latin

Despite attending a scientific high school-which generally means you kinda have to focus on scientific topics-I have spent the week-end studying my much loved (not) Latin lessons and Grammar stuff. *aaaargh!*

I believe that Latin lessons should be banned completely from schools.
It's a dead language, and the lessons don't include a "talking to the long-dead" part, so it's simply completely useless. I don't see why I should spend my weekend declining words (and what kind of stupid language declines words anyway?) when I could be doing interesting and useful stuff like...well, something.

Typical student faced with latin book.

Anyway, today I feel like dedicating this absolutely wonderful song to...umm, a lot of people. Enjoy Lilly Allen's genius.

My Short Skirt

I have not posted for a couple of days now...I've been really busy.
Yesterday I partecipated in a race. To my defense, I didn't arrive last. Just second last. It took me a full hour to run that thing...I should at least have gotten a prize for the effort!
But after all, I did manage to reach my goal: losing four periods of school. Yay!

Anyway, you should totally have a look at this poem from the vagina monologues. It's amazing. I found out about it on theF-bomb.

       My Short Skirt  by Eve Ensler

It is not an invitation


a provocation

an indication

that I want it

or give it

or that I hook.



My short skirt

is not begging for it

it does not want you

to rip it off me

or pull it down.



My short skirt

is not a legal reason

for raping me

although it has been before

it will not hold up

in the new court.



My short skirt, believe it or not

has nothing to do with you.



My short skirt

is about discovering

the power of my lower calves

about cool autumn air traveling

up my inner thighs

about allowing everything I see

or pass or feel to live inside.



My short skirt is not proof

that I am stupid

or undecided

or a malleable little girl.



My short skirt is my defiance

I will not let you make me afraid

My short skirt is not showing off

this is who I am

before you made me cover it

or tone it down.

Get used to it.



My short skirt is happiness

I can feel myself on the ground.

I am here. I am hot.



My short skirt is a liberation

flag in the women's army

I declare these streets, any streets

my vagina's country.



My short skirt

is turquoise water

with swimming colored fish

a summer festival

in the starry dark

a bird calling

a train arriving in a foreign town

my short skirt is a wild spin

a full breath

a tango dip

my short skirt is

initiation

appreciation

excitation.



But mainly my short skirt

and everything under it

is Mine.

Mine.

Mine.

The Hairy Legs Dilemma

Cross-posted from The F-Bomb

Today I'm loaded with homework so I'll just share this article of mine (smiles proudly) which has been published on the F-bomb.

The Hairy Legs Dilemma

I am a very hairy person.

I’m okay with that, for the most part, but it seems the rest of the world isn’t.

I turn on tv (or the computer, or a magazine) and am immediately faced with an ad for an (incredibly painful) device that promises to give you sensual smooth skin, that will last for a whole five days!


The thought of shaving every five fucking days gives me shivers. My skin happens to be very sensitive. It does not enjoy being pulled from every pore. In fact, every time I shave I am bought to near tears by the piercing pain I feel. Nonetheless I do it. I purposefully hurt myself to change my natural body and fit the stereotype of what a girl is that society imposes on me. Why?

Patriarchy. Because of that fucking patriarchy.

If I tell people that though, they’ll just shrug and say, yeah, just don’t shave then.

Easy to say.

My hair is dark. It is black and very visible. If I go to the beach with my natural legs, I shall attract many weird disgusted looks and disturbing cat-calls. My friends and family will try in every way to convince me to shave that fucking hair, to avoid them the embrassement of being seen in company of such a freak. Some of my friends will, in fact, stop hanging out with me at the beach. They will not want to be put in the same category as me!

As to my love life, it would be even more null than it already is.

Those are the conseqences of a non-shaving demanour. And the truth is, I can’t. I can’t just sacrifice whatever is left of my social life (being a foreigner, a feminist, and mostly a non conformist, I am not at the highest place popularity-wise).

I’m not strong enough.

Since I joined the feminist movement, I shave less often, but I still shave. My legs are within acceptable limits of hairiness. The rest of my body I keep hairy, since it’s not too bad, even though occasionally I get causal male oglers comment on my growing moustache (if they think I am going to hurt even my face-something that I’ve tried and has resulted in lots of little red baubles all around my mouth- for their pleasure, I can only tell them to please get lost.) Everyone is happy. Except me.

It’s just so unfair that guys can grow a beard of hair on their legs, and I, because I am a girl, have to be hairless. Whoever decided that hairiness was a boy thing anyway?

I am trying to gradually decrease my shaving until I am strong enough to face the social pressures hairy legs bring with them.

Until then, I shall continue spending an hour or so torturing myself every month. Or maybe I should just dedicate myself to masochism for the sake of it. At least that is supposed to bring on some enjoyement. Also, I would know that I would be doing it for myself, and not for others. I would not feel as weak and guilty and so fucking angry as I feel now.

The second movie about sparkly vampires: New Moon

The 18th of November, and you probably know this (well, you do if you live around teenage girls or near a theatre), was the day of New Moon's premiere.

Well, I certainly liked New Moon better than Twilight, mostly because the sparkly vampire and his family disappear for most of the movie, making it less vomitable.

Now, I can't say I didn't enjoy the movie at all (it is very, very hard not to enjoy an incredibly sexy werewolf and his muscles...), but some things were really disturbing.

THE STORY (spoilers)

Bella has a creepy dream about herself becoming old (OH NO!) while sparkly vampire Edward is of course still young (well, young, considering he's more than 100 years old....). . He sparkles a lot in her dream.

She wakes up, and it's her birthday. She is sad because it means she's getting old.

Then she goes to her birthday party at Edward's house, where she cuts her hand and a guy with bad halloween make-up and hair that desperately needs a comb tries to kill her. So Edward decides to leave Bella, and she assumes that's because she isn't good enough for him. Because of course a  possesive stalker sparly vampire is far too good for anyone, right?

But Bella has incredible strenght, and quickly gets over him. She just becomes a walking zombie, doesn't talk with anyone, sits alone at the Cullen's table pretending they're there and spends her days looking out her window and writing e-mails to Alice's  (another sparkly vampire) fake address. After about six months her father starts worrying, so she is forced to go out with the horrible Jessica. Jessica one of the bad non-supernatural guys. Because she likes to talk, isn't shy and thinks Bella is weird! Incredible!

So then Bella discovers that if she does stupid senseless things she will see Edward scolding her. Because what's better than a boyfriend who scolds you if you go on a motorcycle?

Here Jacob comes in, and being again near to a sexy guy Bella feels better. Until it turn out he's a werewolf and starts going around shirtless (ok, ok, my favourite part is when he takes his shirt off...), then he no longer wants to talk with Bella. So she falls again into depression, because the other guy who loves her isn't dangerous and feels disturbed by violence. Obviously he's no good.

At some point Edward decides to kill himself by revealing his sparkly vampire self. So Bella stops him, and a after a lot of sequences in which Bella gets to be saved by both vampires and werewolfs, Edward asks her to marry him. End of story.

During all the movie, there are various scenes depicting Bella wildly shouting and grasping at the bed while dreaming of Edward leaving her.

I'll leave you to judge. Or to watch these two movies that give a much better criticism than anything I  could possibly do:

When even a google image search is racist

Have you ever tried typing "Michelle Obama" in a google image search? This is the first image you will get:

The first thoughts I had about this...um, representation of Michelle Obama are:

• It is racist.
• Whoever created it doesn't have half an inch of creativity. Black people resemble monkeys! Hahahahaha! Sure never heard this one before.
• Why is it on the first page?!

Honestly, I can't say I'm surprised that pictures like this exist. We know very well that the world is racist. I just can't believe it actually ended up on the first page. Do people click on it so my much? Why? Well, I know I did because I wanted to see what kind of stupid website would put on such a picture.

I would like to know what the thoughts of a little black girl would be when faced with such a caricature. I guess not very pleasant.

I am sure some other bloggers have already talked about this. I certainly hope so.

Quote of the week: Human Stupidity

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

Indeed, I agree with Einstein. There's a reason why he's considered a genius after all.

This week  I have encountered quite a few cases of human stupidity. Since I am absessed with lists, here we go:

 Top Five Human Stupidity Cases of the Week

1. 
   
   I was having a conversation with a nice lady outside a shop. On discovering that I was not, in fact, Italian, she asked: "So, like, you don't have a God, do you?" On my explaining that, actually, people don't have to be Italian to believe in God, she was genuinely surprised. Then she dismissed it, saying:"Well, but you'll go to hell anyway."
   
   
   
2. 
   
   A guy in my class was indeed very excited to discover I was not Christian. Do you know why? He figured I could swear all I wanted, so he wanted me to do all his swearing for him. Umm...WTF?
   
   
   
3. 
   
   My new Grammar teacher does not believe in punishing students in any way. Just try to imagine the situation of the class.
   
   
   
4. 
   
   A cleaner was about to suspend me at school-because I was leaning with my feet on the wall.
   
   
   
5. 
   
   One of my best friends-who does not eat chocolate for fear of pimples and only consumes healthy food-has started smoking. He insists that it is not, really, bad for his health, because smoke does not make you fat.
   
   
   

As Pink (the absolutely best rock musician of all times) says: "Where, oh, where, have the smart people gone? Where, oh, where, where have they gone?"