Breast Equality

A lot of buzz has been created lately by the TaTa Top. You've probably heard about it. In case you haven't, it's a bikini top that is designed to look like the wearer is topless; it features nipples printed in place on a (currently caucasian) skin tone fabric. (There are plans for more ethnicities in production.) 

To some, it is absurd. To others, it is making a statement that what's really absurd is that women's chests are taboo, while men can freely flaunt theirs in public. 

I hate to have to spell it out, but: this a form of oppression. 

Women's nipples serve a purpose; they feed babies. Men's nipples do not. Breast-feeding women in our society must either attempt to do this privately (not easy to do when you have hungry infant in a public area), entertain lewd stares, be criticized, and sometimes even asked to leave. Sure, a mother could try to stuff her child under a blanket when breast-feeding… but isn't that extreme? Do you eat with a blanket over your head? I'm guessing not. Try it sometime; I doubt you will enjoy it. But, wait! There are public restrooms! Oh yes, don't we all love eating meals on a public toilet? Again, I doubt any of us would want that for ourselves. 

Breast-feeding is natural. Why are we so afraid of what is natural? Doesn't it make more sense for women's nipples to be publicly acceptable than it does for men's? 

This is a cultural taboo that we've adopted for ourselves. We didn't start out this way, and there are numerous cultures today where women's breasts are allowed the same freedom as men's.

Some historians say that women's breasts became taboo in ancient Greece, when society shifted towards patriarchy. If we, here in the United States, have gender equality (we're not there yet, by the way), or are trying to shift back to it, shouldn't it be time to start acting like it? Like, say, taking the gender-biased taboo off of boobs?

I'm a female. I have very mixed feelings about my breasts. It's a love/hate relationship. I was an only child, raised by a single mom. I spent a good deal of time with my grandmother and my aunt. There were males in my life, too, but there were a lot of females for me to look up to. The women in my family are naturally larger breasted. As a little girl, I very much looked forward to one day having grownup breasts. To me, it was a sign of maturity, strength, and femininity: all things that I saw and valued in the adult women in my life. And I was fairly proud of them when I started growing those coveted fat cells. 

But then something happened. They got bigger, and now I had to worry about hiding them. I learned that as a woman in our culture, you should have breasts, but you can't let anyone see even too much of the skin itself, because that would be "indecent exposure," and you will get labeled as some derogatory term such as "slut" or "easy" and be asking for men to make cat-calls at you, and unwanted sexual advances. 

This became such an issue, that it has taken me until now, fifteen years later, to feel comfortable enough in my own skin to be able to walk around nude in the privacy of my own home, and about five years to confidently let my husband see them without trying to cover up. And I'm still not completely there.

I've learned to be ashamed of my breasts, and I don't even really know why I should feel this way.

If we stop treating women's chests as a taboo, they will cease to be one.

Check out just about any R rated movie or television show. There is a huge chance that you will see exposed breasts. If the media (run mostly by men) is allowed to show women's breasts, why aren't women ourselves allowed to choose whether or not to show what's ours?

The Big Year

Hey Guys!
I'm not really sure why I capitalized "guys" up there. Maybe I just thought those of you who actually read my blog are a special group who deserve a capitalized group title.
Anyhow, Zach and I have recently moved into a house, and put in place a superior bird hot spot, complete with wide-rimmed bird (and squirrel) feeder, bird perch (which is what makes it super easy for the squirrels to feed) and bird bath/watering hole. We then grew quite excited to see who came to our yard to partake in what we'd set up. We even found a great website for looking up what birds were frequenting our bird spa. After not only enjoying, identifying, but also texting about these single-life-is-over interests, my super-cute mother-in-law recommended we watch The Big Year.

As you could probably guess (or have seen) The Big Year is about bird-watchers. But not just silly kids like Zach and myself, serious Bird Watchers, who do indeed deserve a capitalized title. These guys (Owen Wilson, Jack Black, Steve Martin) are trying to break the record for most species of birds seen or heard in one year. Sounds like it could be entertaining, but the problem was is... it wasn't, really. It had a couple of moments where we laughed, but it was more because we felt the pressure to, than because we were entertained. You're supposed to root for Jack Black's character, as he is the main character and narrator, but I liked Steve Martin better, which I suppose just means that his acting was great in this movie, as I've never felt so comfortable with him in any other role.
The characters - They felt only semi-fleshed out, to me. They had backgrounds and goals, basically all the same goals, and the personalities seemed like rough outlines. I had to struggle to feel for any of the characters, which led to a lack of caring about what happened in the movie.
I also didn't care for the flashback scenes, where they used an oval cutout in the middle of the scene taking place. I know everyone's trying to reinvent the flashback and dream scene, but this felt cheap, in my opinion. Ugh, and the credits show birds, but FAR too fast for anyone to see what the birds freaking looked like... any of them! That said, perhaps they should have hired a different editing team.
My final complaint was with the writing. It was safe and predictable. I know it's a comedy, but I feel that the most successful comedies are those that allow some sort of challenge in the viewers.
I absolutely love my mommy-in-law, and can appreciate why she recommended this to us, but at the same time, I can recommend that you don't bother with this one, unless you are a serious bird watcher who understood what The Big Year meant before you saw the trailer or read this review.

Marinated kale salad!

Okay, I know I'm so behind the times, but this was my first time trying raw kale salad. I'd been hearing all about massaged kale salad (which I thought just sounds like silly hippie-talk) and marinated kale salad (sounds too healthy) and always thought it just wasn't for me. Psssh! I was proud of myself for liking cooked kale!

BUT... I read about why someone would actually go through the trouble of massaging their kale, and it made me interested to try some. For those who don't know, massaging kale removes the bitterness, and makes it tender. It's like cooking it, without actually cooking it, so you don't loose the nutritional value of raw kale!

We recently bought some kale, and I had about 6 recipes to choose from. I went with this one for Marinated Kale Salad. It includes carrots, avocado, onion, lemon, tamari (I used Braggs) and sesame seeds (which  I omitted as we didn't have any) along with kale. I felt like I was eating a delicious creamy green salad with a little tang. You could definitely taste the avocado, a pinch of saltiness, and the perfect amount of citrus. So good! But what about the kale!?! It was like any darker green lettuce. It wasn't tough anymore, and it lost that bite that kale can have. I highly recommend it, and I can't wait to play around with the other kale salad recipes I have.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

* UPDATE *
We had some left over, and both agreed that it does not taste as good the next day. The recipe posted here makes 4 servings. I would half it next time for just the two of us.

Dangerous Beauty

It's been quite a while! We've been moving across the country and visiting with relatives, but we're finally settled in! And I've got a new movie review for you guys.

Again, it's a Netflix instant movie, but only until July 1st! Dangerous Beauty is based on a true story, and takes place in Venice in the 16th century, when women were allowed very little rights. The main character is in love with a man who is of a higher rank than she is, therefore his family forbids him to marry her. Her mother convinces her to become a courtesan (creepy) so that she may still be able to have some way of seeing him, and also because it's the only way a woman is allowed a decent education.

Dangerous Beauty balanced fun with drama, laughter with heartfelt moments, and promiscuity with undying love. The cinematography was decent, the acting was very good, but the dialogue did seem a bit too recent in some spots. It felt like it was a British-made film, but apparently it was made in the old US of A. It does raise a question: why then did everyone have British accents? 

Overall, the message was something that I felt was still semi-relevant today, and that is about the role of women in society. I don't want to give anything away, so just watch it, but it did make me think about some similarities between then and now.

P.S. There's also a good deal of boobs shown in this film, which does make sense with subject matter, and almost made me shut off the film at first. I did decide to give it a chance, as it wasn't completely out of nowhere or TOO distasteful, but I do think it was a little much. I always wonder how films would be directed if boob shots weren't relied so heavily on...

The Help

Er'ybody's been raving about! Have you heard? The Help was one of the best films of the year! If I do say so myself! My husband says it's just okay because he didn't like the music, or the topic of the film (although he doesn't think it was poorly made) and he still liked the acting. It won 39 awards (I looked that sh*t up on IMDB!) and with good reason! The story is about The South in the 1960s (I've been watching a lot of Southern movies lately, because honeybear and I will be moving there shortly. Oh dear, I'm afraid I'll become one of those "y'all" slingin' southern belle stereotypes...) where one young white woman writes about the black maids she has grown up knowing, but from their perspective of things. The main character identifies her own maid as the person who raised her, and begins to ask questions that are considered dangerous at the time. The film is eye-opening, and also very funny. It's that perfect balance between serious issues and laughter. I felt that it worked perfectly. The lighting had a lovely contrast between the white and black homes. Both were welcoming, but in entirely different ways, which suited each perfectly. The acting was fantastic! As my satirical husband couldn't dismiss, the acting was spot-on. I believed every one of those people, and as for the main character, I hadn't even noticed at first that she was Emma Stone (Easy A; Crazy, Stupid, Love). The film flowed like any brilliantly weaved story your grandma (may or may not have) told you. I loved characters that I didn't expect to. That to me, is one of the tell-tale signs of a good story, but, I do love character studies. (Otherwise, if I don't care about the characters, I don't care about what happens!) I strongly recommend, if you haven't seen this, give it a shot.

5 stars; sexy!

La Buche - Film Review

Oh by gosh, by golly.... this film was not that jolly! Netflix told me this was a light-hearted French Christmas comedy... NOPE! Not light-weight or light-hearted, by any means (unless things are F*ing awful in France)! There was a lot of talk about Christmas, but not much of a Christmas-y feel. Nothing warm and fuzzy, no holiday spirit. Every one is cheating on each other and it's kinda depressing. They drink a lot of vodka, which makes me want to drink vodka. But, I will say, that if you look at it as a drama, it wasn't so bad. It's a story that opens with a funeral, three sad daughters of a sad mother and sad father, a sad neighbor, and some twists and turns as they figure out, or bash, Christmas and each other. The acting was good. The characters were fairly interesting; not so much at first; it took a a few minutes to get into them (about half an hour in I started to say "okay, it's worth a shot, plus I've already watched almost a third). But the story goes a very interesting and unexpected way at the end, that maybe only people with weird family relations (like me) can appreciate. The camera is pretty awful, but that's probably just because it's a low budget film. Not something I normally want from Netflix, but as a film school grad, I can appreciate when someone had a good story but didn't have the funds for a good camera, and I can't really judge. The camera wasn't THAT bad, but it was noticably poorer quality than usual (although I've seen much worse on Netflix (ugh... sometimes I think it must be the Netflix CEO's nephew distributing his crappy movies through his uncle... or lover... that's how the film industry works, right? You have to know someone or sleep with them if you suck?)
La Buche is all in French with English subtitles, as a warning to those who hate to read.

I shall give it 2.5 thingys... still working that part out. Stars? That's so uninspired! I'll figure it out soon! It's basically a 2.5 up until the end, where I'd possibly give it a 3, but overall, a 2.5 with a good ending! How about a 2.9? 2.9's! On me!

If you're looking for something sweet, heartfelt, precious, and or funny, may I recommend It's a Wonderful Life, or Elf? Or heck, even Home Alone... at least it's funny!

Sophie's Revenge

Rom-Com time! ASIAN ROM-COM TIME! Sophie's Revenge is a super-cute, watch with a cocktail/glass of wine, chuckle, feel-good type of film that really hits the spot. I was about to watch it in bed next to the husb, while he was sleeping, but as soon as I hit play on my laptop (yeah bro, it's available instantly on Netflix) I knew it was going to be special and I should go watch it out in the living room with a fresh cocktail and a blanket and snuggling with Dave (our kitty). Good times!

The film stars Ziyi Zhang, whom you may recognize from: Memoirs of a Geisha (a must-see!);  Crouching, Tiger Hidden Dragon (I must watch through); Hero (again, I must watch through); House of Flying Daggers (I must watch again); and Rush Hour 2. Ziyi is adorably gorgeous, a great actress, and has won way more awards and nominations than I could ever dream of!

The script is fairly typical rom com, with a little extra zany and imaginative-fantasy flairs thrown in. The film is obviously Asian, but, if you can read subtitles, it's got a familiarly enough American feel; it doesn't alienate. The script can be a bit goofy at times, as rom coms often are, but it's mostly genuine, with pretty good acting, gorgeous and fun set design, cinematography, and entertaining computer graphics. The editing was again, playful, but not overly so. My only complaint is an extremely long shot of Sophie's character  turning to CG ice, and then... finally, cracking. But hey, I've seen much worse. The whole style of the movie is a very playful, fun thing. Sophie is a comic book writer (perhaps manga, but not translated as so because most Americans don't know what that is?) and the film often shows her internalized thoughts and emotions externalized through CG. It's mostly very cute and well done.

I'll give it a 4.5. I'd happily watch it again with a female friend, or my lifetime boy friend/husband (if I could get him to agree to another rom com).