i, feminist
an article i've to share cos it's so good.
If Men Could MENSTRUATE
by Gloria Stienem
Clearly, menstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy, masculine event. Men would brag about hot long and how much.
Young boys would talk about it as the envied beginning of manhood. Gifts, religious ceremonies, family dinners and stag parties would mark the day.
To prevent monthly work loss among the powerful, Congress would fund a National Institute of Dysmenorrhea. Doctors would research little about heart attacks, from which men were hormonally protected, but everything about cramps.
Sanitary supplies would be federally funded and free. Of course, some men would still pay for the prestige of such commercial brands such as Paul Newman Tampons, Muhammad Ali's Rope-a-Dope pads, John Wayne Maxi Pads, and Joe Namath Jock Shields - "For Those Light Bachelor Days."
Statitical surveys would show that men did better in sports and won more Olympic medals during their periods.
Generals, right-wing politicians, and religious fundamentalists would cite menstruation ("men-struation") as proof that only men could serve God and country in combat ("You have to give blood to take blood"), occupy high political office ("Can women be properly fierce without monthly cycle governed by planet Mars?"), be priests, ministers, God himself ("He gave this blood for our sins"), or rabbis ("Without a monthly purge of impurities, women are unclean").
Male liberals or radicals, however, would insist that women are equal, just different, and that any woman could join their ranks if only she were willing to recognize the primacy of menstrual rights ("Everything else is a single issue") or self-inflict a major would every month ("You must give blood for the revolution").
Street guys would invent slang ("He's a three-pad man") and "give fives" on the corner with some exchange like "Man, you lookin' good!" "Yeah man, I'm on the rag!"
TV shows would treat the subject openly. (Happy Days: Richie and Potsie try to convince Fonzie that he is sitll "The Fonze", though he has missed two periods in a row. Hill street Blues: The whole precinct hits the same cycle.) So would newspapers (SUMMER SHARK SCARE THREATENES MENSTRUATING MEN. JUDGE CITES MONTHLIeS IN PARDONING RAPIST.)
Men would convince women that sex was more pleasureable at "that time of the month". Lesbians would be said to fear blood and therefore life itself, though all they needed was a good menstruating man.
Medical schools would limit women's entry ("they might faint at the sight of blood").
Of course intellectuals would offer the most moral and logical arguments. Without that biological gift for measuring the cycles of the moon and planets, how could a woman master any discipline that demanded a sense of time, space and mathematics - or the ability to measure anything at all? In philosophy and religion, how could women compensate from being disconnected from the rhythm of the universe? Or for their lack of symbolic death and resurrection every month?
Menopause would be celebrated as a positive even, the symbole that men had accumulated enough years of cyclical wisdeom to need no more.
Liberal males in every field would try to be kind. The fact that "these people" have no gift for measuring life, the liberals would explain, should be punishment enough.
The author, Gloria Steinem , is a journalist who is the co-founder of Ms magazine and has been a respected advocate or women's rights since the 1970s.
luv, nat
If Men Could MENSTRUATE
by Gloria Stienem
Clearly, menstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy, masculine event. Men would brag about hot long and how much.
Young boys would talk about it as the envied beginning of manhood. Gifts, religious ceremonies, family dinners and stag parties would mark the day.
To prevent monthly work loss among the powerful, Congress would fund a National Institute of Dysmenorrhea. Doctors would research little about heart attacks, from which men were hormonally protected, but everything about cramps.
Sanitary supplies would be federally funded and free. Of course, some men would still pay for the prestige of such commercial brands such as Paul Newman Tampons, Muhammad Ali's Rope-a-Dope pads, John Wayne Maxi Pads, and Joe Namath Jock Shields - "For Those Light Bachelor Days."
Statitical surveys would show that men did better in sports and won more Olympic medals during their periods.
Generals, right-wing politicians, and religious fundamentalists would cite menstruation ("men-struation") as proof that only men could serve God and country in combat ("You have to give blood to take blood"), occupy high political office ("Can women be properly fierce without monthly cycle governed by planet Mars?"), be priests, ministers, God himself ("He gave this blood for our sins"), or rabbis ("Without a monthly purge of impurities, women are unclean").
Male liberals or radicals, however, would insist that women are equal, just different, and that any woman could join their ranks if only she were willing to recognize the primacy of menstrual rights ("Everything else is a single issue") or self-inflict a major would every month ("You must give blood for the revolution").
Street guys would invent slang ("He's a three-pad man") and "give fives" on the corner with some exchange like "Man, you lookin' good!" "Yeah man, I'm on the rag!"
TV shows would treat the subject openly. (Happy Days: Richie and Potsie try to convince Fonzie that he is sitll "The Fonze", though he has missed two periods in a row. Hill street Blues: The whole precinct hits the same cycle.) So would newspapers (SUMMER SHARK SCARE THREATENES MENSTRUATING MEN. JUDGE CITES MONTHLIeS IN PARDONING RAPIST.)
Men would convince women that sex was more pleasureable at "that time of the month". Lesbians would be said to fear blood and therefore life itself, though all they needed was a good menstruating man.
Medical schools would limit women's entry ("they might faint at the sight of blood").
Of course intellectuals would offer the most moral and logical arguments. Without that biological gift for measuring the cycles of the moon and planets, how could a woman master any discipline that demanded a sense of time, space and mathematics - or the ability to measure anything at all? In philosophy and religion, how could women compensate from being disconnected from the rhythm of the universe? Or for their lack of symbolic death and resurrection every month?
Menopause would be celebrated as a positive even, the symbole that men had accumulated enough years of cyclical wisdeom to need no more.
Liberal males in every field would try to be kind. The fact that "these people" have no gift for measuring life, the liberals would explain, should be punishment enough.
The author, Gloria Steinem , is a journalist who is the co-founder of Ms magazine and has been a respected advocate or women's rights since the 1970s.
luv, nat
whoa!
i was googling for southeast asian music for my ethnomusicology presentation next week and found this:
luv, nat
this, my friends, is a compilation of a-go-go music from various local bands from the sixties. it's in LP/CD format so it probably was available in the 60s (rite?), which means the term 'steam kodok' existed way back then. rite?
so how does the term come about anyway?
and what the hell does it mean?
somebody enlighten me please.
but, that's besides the point.
it just goes to show how active and vibrant the local music scene back then was. we had 'the jets' way before 'the jets' . there's also a jimi hendrix lookalike who i believe played like hendrix.
read more here and well, be enlightened. heh.
i wonder what happened to all these people.
luv, nat
*swoooosh*!
i'm freaking out.
i've got approximately a month before lessons end and exams start!
*shock shock horror horror*
so many things to do, so little time (cos i need more time to sleep than to do work).
i've got essays to hand in, presentations to prepare, journals to write in, reviews to write, concerts to attend (so i can write reviews), practice my exam pieces and scales & arpeggios and more presentations!
gaaaah!
but as always, i'm soooo looking forward to the holidays, which makes being a student worth all the sufferings.
think i wanna be a student all my life.
i guess the workload equates the holidays. i mean like, who else gets holidays that stretches for weeks?
okay lah i'm just gonna endure for the next few weeks and stop complaining.
so breathe...!
keyword: endure.
luv, nat
i've got approximately a month before lessons end and exams start!
*shock shock horror horror*
so many things to do, so little time (cos i need more time to sleep than to do work).
i've got essays to hand in, presentations to prepare, journals to write in, reviews to write, concerts to attend (so i can write reviews), practice my exam pieces and scales & arpeggios and more presentations!
gaaaah!
but as always, i'm soooo looking forward to the holidays, which makes being a student worth all the sufferings.
think i wanna be a student all my life.
i guess the workload equates the holidays. i mean like, who else gets holidays that stretches for weeks?
okay lah i'm just gonna endure for the next few weeks and stop complaining.
so breathe...!
keyword: endure.
luv, nat
*slobber*
thank you arts central for yesterday.mark wahlberg was on last night's 'from the actor's studio' and my gawd. that's all i need for the rest of the month. he is so HAWT!
he even did a line from 'good vibrations' where he goes, 'yeeaah, can you feel it, baby?'.
oh my gawd.
very the sexy okay.
sexy! sexy! sexy! sexy! sexy! sexy!
and yes, i think he looks best naked too.
note: i'm thinking it, not saying it. so it's not me, it's one of 'me's.
tak senonoh!
can't help it.
i'm ovulating (which is useless cos i'm not married) and we all know that when
okay, enough already!
luv, nat
in my head
i talk to myself alot.
i not only talk to myself, i have conversations with myselves. i have like different 'me's inside of me. i'm lucky i don't talk to myselves out loud, or it'll sound very pointless and nobody else can get a word in. i can't get a word in myself sometimes.
sometimes one of me will ridicule another me and me'll start quarreling among meselves.
but that's besides the point.
today, i was checking myself out in the bathroom naked and i overheard myself saying in my head, "i think you look best naked". i'm not sure which me, this is, maybe it's the exhibitionist me. not sure.
but best part, the rest of me actually agreed.
i can imagine all my 'me's nodding in agreement and the naked physical self suddenly felt shy, like i was being scrutinised.
so is this what they mean when people hear voices?
cos i know i'm hearing only one voice - me, only with different personalities. i've so far identified the bimbo me (this one damn stupid always ask stupid questions), the smart me (always answering the bimbo's questions), and the consequence me (this one always weighs out all the pros and cons of all my actions). think there're more but i'll just name them as i go along. yes, name them. i really should start naming them so i know which me is speaking.
i'm getting too weird.
luv, nat
i not only talk to myself, i have conversations with myselves. i have like different 'me's inside of me. i'm lucky i don't talk to myselves out loud, or it'll sound very pointless and nobody else can get a word in. i can't get a word in myself sometimes.
sometimes one of me will ridicule another me and me'll start quarreling among meselves.
but that's besides the point.
today, i was checking myself out in the bathroom naked and i overheard myself saying in my head, "i think you look best naked". i'm not sure which me, this is, maybe it's the exhibitionist me. not sure.
but best part, the rest of me actually agreed.
i can imagine all my 'me's nodding in agreement and the naked physical self suddenly felt shy, like i was being scrutinised.
so is this what they mean when people hear voices?
cos i know i'm hearing only one voice - me, only with different personalities. i've so far identified the bimbo me (this one damn stupid always ask stupid questions), the smart me (always answering the bimbo's questions), and the consequence me (this one always weighs out all the pros and cons of all my actions). think there're more but i'll just name them as i go along. yes, name them. i really should start naming them so i know which me is speaking.
i'm getting too weird.
luv, nat
for posterity's sake
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i wish there's a better picture of me in the national stadium, but this will do, i suppose. so here's me near gate 3 of the national stadium, the no. 3 bearing no significance whatsoever. i finally recalled what i was doing there, i was there to jog.
yah. jog.
of course i changed out of my 'where's wally' outfit lah.
there were a few people jogging there too, but it sure didn't account for the very packed car park with cars stacked with multiple parking coupons on the dashboard. i mean seriously, with so many cars in the car park, you'd expect plenty of people too. but that was not too be, so where did all these people go?
my theory was they went on a cruise.
down the kallang river.
luv, nat
be the best that you can be
Happy 41st Birthday Singapore!
As a nation, you're still a baby, but you've definitely come a long way!
Here's to decades, centuries, heck, even eon to come!
Must've been all those Singapore documentaries I've been watching on Discovery, but I do feel a slight pinch of nostalgia. It's also maybe because I was out and about pretty early today and the grounds were still wet from the rain last night, and it was actually really peaceful. People are probably sleeping in and not out yet, and no hustle and bustle of daily activities. Seriously. There was not much traffic on the roads, and it was just really quiet. It was like as if time stood still, letting me soak in all the sights and smells, of Singapore. It was nice, I felt like a tourist. Cos everything looked and smelled different, okay maybe the smell is from the rain but still, it was nice.
:o)
Enjoy the day, country and loved ones.
Cos you don't know what you're missing till you've lost it. It's true.
Must've been all those Singapore documentaries I've been watching on Discovery, but I do feel a slight pinch of nostalgia. It's also maybe because I was out and about pretty early today and the grounds were still wet from the rain last night, and it was actually really peaceful. People are probably sleeping in and not out yet, and no hustle and bustle of daily activities. Seriously. There was not much traffic on the roads, and it was just really quiet. It was like as if time stood still, letting me soak in all the sights and smells, of Singapore. It was nice, I felt like a tourist. Cos everything looked and smelled different, okay maybe the smell is from the rain but still, it was nice.
:o)
Enjoy the day, country and loved ones.
Cos you don't know what you're missing till you've lost it. It's true.
luv, nat
hawt!
on to something more trivial ...
you'll see more of ms christensen here, cos i absolutely adore her!
if i was loaded enough to go for plastic surgery, no prize for guessing whose face (and body) I wanna have.
anyway i really like what she's wearing here, so in the spirit of me trying hard as hell not to be a boring dresser (so help me god), i'd appreciate help on where i can find something similar to the dress she's wearing in the pic. of cos it has to be available in sg lah it's not like i can hop on a plane and go shop rite?
i'll probably change my mind about how hawt this is in a week's time but still, humour me, please. danke!
luv, nat
you'll see more of ms christensen here, cos i absolutely adore her!
if i was loaded enough to go for plastic surgery, no prize for guessing whose face (and body) I wanna have.
anyway i really like what she's wearing here, so in the spirit of me trying hard as hell not to be a boring dresser (so help me god), i'd appreciate help on where i can find something similar to the dress she's wearing in the pic. of cos it has to be available in sg lah it's not like i can hop on a plane and go shop rite?
i'll probably change my mind about how hawt this is in a week's time but still, humour me, please. danke!
luv, nat
freaky tuesday morning
okay, a freaky storm is happening and it's damn scary.
it's like a typhoon is about to swing by any moment.
i can hear lotsa things being flung about outside.
this is probably not even anywhere near close to countries experiencing the real deal and i'm already scared shitless.
a quick check on yahoo! weather says it's just scattered thunderstorms.
(phew?!)
i remember seeing multiple lightning flashes during one of brisbane's many electrical thunderstorms from my unilodge window on the 10th floor and it was breathlessly fascinating. it didn't scare me one bit then. hmmmmm.
update:
okay, the rain's started and the super strong winds have subsided.
very glad and thankful.
luv, nat
it's like a typhoon is about to swing by any moment.
i can hear lotsa things being flung about outside.
this is probably not even anywhere near close to countries experiencing the real deal and i'm already scared shitless.
a quick check on yahoo! weather says it's just scattered thunderstorms.
(phew?!)
i remember seeing multiple lightning flashes during one of brisbane's many electrical thunderstorms from my unilodge window on the 10th floor and it was breathlessly fascinating. it didn't scare me one bit then. hmmmmm.
update:
okay, the rain's started and the super strong winds have subsided.
very glad and thankful.
luv, nat
... continued
this is where i'll be from now on :o)
been wanting this blogadd for yonks, and it's never been available.
so i tried again a few days back, and lo and behold! it's finally available ... !
happy happy joy joy!
so yah, this is more me - starla and pink!
er okay, so there's not a pixel of pink in here.
it's just that green, white and brown happens to be my favourite colour combination at the moment and of course, pink is still my favourite colour. i'm not an all-out pinky, but i do have accents of pink here and there on me everyday, it's just a matter of whether you can see it or not.
back to the point, pls.
okay, point is, green, white and brown is really neat and bright, and somehow calming.
:o)
luv, nat
been wanting this blogadd for yonks, and it's never been available.
so i tried again a few days back, and lo and behold! it's finally available ... !
happy happy joy joy!
so yah, this is more me - starla and pink!
er okay, so there's not a pixel of pink in here.
it's just that green, white and brown happens to be my favourite colour combination at the moment and of course, pink is still my favourite colour. i'm not an all-out pinky, but i do have accents of pink here and there on me everyday, it's just a matter of whether you can see it or not.
back to the point, pls.
okay, point is, green, white and brown is really neat and bright, and somehow calming.
:o)
luv, nat
