The Wisdom of T-Rex

Wherein dinosaurs explain the concept of the Male Gaze.
(clicky to open properly)



What is the Male Gaze?

Here she comes

Today I was obsessed with two articles on Jezebel (I live there).
The first topic was pageantry - the article is called Miss America: Empowering or Embarassing? I've always struggled to figure out why exactly it was that pageants made me feel so uncomfortable. What I love most about Jezebel is that I can go there with an unformed opinion yet a vague leaning, read the discussions and come away with a more informed view. The commenters have many different viewpoints, experiences and histories, which makes for awesome debates.
On the pageantry topic, I do find it demeaning. Pageants these days are often rewarded with scholarships and contestants not only have to look pretty, but also be involved in community work and choose a charity to volunteer for. That's lovely.
The fact is, in the end, this isn't a Nice Person contest. The modern portrayal of pageants as a platform of volunteering, intelligence, and further education does seem like a total lie. Because the judging criteria is not based on that.
Two comments that particularly stuck with me:
"If this were a high status, desirable thing to do, men would be doing it and trying to prevent women from doing it. They aren't."
"There's nothing feminist about taking part in a contest that privileges conventionally attractive women over those who are not."

Next, the What Do Women Want? article! Man, were all my favourite blogs totally ripping this apart today. Instead of trying to say anything new, which I would fail at anyway, I'm just going to link to a whole bunch of great pieces regarding it.
Jezebel's post
Feministing
Feministe (very awesome)
Violet Blue (I love Violet Blue)

So go at it, read them all, from professional awesome-bloggers, instead of little old me.

In other news, tomorrow night I'm going to a talk called Wired Women, at the State Library. It's about where the diversification of the gaming industry might take future game play. I'm pretty excited about that. Thursday I will be having my first singing lesson and I have no idea what to expect and I'm kind of nervous because, let's face it, it's been a while and my voice sucks. But I guess that's the point of taking lessons.

Anyway...good afternoon, good evening and goodnight.

Hello world!

I am an internet addict. My brother said that the internet is my hobby.
I love blogs, feeds, podcasts and vlogs. I love webcomics, lolcats, memes and 133tspeak. I read news that doesn't even make sense or relate to me. I love Top 10 lists and I love miscellania blogs. I love online surveys! I love getting free samples, and I love online stores. I love maps and Google Streetview and yellowpages. I love Firefox and its many apps. I love social networking (a little too much). I love free music and video. I love forums and posts and threads, but I do hate trolls. I love user generated content and wikis and urban dictionary.
I love that this is the first time in years that I've felt confident enough to voice my opinions. So here goes.

My name is Tash, you can call me zombietron. As this is my first blog and I'm still struggling a little with how much I am willing to share and what I want to discuss in regards to the people close to me, I'm going to be very benign and begin by sharing my three favourite websites.

Flickr.com
A while ago my wonderful cousin told me to buy a camera, because no matter how bored/poor you are you can always go out and photograph something beautiful. Flickr is a photosharing website with millions of photos from amateurs through to pros. It's pretty in-depth and customisable, which I love. Being able to scroll through thousands of photos and mark them as favourites, make random friends through their photostreams, participate in group photo projects, get inspired. It's basically my favourite creative outlet at the moment and I recommend a look even if you don't own a camera. Here's my flickr. I am still quite an amateur and working out how to take good photos, instead of just regular ones but there's a great kind of community there that sort of feels like it's not about how NICE your photo is - more about the content. Which someone with extremely shaky hands such as myself can appreciate.

Etsy.com
I usually described etsy to people as 'ebay for handmade stuff'. It's not auction-based though, prices are fixed. It's a huge online community for the arts and crafts set, to sell their wares and actually make a profit, as they do it all on their own steam - producing, marketing, shipping. There are some amazingly talented people there and all kinds of crazy one-of-a-kind stuff. It's also a great source for vintage-lovers. Here's a few things I've picked up...

Fancy jacket from etsy seller masque242
Zombie necklace with brains from etsy seller LadySpleen
Tentacle earrings from etsy seller RobotGhost
As I've said there are some AWESOME artists on etsy who really deserve a shout-out, which I will get to in a later post. In the meantime, head there yourself and browse. I can waste hours on etsy.


Jezebel.com
My love for Jezebel could be another post in itself. I stumbled upon it at a time when I was confused and upset at a lot that was going on in my life and the messages it sends, and the community of strong, hilarious, opinionated women who post there has really changed my life and my views. In a nutshell Jezebel is a feminist forum that takes a look at our culture, our news, celebrity, sex, being a chick. It's kind of news by feminists. Oh and newsflash!! Feminists aren't all angry and ugly. But that's more for another post.

Hope you enjoyed this virgin post, and do stay tuned for the next. I have renewed my passion for writing so be assured there will be LOTS more from me.