burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

Question on Millionaire today: "A unibrow is a fashion faux pas remedied by what type of grooming?" Dude, the levels of wrongness. "Faux pas"? Like Frida Kahlo wasn't a total hottie.

After a comment thread with ranaeressea last night, I was thinking I could use an androgynous person icon; and I've been wanting a "real women have curves" icon for some time (I lack any picture to use for it); this makes me think I need a Frida Kahlo icon (complete with unibrow and mustache) for a "nontraditionally beautiful" icon. [Though I would still like a "real women have curves" icon. And no I don't endorse the "zomg, you are so skinny you must be anorexic" type of thing; I don't mean to elide the women who are naturally skinny; being a female who has passed through puberty you have some curves, though, so you are not being negated by the still-theoretical icon.]

I was thinking about writing a disclaimer about choosing/owning your own aesthetics and I remembered that last night kurukami posted a poll about preference for smooth-chested vs. hairy-chested (for those attracted to males) and in this context it got me thinking about how when we're talking about men the hairiness issue gets to be an aesthetic choice, but with women it becomes this huge deal -- and interestingly, women are in many ways less restricted in terms of appearance choices (women wear pants all the times, but how many guys get away with wearing skirts?) but whereas guys get to make choices about shaving all the time (facial hair especially) it's a given that women will shave everything except their heads (and that one's okay either way) and if you don't shave and don't cover that up then it's this huge deal.

But really, if you bend something enough, it will break.

My brain hurts. This is due in part to not getting enough sleep.

Also, i think i would be happy if i never heard the name Iraq ever again. Maybe never heard the word war either.

I want to gorge myself on tea and chocolate-covered strawberries while watching Hedwig or some other shiny queer movie with Marnie and Layna. I think that’s really what i want right now. Instead, i am attending the beginning of the civil liberties conference at 4:30, then coming back here for bad food, and then going back. And still lots of readings on policy and such for my environmental ethics class. Have to keep reminding myself it is the last class tomorrow. I have gotten so used to it being interterm i think there's more of it left than there actually is.

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Thanks to Miranda thanks to antheia for a bunch o’ links (which i haven’t anywhere near finished going through):

• http://madre.org/co_iraq_thanksgiving.html
  
• http://www.fair.org/international/iraq.html
  
• http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/iraq/
  
• http://www.unicef.org/noteworthy/iraq/unicef-in-iraq.html
  
• http://www.iq.undp.org/about_iraq.htm

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I really like my environmental ethics interterm class. Lots of interesting readings and a good group of people. I love that they acknowledge that things are complex and interrelated and all that -- oh how i hate the tendency of Smithies (and many others) to just say “This is how it is.” And i get to play Devil’s Advocate a lot, which i always enjoy.

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Haven’t been able to find much on the movie Frida.

“Clean-shaven carnality” -- a Salon.com article by David Thompson. Most everyone knows Frida Kahlo had a unibrow, and in the movie Salma Hayek has something of one. I was impressed that they didn’t make Frida mad-glamorous since she was played by Salam Hayek. I haven’t been able to find any photographic evidence that Frida had a mustache, but will take this author’s word for it (though i feel it bears consideration that in all her self-portraits, her unibrow is prominent but rarely is a mustache visible).

And i learned that she had polio as a child, something that is never mentioned in the film, though it explains why when we first see Frida in the film she walks somewhat awkwardly.