Monday, April 23, 2007

liberate me!

This is a picture of a woman who won the London Marathon yesterday. Yep, look closely. She has underarm hair. Now I know she's from China, and maybe social expectations are different than they are here, but I wonder how the media in posh London accepted this free-spirited soul.

And it makes me think of other situations where women either intentionally or unintentionally brush up against expectations we sometimes have for them. Tiffkin and I saw an article last month from a woman who was teaching young girls that bras were medically dangerous and demeaning, and how she wished we had a world where we didn't need them. That's similar to the valedictorian of my high school class, who told us in her graduation speech that she hadn't shaved her legs in two years.

Now on the complete opposite end, in Mexico we saw a woman who was the epitome of a self-made goddess: long, cotton blonde hair; an obvious breast augmentation; a tummy tuck; a constant string of "elegant" cigarettes; a wealthy, snoody man at her side; and the most telling feature: a deep deep suntan that only was enhanced through the hours she spent laying outside. The tan was the thing that kept getting us, like she was scoffing at the sun and the world, defying the danger and throwing caution to the wind. She was brown on the outside, brown on the inside, plastic, inflated and dyed. In some ways, I guess she is completely free from outside expectations, or you could say that she was even more submissive to them.

We're often judged by how we change who we are when we relate to different groups of people. What is the definition of healthy liberation?

Saturday, April 07, 2007

under a rock, up in a tree

On Thursday, I led a team of international students around campus on a scavenger egg hunt. We were given an egg at the beginning, and inside was a clue that gave us a hint as to where we could find our next clue. One was on a painted bench, one under a stripe-tied statue, one in a campus locker, one at the feet of George Mason, and one at the campus information desk. For the second year in a row, my team was the winner!


My dad sent me an email that said, "I was watching T.V. this morning and saw a different kind of Easter Egg Hunt. In Key Largo, they were hunting Easter Eggs off shore and finding them among the coral and ocean floor structures. Can't say that I have done that yet, but sure would like to try it sometime. So where would you pick for new location of Easter Egg hunting?"


And to that, I ask you the same. What would be a new way to spice up the practice of Easter Egg hunting?

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

a random quiz while eating hamburger helper

1. if you were to create an entirely new brand of frozen foods, what would you make?

2. if you could have one of the following in your house, what would you choose? A. 12' hot tub B. 70" plasma tv w/surround sound C. laundry shoot with automatic cleaning system D. an entire pantry system that swiveled on a lazy susan

3. if you could pet any animal at the zoo, which would you pet? which would you NOT pet?

4. let's say an elderly relative miraculously gave birth to a bouncing baby boy/girl, and in her senility, she let's you choose the name. what would you choose?

5. if you were to undertake one of these adrenaline-pumping aquarisks in the next year, which of these would you choose? A. Cliff diving B. Speedboat racing C. whale riding D. shark fishing E. Underwater photography in caves