lip magazine: for girls who think feel create speak out live

This relates to my comment to Rachel L’s post below, about growing up with a specific crowd. I just finished reading Brigid Delaney’s Griffith Review article all about young women and hooking up and intimacy-less sex.

I know intellectually that there is a part of youth culture that parties hard and abuses lots of substances and fucks lots but I’ve never actually met these people (or at least, not that I’m aware of)and can’t emotionally understand who these people are or how/why they do it. Yeah, when I go to youth festivals I figure a lot of people are going home with each other, but they certainly seem more joyous and less substance-riddled than Brigid’s article describes. I also figure the majority of people are not going home with each other.

I wonder whether I am in the majority or minority? How many young people drink themselves stupid and get their self-esteem through one-night stands found at pounding nightclubs? How many young people really don’t want some sort of longish-term relationship? I know I always have been and always will be a goody-two-shoes, but it just goes to show not only how varied people and young people are, but probably how little of that variety we are exposed to.

In any case it is a good reminder that one only ever can speak for subsets of communities, never the whole thing.

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So I was engaging in a little light reading of the Sunday Telegraph yesterday…annoyed right from the front page: teenage plastic surgery banned.
‘Under sweeping changes aimed at the cosmetic industry teens will be banned from having collagen and botox injections…’ The NSW government is also looking at bringing in changes to legislation so that people under the age of 18 cannot undergo purely cosmetic surgeries: like breast enhancement.
Why am I so annoyed? This should be a good thing right?
It is a good thing…and I applaud premier Morris Iemma for his opinion on the issue…
But I can’t understand for the life of me:
1. why it’s been allowed to go on until now
2. why someone (especially someone so young) would want to do it
3. why a parent/guardian would allow it or encourage it
4. why the surgeon (who I feel sure makes enough money out of people over the age of 18) would agree to perform it.

I’ve never been able to understand the obession with big boobs myself - nor have I ever wanted them. I can’t understand why young people with bodies that have hardly finished developing would want to put themselves through major surgery. I have watched breast surgery and I have seen what they look like after surgery…and it’s not pretty.

‘Oh but it’ll all be worth it…’

Yeah Right!

As for botox and collagen…don’t even get me started…

I’m so mad with the superficial world at the moment…

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I heard this gorgeous little song on JJJ driving in the rain on the way to work this morning, and even though it reminded me that we’re all tiny in the grand scheme of things, it made me smile. So I’m posting the lyrics here and hope it brings a smile to your face even though the sky is gray. (You should also check out the song if you can - I couldn’t find a link to listen online.)

when i go for a drive i like to pull off to the side
of the road, turn out the lights, get out, and look up at the sky
and i do this to remind me that i’m really really tiny
in the grand scheme of things and sometimes this terrifies me
but it’s only really scary ’cause it makes me feel serene
in a way i never thought i’d be because i’ve never been
so grounded and so humbled and so one with everything
i am grounded, i am humbled, i am one with everything

rock and roll is fun but if you ever hear someone
say you are huge look at the moon, look at the stars, look at the sun
look at the ocean and the desert and the mountains and the sky
say i am just a speck of dust inside a giant’s eye
i am just a speck of dust inside a giant’s eye

when i saw geneviève i really liked it when she said
what she said about the giant and the lemmings on the cliff
she said “i like giants- especially girl giants. ’cause all girls feel
too big sometimes, regardless of their size”

when i go for a drive i like to pull off to the side
of the road and run and jump into the ocean in my clothes
and i’m smaller than a poppyseed inside a great big bowl
and the ocean is a giant that can swallow me whole
so i swim for all salvation and i swim to save my soul
but my soul is just a whisper trapped inside a tornado
so i flip to my back and i float and i sing
i am grounded, i am humbled, i am one with everything
i am grounded, i am humbled, i am one with everything

so i talked to geneviève and almost cried when she said
that the giant on the cliff wished that she was dead
and the lemmings on the cliff wished that they were dead
so the giant told the lemmings why they ought to live instead
and when she thought up all those reasons that they ought to live instead
it made her reconsider all the sad thoughts in her head
so thank you geneviève, ’cause you take what is in your head
and you make things that are so beautiful and share them with your friends

we all become important when we realize our goal
should be to figure out our role within the context of the whole
and yeah, rock and roll is fun but if you ever hear someone
say you are huge look at the moon, look at the stars, look at the sun
look at the ocean and the desert and the mountains and the sky
and say i am just a speck of dust inside a giant’s eye
i am just a speck of dust inside a giant’s eye
i am just a speck of dust inside a giant’s eye
and i don’t wanna make her cry

’cause i like giants.

(by Kimya Dawson)

Happy Friday!

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Well, it’s taken me only four years and maybe some of you have thought of this before but I can’t remember anyone using the term….

So, ta da, my brainwave for the evening (as seen in my recent lip newsletter list post) - what are lip subscribers, readers, supporters, e-newsletter readers but not subscribers, staff and anyone else subscribed to the newsletter or otherwise involved in lip?

lipsters

… of course…

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We’ve been talking a lot about advertising lately: objecting to it, complaining about it, ignoring it, and wondering if we’re making a difference.

I find advertising in general offensive. The very fact that it’s there, everywhere I look, invading my eye-space, detracting from the view of my surroundings. But occasionally an ad is clever, amusing or even needed. How else am I going to know a cool band is playing this weekend or those shoes I’ve been eyeing off for weeks are finally on sale?

I’ll also be the first to admit I get sucked in, not by the ad itself, but by the product. If it’s new, I want to try it. If I think it’ll make a difference in my life, I’ll go check it out. Of course, how do I find out about these fabulous new goodies if I don’t allow myself to be advertised to?

But why should I allow myself to be advertised to with images that I object to?

I like to believe that advertising loses power if we ignore it. Lack of acknowledgment means lack of response (sales) means failure. However, I’m only one person ignoring these ads when everyone else seems to be watching them, accepting them and giving them power. And companies will stick with the system that works. They’re not likely to change the formula any time soon.

So we publish articles and post blogs and express our disgust to our friends, colleagues and anyone else who’ll listen. We might take it further and write a letter to the networks and the companies responsible. If we’re lucky we might get an actual, albeit standard-response-type letter stating their position and why they won’t alter their campaign. Then what?

We feel angry, defeated, helpless. I’m frustrated by this process and don’t get caught up in it too often. It’s too easy for those companies to bin a letter or delete an email.

But what about thousands of letters and thousands of emails? Can the companies ignore them en masse? Do we need to start our own campaigns to be heard?

It works for Greenpeace.

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Hey all,

The Griffith Review’s “The Next Big Thing” edition is now online and features writing by Gen x and yers, including me. You can read the full text of the articles that didn’t make it into the print edition (including my piece). I’ve only read the intro so far and will continue reading over the next week, but if you are interested in my relationship to/with my mag, check out my article. Hopefully it doesn’t come across as patronising… www.griffith.edu.au/griffithreview

This blog could be a good place for discussion of the other articles, so if you read anything you want to comment on, blog it here!

Rachel F

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In the 2 Aug edition of the Herald Sun there is a “day in the life of” type column with Andrew O’Keefe, Weekend Sunrise’s Deal or No Deal host (I gather - I don’t watch Sunrise). The picture for the column is of, I presume, Andrew O’Keefe with a money bag (it’s got a couple large sums printed on it) about to run through the bare legs of a mini-skirted women in stilettos. The perspective of the picture is such that the legs appear close up and the man in the distance.

Not only does this picture seem entirely irrelevant to the words of the column, but the column mentions his White Ribbon Day activities - he is the Chairman this year - which is a campaign that encourages men to take a lead in ending violence against women. So, you got this, right? A person who is an ambassador for anti-violence against women activities is represented by a completely gratuitous photo of him in between a woman’s high-heeled legs. Makes sense ,yeah?

I’ve been stewing over the picture for two days, so I will now write to UNIFEM, the UN org that runs the campagin and cc my letter to the Herald Sun and Andre O’Keefe himself.

The idea that (seemingly) no one notices this stuff anymore (except me) or that they find it totally normal and acceptable really bothers me. I know, you’ve heard this from me before, so I’ll shut up.

The night before I saw this news clip I had been laying in bed pondering how I’d buy myself one of those sun-safe beach tops with sleeves and neck. Not because I need sun protection but because I don’t want to continue to be part of this trend to sexualise women in all circumstances. I, at least, can wander around the beach without any of my attractive bits hanging out for anyone to see. I can make the statement that some women can be in public without showing themselves off. And yes, I know heaps of women wear bikinis and bathing suits just because that’s a normal thing to wear to the beach. But for the moment, I think its time that women started making a statement about how their physical attractiveness and sexuality is not for public display, use or amusement. I will be much more aware of how my clothes show off my body and attempt to ensure I’m not emphasising my curves, cleavage or anything else. Except, of course, when I wear my t-shirt that says “this is what a feminist looks like” scrawled across my boobs…

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