(s)kim

I ... am sort of at a loss for words on reflecting on this graphic novel.

I'm not really a huge fan of graphic novels in the first place... They've never really been my style. Not to say I hate comics by any means (I regularly read FoxTrot and Zits, and Calvin & Hobbes were wonderful while growing up. I also know entirely too much about DC and Marvel comics, courtesy of an older brother.)

I felt that Skim was kind of Zits meets The Bell Jar. Teenage angst and suicide.

The art was great, and very deliberately done. A lot of it is very dark, which parallels Skim's attitudes and thoughts. It's very unique that it's a graphic novel in a diary format, especially since Skim is so into art. It sort of acts as a way to not only read what she experiences, but also to show what she experiences through drawings.

I think... It ended appropriately. I didn't really care for it, but it worked with the way the novel had read.

Images are worth more than words...

So key terms from this course, as depicted by images:

Woman























I loved this image. It's a freeing image (actually called "free woman"). I feel like women have the capacity to fly away with their emotions and thoughts in the most elegant and spontaneous ways.

Personal




















I thought this was a good representation of what is personal. It really highlights the blurry line between what is personal and what is private.

Emotional























I picked this image because I think it just brings up the negative aspects of emotion. When googling "emotional" you just get a substantial amount of images that have sad girls crying. What about joy? Laughter? Jealousy? Anger? Preconceived and stereotyped ideas leave a lot out.

Life in plastic... it's ... fantastic?

Barbie is easily one of the most recognizable toys on the planet. Bravo, Mattel. You are a marketing genius.

I owned easily 50 Barbies, 3 houses (one beach house, one suburbia-style house, and the Barbie mansion, complete with a working elevator), two cars (convertible and Jeep Wrangler... strangely similar to the white Jeep Wrangler I currently drive...), a horse stable with three horses and an odd assortment of clothing (including heels of all sorts of colors that were never on the Barbies themselves).

Barbies I recall with the most clarity: (AKA - my favorites)

• Posh Spice Barbie
• Baby Spice Barbie
• California Surfer Chick Barbie
• Hawaiian Hula Barbie with hair like the sun (it faded from orange to pink)
• Indian Barbie (like... from India. Her dress was THE most annoying thing to put on her)
• Baywatch Barbie

Baywatch was easily one of my favorites. The interesting part - I owned two of them, both I received as birthday presents: one from a friend and one from my parents. I SWEAR the one I got from my parents was prettier than the other one. They did NOT look the same. It was weird.

Denise Duhamel has a really interesting look at Barbies. I think Antichrist Barbie has a line that completely sums it up: girls would do ANYTHING for their Barbies, including worshipping them and wanting to be exactly like them. (A My-Size Barbie is a TERRIBLE idea for any self-respecting kid.)

I love the Hippie Barbie poem. It sounds sort of like Barbie doesn't want to feel the way she does, but can't do anything about it. The line, "She felt a little like Sandra Dee at a Janis Joplin concert," is fantastic.

Also, how Duhamel goes into the descriptions of Barbie versus African American Barbie, Native American Barbie and Oriental Barbie... these are all completely legitimate. Each Barbie just looks like a dyed version of white Barbie. The only different characteristic of my Indian Barbie was that she had one of those dots in the middle of her forehead. Thick waxy black hair was tied back into a tight bun and she had traditional dress on. Her eyes, breast size, waist size and such were all identical to many of my other Barbies.

"We can do it better than Britney."

Most of you are probably familiar with Britney Spears's song, "Womanizer." If not, here it is:



Typical "It's Britney, bitch" material. One could potentially say that it is about a woman who refuses to take crap from a skeezy guy. Female empowerment. With Britney lounging naked in quite a few scenes. She won't let a womanizer get to her!

I have my Britney-fan moments, mostly involving the song "Toxic," but they are still there.

Overall, I can't stand this song. It's just... a terrible song. Good let's-go-party music, bad any-other-time music.

The cover, posted below, is awesome. All American Rejects just have this awesome, badass, sarcastic vibe to them that just rocks. (Take for example, "Gives You Hell") You can tell this cover is mostly just to poke fun at Britney, show how anti-talented she's become, and it's actually a really fun cover.

Oh... classic romance...

Two things about Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice before you read this post:

1. I love the plot. It's this fantastic, classic romance set in a fantastic, classic period with a relatable leading lady, dysfunctional family and a mysterious, sexy man who has a tendency to be an ass.
2. I hate the book. I cannot stand how Jane Austen writes. I'm sorry, but I don't need to spend three pages reading about random details of the courtship process. Every single time I have attempted to read this book, I've gotten bored and easily distracted.
   

So I resorted to watching the movie version, starring Kiera Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen.

It is a brilliant plot that has the ability to transcend centuries and can be adapted to any modern telling. I have seen a grand total of three P&P remake movies, each brilliant in their own regard. Two of these have been set in modern time.

Bridget Jones is the most successful of the modern remakes.

It forwards the text of the original into a way that serves the modern public well. It takes the ideas and concepts of the original ("Singleton" and "spinster" and whatnot) and changes the contexts - from a time where women literally could not survive without men to a time where everyone thinks it's silly for a woman to try to survive without a man. Both Bridget and Elizabeth maintain the attitude that they don't need men, but... still want one at the same time, as long as he is the "right" one.

The movie Bridget Jones's Diary forwards the book's concepts, as well. I think the director did a fantastic job. Certain things had to be adjusted, like Bridget's mother's running off to Portugal or the constant appearance of the Smug Married couples to fit within time constraints.

Overall, the ideas clearly made it through. A girl's weight, drinking and smoking were still major topics, men was a major topic and "singleton" life was a major topic.

What I thought was interesting was how in the book, Bridget is fighting with being 120-125 pounds, while in the movie, she struggles well above 130. This is intriguing - the director must have wanted Bridget to come off as a plumper girl at 135, where she would have appeared perfectly normal at 125. The struggle with weight would be a lot more evident if she looked heavier like she did in the movie.

"You stole my story."

My friends say I have a rather sick obsession with Johnny Depp, considering he is 3 years younger than my parents... (but in my defense, I thought he was fantastic BEFORE he became Captain Jack Sparrow. More specifically, I fell in love when he was Ichabod Crane in "Sleepy Hollow" in '99. Yes. I was 10. Just roll with it.) He's a great actor. And he's pretty for a 40-something. And bad-ass.

Anyway! When I picture writers, his portrayal of Mort Rainey in Stephen King's "Secret Window" is pretty much what immediately comes to mind. Sloppy, eccentric, cabin-on-a-lake-in-the-middle-of-nowhere, generally in a torn robe, eating Doritos while someone else attempts to clean his house, and then of course getting annoyed with her for doing it incorrectly... you get the picture.

Beyond that... he's witty, and he's got an attitude. He knows the point of his writing, but still lets it take on a life of its own. (Quite literally in "Secret Window," unfortunately for his wife...) Critical of himself, but knows that he's capable of turning out good work.

Here's the trailer, just to give you an idea.



Brilliant movie. Top 20, definitely.

Others might not agree, of course. It might be a creepy movie with a creepy plot with a creepy lead character... And that is because what we write and what we read and what we enjoy all come down to personal preference. How we write depends on the audience and how we want them to perceive what it is we are writing.

Take the two articles I found for class, for example.

1. "10 Quick and Easy Ways to Lose 10 Pounds," in Glamour. Very clearly directed to a female audience. It's a colorful article, with pretty fonts, pretty pictures, pretty colors... all geared toward making weight-loss seem a heck of a lot easier than it is. Every single "quick and easy way" is phrased in a friendly tone: "Rethink what you drink," or "Learn these portion shortcuts" instead of saying, "Stop drinking pop" or "Stop eating so much." It's filled with friendly reminders that you can control yourself and still be a happy camper. It's also interesting to me that the girl they chose to pose at the beginning of the article is someone who would generally be considered more "curvy." Sort of the "You're okay in your original skin, but here are some tips in case you don't think you are."
   
2. "Death by Exercise," in Men's Health. This was an interesting article about the rare occasion of working out too much with the unfortunate result of ... death. Strong language. To the point. No fluff. It has specific facts and stats, like how heart disease can be prevented by healthy physical activity, even citing timed workouts and their benefits or disadvantages.

You can tell that one is clearly for a woman, the other is clearly for a manly-man. It makes me wonder... Are men more interested in actually learning about their health, and women are more interested in just feeling better? I suppose it would make sense, I guess, as women are supposedly more centered around emotions and men are supposedly more in tune with the logistics of things. I don't know. Just a thought. It's just the way the articles read.

To touch on the other clips that were posted... I absolutely adore "Stranger than Fiction." I have this weird thing with that movie, though. If I watch it, I end up narrating everything going on around me. Completely involuntary. It just happens. (More on this line of thought at my tumblr blog here)

It makes me think that there is a bit of a writer in everyone. We all have thoughts, feelings, urges to make our opinions known... Channeling those thoughts into blogs, journals, books, story lines, speeches, text messages or whatever is somehow freeing. Getting our point across is fulfilling.

"Only thing that matters is the ending. It's the most important part of the story. And this one is very good. This one is perfect." -Mort Rainey, "Secret Window"

The beginning to a new blog...

Hello!

This is my very first post to this blog! (Key word: "this" - I have two other blogs...)

A little bit about myself: I am a junior public relations major, the PR intern for The Empower Campaign, account executive with ImPRessions (Ohio's student run PR firm) and ARA for Lincoln Hall.

Basically, I'm a busy person.

On the more entertaining side, I'm in love with Jason Mraz, I can play the ukulele and my favorite TV show is Friends.

Not to be lame and say that I'm SUPER DUPER excited about this class... but I am. I've been meaning to read Bridget Jones's Diary for years and I finally will! Also, I love discussing women's issues, so for the focus of this class to be related to female sexuality, I am ecstatic.

Focusing initially on types of writing is an interesting way to start the quarter, as well. Our types would be:

• Personal
• Public
• Private

Each would be a fuzzy definition, and each would vary from different people who are defining it, but I think the general idea would be that personal writing is writing that is done for oneself. I am writing this blog with ideas that are meaningful to me. I pick topics for research papers that are meaningful to me. I would define public writing as writing that is done for the public, like research papers, novels, newspapers, blogs, etc. If it's open to being viewed by the public, it is public writing. Private writing, on the other hand, would be writing that is solely for your own purposes. This differs from personal writing in that is not meant for anyone to read other than yourself; personal writing can be public writing.

This blog is personal and public. While the general public will view it, it is largely my opinion. However, I'll abstain from profanity and sexual innuendos to stay language neutral so anyone can read it.

The following video is an example of the difference between guys and girls, solely for your entertainment. It is my favorite clip from Friends.