Short(-ish) linkage for this Friday!
An interview of Willow Smith, from a half year ago. She’s a real treat to watch. The grownups involved in talking with her (more AT her) make me laugh while they flip their shit about how AMAZING she is (I also notice they’re giving her tons of advice – does she look like she needs it? Sheesh). She really is a great kid and I’ll bet we’ll see some wonderful things from her – most likely because her parents are taking good care of her. Incidentally the condescension and hate in the YouTube comments on the source vid reveal a lot about our adultist culture.
Make: thread sketching. I’ve been doing this (as you may or may not know). Not from this tutorial or anything, but I’m passing it along because it’s fun.Bridesmaids: Death to the Chick Flick at the Stranger (h/t Paige for sending this on). Another good review, making some salient points such as:
“[A]m I really expected to swallow the phrase “These are smart, funny women”? Really? As though that’s a sentence worth writing down, let alone reproducing in poster form. Can you imagine a poster proclaiming “Movies with men in them don’t have to suck!” or a critic writing the phrase “These are smart, funny men!” No. Because that WOULDN’T MAKE ANY SENSE, BECAUSE PEOPLE TAKE MEN SERIOUSLY BY DEFAULT.”
“You Might Be Making a Mistake While Considering Homeschooling If…” at Parent at the Helm. Nice to have a reminder of some of the reflexive stereotypes – and the easy smack-down regarding all of them. I sometimes forget. This was a witty and laid-back piece.
“Parents keep child’s gender secret” at Parent Central. I had many people send or tweet me this. I’m sorry, but the whole thing seems pretty damned simple to me, which is, good for those parents (in all the brouhaha it’s interesting those who cry foul haven’t addressed the fact that many intersex people are born and exist and would report all kinds of damage as a result of others imposing sex and gender upon them). I will address these two sentences of the rather lengthy article, briefly:
“Friends said they were imposing their political and ideological values on a newborn. Most of all, people said they were setting their kids up for a life of bullying in a world that can be cruel to outsiders.”
Right. FIRST, who exactly imposes political and ideological ideals on newborns (and babies, and children) – specifically with regard to gender? Oh, like LOTS OF PEOPLE (and in some rather horrid ways). Second, parents/carers who support their children instead of supporting bully and bully culture, are super rad in my book.
Third, do people really and truly think there is any evidence that random internetty strangers, Faux News fools, and talky-faced “experts” care more about Storm than Storm’s parents and siblings do? Um. LULZ.
And, on the same subject, another excellent piece from a blog I think is rock-solid: Your Baby’s Gender is a Secret Too.
Two places you might consider donating:
Deb and her boy to LiG Conference. Yes, the conference is happening NOW, but you should totes throw her some cash anyway. Trips are expensive, and the cause is lovely.
and:
fund this: matthew shepard was my friend via Angry Asian Man
Quote of the day: Every society honors its live conformists, and its dead troublemakers. ~ Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960
And this – well, you’ve probably seen it, but it’s pretty much a SOLID GOLD BABY:
WE CANNOT STOP WATCHING JACK SPARROW AND I’VE HAD IT STUCK IN MY HEAD FOR 2 DAYS.
@Paige
I KNOW. I get that “sexy hook” in my head and I have to go turn on other music to drown it out. & I laugh every time.
thanks for linking to my LiG post – being down here is something else – fun and challenging and interesting and exhausting and awesomelike – and i am discovering how right you are about traveling being expensive – surprisingly so
loved that video of Willow – tho Ryan Seacrest was being quite an asshole i thought – ugh!
loved so much the other video – eli informed me that is was this video that caused him to watch Scarface recently – i joined him and watched it for the first time and don’t get what the fuss is about – but the video? well, i must admit that Michael Bolton was looking mighty appealing to me 😉
@Deb
I don’t know much about Ryan Seacrest – I’ve heard his name a lot. But yeah, he was being an arse. Not much more than any other grownup who doesn’t get that kids are real people and stuff.
MB was sexy as hell in all iterations! I never liked Scarface but, whatever, it is considered a classic I guess.