Hypocrites

So Miley Cyrus did a photo shoot with Annie Liebovitz. So what?

I remember in the early 1980’s when the controversial Brooke Shield’s Calvin Klein ad came out. You remember the one? I remember my mother having a complete fit–not for moral reasons–but because she felt that is was exploitive to women. Since then advertisers have pushed the envelope as far as they can and every magazine displays hundreds of photographs of scantily clad young, young, young models in sexually explicit poses to sell their clothes.

Celebrities sell themselves and obviously it pays off for them. Miley Cyrus is worth over a billion dollars. A Billion Dollars. With a B. She’s 15 and has more money than most of us could ever imagine having in a lifetime–all for singing some songs and starring in a Disney tv show. I think less than her doing a photo shoot with Annie Liebovitz–the level of wealth that she has is more of an issue. Consumers are fine with handing their money over to her for their cable subscription, concerts, cd’s, and everything Miley that you can buy including clothing, purses, backpacks, books, magazines, and bandaids. Yes, bandaids. But, God forbid she pose for some photographs with a world renowned photographer that may be a little edgy. Teeny-bop-be-bop is valued. Being paid a billion dollars for it is valued. Art is not. Hypocrites. She’s selling–the American consumer is buying but she’s being criticized for selling. All hypocrites.

With all of that said. I need to admit my own issue.

This photo does not bother me as much-

She looks like she just got out of the shower. I don’t care for the lighting but I’m not Annie Liebovitz so what the hell do I know?

THIS photo–however–bothers me-

If it had been done with a 17 year old boy–it probably wouldn’t have bothered me. A fifteen year old girl with a 17 year old boy in a seductive pose is all over billboards and buses everywhere.  Let’s face it, fifteen year old girls are sexual young women and they are used to sell products every day–no one seems to mind so much because we (we, collectively) continue to shop at the stores that advertise in this way.  The fact that this photo is being done with her FATHER is what is bothersome. It’s provocative, it’s sexually charged and it’s with her father.

Amazingly, the only controversy that I have seen is people having a fit about the first photo and not the second.

Am I the only one who finds this odd? And a bit hypocritical.

In other news, it seems that most of the teenage girls (ages 14-17) taken from that whacko fundamentalist Mormon cult in Texas–are either pregnant–or have already given birth to at least one child.

This is a problem people. Annie Liebovitz taking some pictures of 15 year old Miley Cyrus kind of pales in comparison. But let’s all throw a fit about it, shall we?

Let’s be hypocrites because obviously it is what we in America seem to do best.

Short Update:  I wanted to add to some of the commenters that I was not comparing the Brooke Shields ad to this–I was simply showing how as far as advertisers go–they’ve pushed that medium as far as possible.  This is a type of advertising–it’s advertising Miley Cyrus–and is no different than the ads we thumb through every day.

I would also like to agree that it’s infuriating that Miley and her parents are “outraged” by these photographs.  Hello?  They were there–they were posing for them–I don’t think that Annie Liebovitz doctored them in Photoshop to reveal more skin.

The hypocrisy continues.

The Bigots All Around Me

This has been an unbelievable couple of weeks for discrimination against my family and families like ours.

First, the whole Sherwood Middle School play issue.

Then, Sally Kern and her big ugly words.

Then yesterday, Oregon State Senator Gary George (R-McMinnville,) gave an interview to the fabulous Stephen Marc Beaudoin from Just Out Newsmagazine.

He is one of the legislatures who is trying to repeal  the Oregon Equality Act–preventing discrimination based on sexual identity and gender expression.  Among some of his jewels of comments he said this,

“My advice to the gay community is SHUT UP, just don’t talk about it. If you walk around talking about what you do in the bedroom, you should be on the pervert channel.”

So let’s see. . . If in the workplace, Mr. George makes a passing comment about his wife, it’s okay.  But if I make a passing comment about my partner everyone’s minds immediately go to what we do in the bedroom?  I’m sorry, but WHO is the pervert here? Maybe he should be on the pervert channel, (which incidentally I checked my Direct TV line-up and I didn’t see it.)

And if all of that isn’t enough, today The Oregonian reported that the fine teacher who wrote the amazing play, Higher Ground is being investigated.  Her computer has been confiscated, her e-mail address changed and her job is apparently in jeopardy.

Can you say Witch Hunt?

What’s next, are they going to give her a trial and burn her at the stake using copies of Harry Potter and To Kill a Mockingbird as fuel?  This is the year Two Thousand and Fucking Eight people.

Time to fight harder.  Time to write MORE letters.  Time to be LOUDER.

Oregon Senator Gary George (R-McMinnville) 

Superintendent Dan Jamison, Sherwood School District

When we will get back to talking about boobs?

I guess it wasn’t God after all

Apparently all of those fires in the liberal blue state of California were started by an arsonist and not God.

Well,  no worries, I’m sure that FEMA and the insurance companies will be handing out blank checks left and right to all of the rich white people in the Golden State. I’m actually surprised that re-construction efforts aren’t underway as we speak.

And the president is on his way there to survey the damage. Oh Lord.  That’s like the second coming of Christ.

The Republicans need those California votes in 2008.

Look out California, here they come.

You shouldn’t be so stressed RSG

I spoke to my mother today who asked me how things were going and quickly pointed out to me that I was always too stressed and should really do something about not being so stressed anymore.

Lord Almighty Hallelujah, why the hell didn’t I think of that sooner? Can you imagine the money that I would have saved on anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medication, booze, chicks, heroine, chocolate and shopping?

Thank God she told me.

So I hung up the phone, had a shot of tequila, smoked twelve cigarettes and popped a couple of Xanex.

I’m feeling much better now.

Seriously Internet, I must say that I have had to deal with the world biggest helping of bullshit lately and I am just about over it. Some of you may recall that last summer I was served with paperwork by my XH requesting a modification of spousal and child support from our original decree. I will not get into the long, drawn out ridiculous issues surrounding it, (that’s what archives are for,) but I will say that the matter was settled in court on September 11, 2006. Or so I thought.

It appears that the attorney that I hired. Well, she basically sucks and is completely incompetent. I found her ad in the Gay and Lesbian Yellow pages, she had a kind face, a full page ad and when I met with her seemed genuinely nice and like someone I would like to have help me out. I gave her BUNCHES of money, we went to court, I walked away with some of what I had left from our originally agreement and I thought the matter was finished.

To make a LONG and very painful story as short as possible (if I’m capable of doing that,) I have been attempting since October 2, 2006 to clarify mistakes that were made in the draft and final copies of the paperwork that was filed and signed by the judge. I have sent her ELEVEN letters outlining the discrepancies and every time she has ignored me, or told me she would look into it. Finally the day we came home from Las Vegas she called me and LIED TO MY EAR about said discrepancies. I did the right thing, I contacted The Bar and asked for help mediating the dispute. She then LIED to The Bar and manufactored a completely different version of the issues, completely ignoring the facts stated in the ELEVEN letters that I had sent stating the opposite.

Today I spent nearly three hours putting together my formal ethics complaint with the Oregon State Bar. With every letter, e-mail, and phone call that I needed to document I became increasingly upset and (stressed) that I was ever put in this situation in the first place. It is completely and utterly unfathomable to me that someone who I hired to help me took it upon herself to completely FUCK ME OVER, and not in a good way. I just called the lawyer at The Bar, and she said my complaint is processing. I also contacted the powers in charge of my filing a Malpractice suit against her incompetent lying ass. That should be another completely non-stressful endeavor, I am certain.

All of that combined with the last week of school events, work, kids, deadlines, DD#1 losing her cell phone somewhere yesterday at the Science Museum at he restaurant, or somewhere in between and out-of-town company has reduced me to a cranky-ass-bitch consumed with every fucking detail of these issues playing and re-playing in my head like a very bad video on constant rewind and play.

But on the bright side.

It’s a lovely, lovely Oregon day today that luckily HG and her BFF are out enjoying having a beer and playing cards somewhere where there are no screaming/arguing/complaining children, no worries of dinner or schedules or teacher gifts or un-made beds or phone calls from the Professional Liability Fund.

And I’m here blogging. Trying not to be stressed.

~~~~~~~~~~

Thank God for blogging, but I think it’s time for more tequila.

It’s Day Two, and a Rant

And so far, I haven’t come apart at the seams. I did however forget about DD#1’s piano lesson and haven’t yet helped DD#3 study spelling words, (HG does that.) I also had trauma when American Express didn’t post my payment and sent me an e-mail stating I had an outrageous balance, not fun. Then I hit my knee so hard on the little control thing for my trailer hitch inside my car that I couldn’t breathe. (I also yelled at DD#1 and had a very near panic attack.)

But I’m putting that all behind me.

Good things abounding. Last night I finished a book I was reading which was light and cute and funny, (Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella.) Today I dropped the girls off at their respective educational institutions, went to the market, came home, read up the house, dressed and made coffee. LeLo and Wink came for a visit, we almost won $20,000.00 playing scratch it’s, she gave me a nice Mac lesson and we had a lovely lunch surrounded by all sorts of scary suburban types. LeLo was a little frightened, but I held her hand the whole time. (Not literally people…)

I’ve also had the opportunity to have lovely e-mail chats with two of my readers and invitations from friends who feel sorry for me like me.

It’s all good.

Now, I have a rant.

I have taken ssue with some things I overheard on the Today show today.

Why are they making a big deal about women breastfeeding other women’s babies? Women have done that for millions of years without any issues. After all, human milk is made for human babies. People don’t have any problem feeding their baby milk that comes from a COW, but balk at feeding their baby milk that comes from another human? Please. Corporate pharmacuetical companies created negative propaganda about breastfeeding fifty years ago and generations of people have suffered the health consequences from that.

The bottom line in this “issue” is that our society has so sexualized women’s breasts and diminished a women’s power of birthing and breastfeeding that it has somehow now become “taboo” to do something that our bodies were designed to do. We have medicalized, intervened, and demeaned women’s bodies (in regards to mothering,) because that natural reproductive power that women posess is so fucking threatening to men; they took it away from us.

And how did they do it?

They dangled a false carrot of empowerment and freedom in front of us to make it look like they weren’t controlling us. They traded us the “burdon and restrictions” of birthing and breastfeeding for turning over our personal freedoms, choices and power and ultimately denying our natural God given instincts.

Women are routinely screened for HIV during pregnancy. I have other issues with this, that I won’t get into now, I’m just circumventing the HIV issue of sharing breast milk. There is nothing wrong with a healthy woman breastfeeding another healthy woman’s healthy baby. Nature intended babies to be fed human milk, and however a woman chooses or needs to achieve that, so be it.

End rant.