Courtney Martin reads from her book,

“Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body.”

Full video here, (50mins)

Andi Zeisler, editor of Bitch magazine, reading an excerpt from her article,

“Plastic Passion: Tori Spelling’s Breasts and Other Results of Cosmetic Darwinism.”

Watch the full video here (57 minutes)

This video includes Sarah McCormick reading from her article “Hoovers & Shakers” about housework as exercise, gender roles, and depression; and Julia Serano reading an excerpt from her article “Skirt Chasers” which is about media representations of transwomen.

Deborah Siegel, PhD, reading an excerpt from her book,

“Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild.”

View the entire video (52minutes) here

She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge. She studied sculpture at Saint Martin’s College, that’s where I caught her eye. She told me that her dad was loaded. I said “In that case I’ll have a rum and coca-cola”. She said “fine”, and in thirty seconds time she said,

“I want to live like common people. I want to do whatever common people do. I want to sleep with common people. I want to sleep with common people like you”

Well what else could I do? I said, “I’ll see what I can do”.

I took her to a supermarket. I don’t know why but I had to start it somewhere, so it started there.

I said “Pretend you’ve got no money”. But she just laughed and said “oh you’re so funny”. I said “yeah? Well I can’t see anyone else smiling in here”.

“Are you sure you want to live like common people? You want to see whatever common people see? You want to sleep with common people? You want to sleep with common people, like me?”

But she didn’t understand. She just smiled and held my hand.

Rent a flat above a shop, cut your hair and get a job, smoke some fags and play some pool. Pretend you never went to school.

But still you’ll never get it right. Cos when youre laid in bed at night watching roaches climb the wall, if you call your dad he could stop it all.

You’ll never live like common people, youll never do what common people do. You’ll never fail like common people. Youll never watch your life slide out of view.

And dance, and drink, and screw, because there’s nothing else to do.

Sing along with the common people, sing along and it might just get you through. Laugh along with the common people, laugh along even though, they’re laughing at you and the stupid things that you do.

Because you think that poor is cool.

Like a dog lying in a corner, they will bite you and never warn you. Look out. They’ll tear your insides out cos everybody hates a tourist. Especially one who thinks it’s all such a laugh and the chip stains’ grease will come out in the bath.

You will never understand how it feels to live your life with no meaning or control.

And with nowhere left to go.

You are amazed that they exist. And they burn so bright whilst you can only wonder why.

———————————————————————————–

From the “different class” album. Watch the music video and listen to the song here. There’s also a rather good William Shatner version.

The image above is the cover of the graphic novel version by Jamie Hewlett, he of Tank Girl and the Gorillaz. It’s almost impossible to find a copy but someone kind has scanned the pages.

I have been singing this to myself for weeks so thought I’d share.

i got tagged by amy

apparently this works by:

1. Get the nearest book in your reach and turn to page 123.

2. Go to the fifth sentence of that page.

3. Copy the next three sentences, then tag three people.

“Bright comediennes with the knack for playing dumb, vulnerable dips are quickly stereotyped, like Judy Holliday, Shelley Winters, Goldie Hawn. (It helps to be blonde.) Aware of the damage in this feminine stereotype, Jean Stapleton, who played slow, simple Edith Bunker on television for many years (”Stifle yourself, Edith!”) took pains to disassociate from the role when she campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment. “

from the chapter “voice” in Femininity by Susan Brownmiller

I tag: incurable hippie, alyx at mad sheila musings, and ms jared at sinister girl