'My Boss Told Me My Hair and Makeup Were Holding Me Back' Jezebel.com

I realize in probably the "real world" this is absolutely true. I just can't relate; I've always avoided, or chosen, another path. Fortunately, where I live, combined with the job I have -- and the union -- I'm kept from ever having to experience this total bizarre bullshit. Also, I'm close to retirement and don't give a damn.

Rosalind Russell, His Girl Friday 1940

In many ways what Jezebel went through is for the reasons stated: getting ahead, and the corporate world rewards those who look the part. But another part of this is simply the game of control. I've had crummy jobs that paid minium wage or less, if you were in the food industry, since tips were considered part of your wages. I worked in places that held inspections. One chain restuaurant had us -- adults, mind you, -- line up while a female corporate executive walked up and down, making the most personal and rudest of comments about our hair, faces, looks, size, breasts, jewelry, make-up, you name it. I was told once by a male boss to "wear a bra" -- I was! -- and from then on he made it a point to have me stand off in a corner while he looked at my chest for five mintues to make sure I was wearing a bra. Oh I could go on but you get the picture.

My Boss Told Me My Hair and Makeup Were Holding Me Back

(Actress Louise Brooks) The Very Definition of “I Don’t Give A Damn…” I don't give a damn

I came across this article about the famous 1920s actress Louise Brooks on a blog called I Don't Give A Damn. The article is written by a guest blogger going by the name of Imogen. The Very Definition of “I Don’t Give A Damn…” I don't give a damn. And here's a YouTube slideshow I found for you to enjoy:

In Pursuit of my Inner Pin-up: What's Wrong With Our Bodies, Anyway?

Great post about the female body image and expectations, then and now:In Pursuit of my Inner Pin-up: What's Wrong With Our Bodies, Anyway?

The plastic surgery a model needs to look like Barbie. - Fashion Beauty on Shine

 One model (who has a great figure, even described by the writer as "Marilyn Monroe like") shows what she's have to do in order to look like the "ideal" Barbie. All these decades later, and Barbie is still a standard, for some: The plastic surgery a model needs to look like Barbie. - Fashion Beauty on Shine

(Speaking of Marilyn Monroe, a few weeks ago Bill Mahr on his show referred to Monroe as a "pie hole." I like Mahr but he has issues, dahlings, with women and weight. . .)

On Ghost Hunting Theories: Sexy Steampunk and Costume Fashions

The Ghost Hunting Theories blog has a neat post with photos of steampunk type fashion: Sexy Steampunk and Costume Fashions. I love steampunk; the fashions, the machines, -- something sexy about it to me.( I'd love to see Helen Mirren in a steampunk movie; something for the sexy older woman. I think she'd carry that off very well.) I particularly like these shoes Ghost Hunting Theories posted, but I know I couldn't wear those heels!

Got My Red Back

Here it is, my new color. No make-up and indoors, hair's a mess, but what the hell. Last time I used Clairol Tone on Tone, this time I used L'Oreal Intense Copper Red. I'm happy with it but I like the Clairol better and will use that next time. Also bought Pantene color protect shampoo.

Where's My Red??!!!

I am distressed, mad, annoyed, slightly baffled and a bit confused. I colored my hair about three weeks ago: Clairol Tone on Tone super red. Loved the color. It was great. My hair looked really good, soft, shiny, and that red -- bright, happy, red all right. Yes, I have to say, too cool. So I have the color, feeling good, go swimming in the motel pool, and it was still red for a day or two but suddenly, the color is gone! Just, gone. My hair isn't some weird greenish-blonde color (thankfully, that happened to me once, it was bizarre) it's just a dull kind of brown, with a bit of red highlights. What happened? Was it the pool? This never happened to me before. Maybe it just faded but if so, it's a major fade.

I don't know if I should just color my hair again; or wait. I hate this boring brown color, I want my red back! I suppose I could go get it professionally done but I really can't afford it.

Girls' Shape Ups X F - Mary Jane - SKECHERS Official Site

Skechers is now targeting preschoolers and grade school girls with their shape up type shoes. Messaage: you're never too young to start obsessing about your body or feeling like a huge bag of dung for not having the right body image. They're $50.00 which is not even in the equation for a lot of families; these days, or, ever...

Girls' Shape Ups X F - Mary Jane - SKECHERS Official Site

Study: Women with large breasts are smarter - by Terrence Aym - Helium

Study: Women with large breasts are smarter - by Terrence Aym - Helium


Do we even want to go here?

Classic Taylor

"Nobody tells me who to love, or not to love, who to be seen with and who not to be seen with" ~ Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor Passes

I was sad to read this morning that the last great STAR of the screen, Elizabeth Taylor, has passed away due to heart failure. Elizabeth appeared in so many dozens of great films; it's impossible to choose just one. But one role and movie I've always liked very much was Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Taylor's characterization of Maggie. I loved her combination of beauty and a sort of stubborn, fierce strength. Rest in peace, Ms. Taylor, thank you for all of your work and artistry through the years.

Has the fanny pack returned?

I had to laugh at this one; I hate fanny packs. At work we're encouraged to wear them, or something akin to them but no one, and I mean no one, will wear one. A mutiny, I tell you. We wear cross body bags, or stuff things in our pockets, or whatever but fanny packs, no way. NO WAY. EVER. I do like some of these however, including the purple one. But they mostly seem just like cross body purses but lower, or, too thin to really hold anything.

The fanny pack returns! - Once reviled fanny packs get a high-fashion makeover (and an even higher pricetag) on Shine

Strange Obsessions: Mother Forces 5 yr old to get brows waxed

 This is very sad; an obsessed and clearly disconnected woman forces her five year old daughter to get her brows waxed for an upcoming beauty pageant. This clip is hard to watch; the child is crying and screaming. The mother doesn't care and says "They call them beauty pageants for a reason..." in defense of her actions.

Hair Rant

Well, I got my hair cut a week ago or so, and am still peeved. The woman that's cut my hair the past two or three times is good in some ways, I like her, but, she seems slow, and this last time, I had it. Each time I've gone she talked me out of what I wanted, saying how the length I wanted wasn't good for my face shape, and other things. Well, maybe so, but, it's my hair, my face, my money, and if that's what I want, that's what I want!

So she did pretty much what I wanted this last time, with the layers on top, but when I got home, I realized, it still wasn't what I wanted. And the length; still too long!!!

I didn't have a picture to show her, but still...

Why is that so damn hard to figure out?! I'm frustrated. So now, because I'm too wimpy to go back to her and anyway, don't want to go through the hassle, I need to find someone who's savvy.

Right now I look like a big dork.

Mad Henry Makow and Women in Jeans

Henry Makow, or "Mad" Makow, as I like to call him, is ... well, ... hmm. He's a pundit actively promoted by Jeff Rense, a Christian, but he's Jewish, he's the "inventor of the board game Scruples," he's a right wing, Illuminati fearing, paranoid bigot, homophobic and misogynistic male, stuck in a Twilight Zone version of the 1950s. His latest rant is an "annual update" about women in jeans. Every year he republishes his article Female Gender Confusion is in the Jeans,  with some tweaks.  It's funny, and would be even funnier, if it weren't for the fact Makow is serious, deadly so, and that he has fans. Admirers. Men, and women, who agree with him. Scary, that is. Be sure to read the comments after his post at his site; many are from women.


He opens with a quote from Deuteronomy, so that tells you something, then proceeds to enlighten us as to what it is about jean wearing women that is so wrong:

Jeans are a fitting feminist symbol. They are farm workers' and miners' clothes. Feminism is an invention of the central bankers who also created and financed the socialist and communist movements to control people.

Makow is an anti-Semite, and uses code words for Jew like "central bankers" a lot. One of his pet theories are that Jews, er, bankers, invented feminism to destroy men and take over the world.

Makow offers advice to men, warning them of jean wearing pinko commie lesbian feminist women:

Men, a woman wearing jeans is a red flag that you might be dealing with "GID" --"gender identity disorder." Her jeans are saying: "I don't want to be a woman. I don't want to look good for men. I fear and distrust men. I want male prerogatives. I want to look like a man. I want to be a man."

He weaves all this into Stalinist Illuminati take overs, you just have to read it to see for yourself. He ends with this:

There is nothing more beautiful than a women wearing a summer dress. I can still remember a young woman I saw five years ago wearing a frock. That's how powerful femininity is. Let's not let highly-paid pious feminist and lesbian "change agents" destroy it. It's time for real women to relegate jeans to garden or farm work.

Did he just say "frock?" I haven't heard that term since I was a kid when my grandmother used it, and I'm old!

Makow's website is savethemales.com. Yep, "save the males." Oy.

Mermaid's Tears

A new area for me, though not to the thousands who know all about this. Sea glass, or mermaid's tears, bits of glass that have journeyed within the ocean to find their way onto beaches, where collectors discover them. This Sunday's edition of Parade Magazine had an article on sea glass, which had me wondering about this (for me) new world.


I've always picked up stones I've liked while walking the beach, and sometimes when lucky enough to find, agates. But I ignored the sea gems, or sea glass, thinking it was "just glass." Now I have an appreciation for it, and am looking forward to my next walk on the beach.

A lot of people make jewelry from mermaid's tears; I found this shop on Etsy: Mermaid's Tears; hand crafted jewelry. I love the pendants and necklaces! I'm sure I'll order one, just deciding which one, but I'm thinking of this one:

I like the introduction the shop owner created for her Mermaid's Tears spot:

Sea glass or Mermaid's Tears as it is also known is a wonderful natural creation filled with magic, legends and an air of mystery.Perhaps that piece of cornflower you twirl between your fingers originated as a Victorian poison bottle tossed into the sea by some cloaked woman hiding in the shadows trying to eliminate all traces of her dastardly crime. That rare regal red that you have plucked from the sand could have been a lantern from a notorious pirate vessel lost to the sea now lurking in the mists near some forgotten shoreline. The legend of Mermaid's Tears says that the tears (or sea glass) were created by mermaids who sobbed for the tears of sailor's lost at sea. As their tears hit the water, they turned to these magical pieces of frosted glass .Lovingly nurtured by the ocean; tossed and churned ;pounded by surf and rumbled across pebbles to create an amazing piece of beautiful history.

The Traveling Red Dress on The Bloggess Blog

Photo by Karen Wolword, via the Bloggess

I love this blog: The Bloggess; I found it thanks to Deirdre O'Lavery of The Interstellar Housewife, a blog I also love. The dress is beautiful, and I agree that it's impractical, and very very red, but I would wear it! Bloggess writes, of the poppy red dress:

For one thing, it’s not sensible.  It’s impractical.  It’s bright red and vibrant and shocking and “inappropriate for a woman my age”.  And I have no shoes to go with it.  And I have no place to wear it.

I'd find a place to wear it, and one thing about getting older, once you realize you're not going to wake up one morning and suddenly find yourself magically 21 again, (or a size 9) you say "fuck it" and do what you damn well please. There's more to the article than just the red dress; it's also about what the red dress inspires.  Anyway, the entire blog is witty, funny and check it out.

More Fleece Skirts and Hats

I went ahead and ordered the long fleece skirt in the argyle pattern, and a hat in the leopard. I wanted the long skirt in leopard but it's no longer available. I didn't really need the hat, but then again, in Oregon, you can always use a warm hat!



They also offer short skirts, shown here, but I ordered the long. The hat looks a lot better in person; a co-worker was wearing it and it looked great; can't wait.

Do 3 year olds really need high heels?

I first noticed this trend about a month ago. I was at the grocery loading up my trunk and a family walked by with a little girl, about 3 years old and she was wear high heels. Suri Cruise in the photos seems to be wearing about a 1 inch heel, but that little girl's were at least 2 inches and the poor little thing was not having an easy time walking.

When I was a child we had cheap plastic toy shoes that had heels on them. You would wear them when you were playing dress up, but not as real clothing.

I can't imagine a woman wanting her small child wearing uncomfortable shoes. I am pretty sure these would be bad for feet that are still developing and also probably the spine. After all, they are bad for adults that are done growing. I can think of no reason a 3 year old should be wearing shoes like that. As adult women we sometimes wear high heels because they are pretty and sexy -- a 3 year old doesn't need heels to be pretty and should never be considered sexy.

A big thumbs down on this trend from me. :(

PS - I just enlarged and took a good look at Suri's skirt in the top photo. It seems to have hot air balloons and spaceships!

Pole Dance Doll

This could be a really very incredibly stupid and poor choice of words and presentation in an otherwise innocent ballerina type little girl ballerina-dancer, or something more obvious and insidious. Personally, I can't see how this got past all the editors and proofers in the  marketing department before it hit the stores and the disco like ball belies any innocent Barbie ballerina stuff.Words like "up and down," "flashy," and "interesting" (!) appear on the box.  Internet bits question if this is a real product or not, but others say it is.