Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Romania is a cute country with perverse women and a prissy press.
This girl used to be, until very recently, a dancer on a fairly popular political satire tv show. Because of the pictures you have spent the last 5 minutes looking at, she is now unemployed. The story is extremely simple: girl plays around with boyfriend and takes pictures; girl stores pictures in personal computer; well-meaning friend snoops around in girl's personal computer, extracts pictures, and sells them to tabloid; tabloid publishes pictures and sells lots of copies; readers masturbate to pictures and criticise girl's utter absence of decency and baseness of character; girl loses job. At least a few hundred celebrities (from the low to the high end) have suffered from a very similar treatment over the past decade, and numerous debates became inflamed over the issues of public interest vs. right to privacy. This is not news. What is specifically Romanian, though, is the way that people reacted to the pictures.
The article that accompanied the first printing of the pictures qualified them as "11 images that make you think of the most perverse sexual practices", "a series of pornographic shots that go beyond the imagination of any normal person" and -- my personal favorite -- "photographic lessons from the garden of excess". While I am willing to grant the fact that the vomit shot is tasteless and spoils the appeal of the series, by suggesting that she was just being a drunk slut (or maybe it enhances the appeal, if that's where your allegiance lies), the rest of the pictures are hardly exceptional, thematically speaking. I mean, most of them would barely make it as "hardcore" on any decent porn site. Shoving household ustensiles up one's vagina? Haven't we all done it? I may well have lost my virginity to the thin neck of my shampoo bottle! Blow jobs? Probably the most popular Google search! Showing off one's ass? Please!
I'm still in doubt as to which picture I like best. I oscillate between the pussy cocktail and the blow job. The former is artistically valuable, while the latter is plain, good old cocksucking (I really dug the smudged lipstick action, although there could definitely have been more saliva involved). But I digress...
The point is that the moral vehemence with which the people have reacted to the pictures is abhorrent. The tabloid who published them could naturally not have been expected to present them as anything other than "scandalous". But from "scandalous" to "lessons from the garden of excess" there's a long way, baby. A friend of mine -- a tall, dark, businesslike hottie with an up-and-coming job and a boyfriend of 4 years -- was telling me today: "You know, I can maybe accept that she would do things like that. But she should have at least been clever and not let anyone photograph her while she was doing it". This coming from a liberated, independent 21 year-old.
Dude, this is why I don't usually sleep with Romanians: instead of calling me a whore during, they would call me a whore afterwards. And it simply wouldn't do.
This girl used to be, until very recently, a dancer on a fairly popular political satire tv show. Because of the pictures you have spent the last 5 minutes looking at, she is now unemployed. The story is extremely simple: girl plays around with boyfriend and takes pictures; girl stores pictures in personal computer; well-meaning friend snoops around in girl's personal computer, extracts pictures, and sells them to tabloid; tabloid publishes pictures and sells lots of copies; readers masturbate to pictures and criticise girl's utter absence of decency and baseness of character; girl loses job. At least a few hundred celebrities (from the low to the high end) have suffered from a very similar treatment over the past decade, and numerous debates became inflamed over the issues of public interest vs. right to privacy. This is not news. What is specifically Romanian, though, is the way that people reacted to the pictures.
The article that accompanied the first printing of the pictures qualified them as "11 images that make you think of the most perverse sexual practices", "a series of pornographic shots that go beyond the imagination of any normal person" and -- my personal favorite -- "photographic lessons from the garden of excess". While I am willing to grant the fact that the vomit shot is tasteless and spoils the appeal of the series, by suggesting that she was just being a drunk slut (or maybe it enhances the appeal, if that's where your allegiance lies), the rest of the pictures are hardly exceptional, thematically speaking. I mean, most of them would barely make it as "hardcore" on any decent porn site. Shoving household ustensiles up one's vagina? Haven't we all done it? I may well have lost my virginity to the thin neck of my shampoo bottle! Blow jobs? Probably the most popular Google search! Showing off one's ass? Please!
I'm still in doubt as to which picture I like best. I oscillate between the pussy cocktail and the blow job. The former is artistically valuable, while the latter is plain, good old cocksucking (I really dug the smudged lipstick action, although there could definitely have been more saliva involved). But I digress...
The point is that the moral vehemence with which the people have reacted to the pictures is abhorrent. The tabloid who published them could naturally not have been expected to present them as anything other than "scandalous". But from "scandalous" to "lessons from the garden of excess" there's a long way, baby. A friend of mine -- a tall, dark, businesslike hottie with an up-and-coming job and a boyfriend of 4 years -- was telling me today: "You know, I can maybe accept that she would do things like that. But she should have at least been clever and not let anyone photograph her while she was doing it". This coming from a liberated, independent 21 year-old.
Dude, this is why I don't usually sleep with Romanians: instead of calling me a whore during, they would call me a whore afterwards. And it simply wouldn't do.
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Oh yes. I've received a personals message from a couple that are looking for a "clean, open-minded girl". Should I?
I am afraid I may be getting a tiny bit sick. I've been feeling pretty darn miserable today, a condition I am trying to leave behind, goddammit! I found myself contemplating anti-depressants again -- although I will probably not ask my doctor for a prescription.
I don't know... I am a very big druggie, but I am wary of messing in a significant way with any part of my body. This is why I'm not on the pill. At the same time, I am starting to be certain that my misery is the result of an inability to cope -- whether of a chemical or morphologic order, I am not able to say. Objectively speaking, I live a happy life (that's the eternal story, folks...). I have my own place, a good job, a fairly decent situation at school, a few things I love -- and am able -- to do, a few appreciated talents, a kitty and an Addy. Yet, I often find myself disinclined to do anything at all; I weep at least a couple times a week; I need to watch a lot of movies; and I visit the NAMI site a lot.
Neh, I'll be alright. One day, I'm sure, I will look back on all this and laugh. Amen.
I don't know... I am a very big druggie, but I am wary of messing in a significant way with any part of my body. This is why I'm not on the pill. At the same time, I am starting to be certain that my misery is the result of an inability to cope -- whether of a chemical or morphologic order, I am not able to say. Objectively speaking, I live a happy life (that's the eternal story, folks...). I have my own place, a good job, a fairly decent situation at school, a few things I love -- and am able -- to do, a few appreciated talents, a kitty and an Addy. Yet, I often find myself disinclined to do anything at all; I weep at least a couple times a week; I need to watch a lot of movies; and I visit the NAMI site a lot.
Neh, I'll be alright. One day, I'm sure, I will look back on all this and laugh. Amen.
Sunday, May 18, 2003
This is going to be a short post, as I'm going to see Hable con Ella (does the capitalize-the-important-words-in-a-title rule apply in Spanish? how about a Spanish title in an English text?) in about 20 minutes. I've watched a lot of films since I got back from the States -- they are, most definitely, a coping mechanism. It is quite easy to forget about your own self when somebody else's story rushes atcha. And this, according to some, is the intrinsic value and purpose of art: to provide perspective through temporary oblivion.
I have a kitty! I adopted a kitten I found at school on Friday. She's a tiny black-and-white contraption, playful and fond of tuna, but not (yet) too keen on trashing my place, which is a very good thing. Then again, she is, at this very moment, clinging on to the bottom of the curtain and swinging to and fro... Oh well.
My mother called earlier to ask how I was doing, and we had one of our (fortunately, rare) dissonant dialogues, in which we cannot understand each other even on the most routine topics. I love my mother, and I appreciate her greatly; but sometimes, the fundamental differences between us make empathy impossible. She is not of the Family of Spirit. Tis unfortunate, but unhelpable.
I have a kitty! I adopted a kitten I found at school on Friday. She's a tiny black-and-white contraption, playful and fond of tuna, but not (yet) too keen on trashing my place, which is a very good thing. Then again, she is, at this very moment, clinging on to the bottom of the curtain and swinging to and fro... Oh well.
My mother called earlier to ask how I was doing, and we had one of our (fortunately, rare) dissonant dialogues, in which we cannot understand each other even on the most routine topics. I love my mother, and I appreciate her greatly; but sometimes, the fundamental differences between us make empathy impossible. She is not of the Family of Spirit. Tis unfortunate, but unhelpable.
