One-word meme

( Under here )

Well, today was a bit mad in terms of work.  They were helping me this morning because - again - the pile was full of stuff from last night.  In the meantime, a whole bunch of urgent stuff came in, so I wasn't getting through the yesterday-stuff in the slightest, so they kept coming up to get rid of it... so by the afternoon, when they'd cleared the 'backlog' but there were STILL urgents coming in, I was starting to flounder a little bit... but after some manic super-fast typing, I managed to calm it all down again... there's about six things in the tray for tomorrow, plus whatever comes in overnight, and then the saga starts again. ;)

I suppose I'm just so used to NOT getting any help that it's a rather alien concept... but given the fiasco yesterday with the amendment that took 50 minutes of retyping, sometimes the help is less t han helpful.  I think I need to take a list into my 1-to-1, if it ever happens...

I must post a picture for jackiesjottings to show her the current length of my hair, at least before I cut it all off again.  I've still got the bright pink dye from last year that I was going to use for Pride and didn't get around to, so I've decided - or at least half-decided - to cut my hair short again and dye it pink for the duration.  I don't know what work will have to say about it, but at least the pink eventually dyes out and turns blonde.  Once the blonde has grown out I'll cut it again, and then start to grow it out - at least with straighteners that annoying in-betweeny stage won't be too aggravating.

It's just reaching a point now where it's getting annoying... it tangles as soon as look at it, and my original reason for growing it was that I was bored with it being short becuase I couldn't do anything with it - and I'm not doing anything with it now anyway.  Besides, I don't want to spend another summer like the last one with a huge mass of hair at my neck.  Yes, short, easy-to-manage hair for me, I think...  I'm only growing it out again because Paul has moaned so much about preferring it long...

So, yes, a photo, for posterity.

And that's that.  At least it's Friday tomorrow.

New icon!

There's a story behind it.  If the die-hard Little Britain fans are trying to place the quote and failing, that's because (AFAIK) it's not from Little Britain.

It's actually from the Wellington.  One of Asa's replacement hostesses said it in response to Gobby Paul being a bitch.  And naturally, I had to make it into an icon. :D

I need to get back into the habit of icon-making.  I saved an entire X-Files screencap site to my favourites over a year ago with the intention of iconising, and I could definitely now make better Moulin Rouge and Farscape.  My next two icons were going to be Jerry Springer: The Opera and The Mighty Boosh, (only a vague idea for both, and possibly a weird combination of the two...), but then, my next layout was going to be Charlie & the Choclate Factory and Labyrinth and Nightmare Before Christmas and... yeah, you get the idea.

Anyway.  ICON!

I will do requests if anyone has another fandom the quote would fit... just give me a photo or a helpful link.

Hairy Women of the World, Unite!

I just watched F*** Off, I'm a Hairy Woman on BBC3, wherein comedienne Shazia Mirza decided to grow all of her body hair out for six months, pretty much as a social experiment.

My main conclusion from watching this programme is that All Men Are Bastards.  Moreover, All Men have been Bastards apparently since the dawn of time, as hairless women seem to be entirely a male construct.  There are paintings as far back as Ancient Greek times where women are depicted as completely hairless other than that on their heads.

In the show, Shazia went to various places to do her research, and then decided, with the help of a London artist, to put on a fashion show in the middle of London Fashion Week of lingerie partly made using real, human body hair, modelled by hairy women.  99% of the models they asked to do the show point blank refused because it was 'weird', and they didn't want to grow their body hair out.  One agreed.  "It saves shaving it, doesn't it?"  Quite.

Shazia went to Loaded magazine to try and get them to sponsor her fashion show, and the editor plainly refused.  "We think our readers might be quite disgusted to see that".  Well, yes, if you're going to show photos of hairless, shiny women.  The most disturbing thing in this was an 11-year-old girl getting her first legwax, as though it was an important rite of passage.  Apart from being unhealthily skinny, one also has to be brown and shiny to be beautiful these days, and unfortunately it's even getting into the minds of pre-pubescents.

She also mocked some women up with fake facial and body hair, and sent them speed dating with some rugby players.  Unsurprisingly, none of them got a date. All Men Are (Apparently) Superficial, also.  What was really rich was a stubbly Italian man saying he was put off by facial hair (in this case, a moustache) because of the "friction" when kissing a woman.  Hypocritical, much?  They were all disgusted and freaked out by the concept of bodily hair on women.  A popular concept was that it was part of a woman's daily routine, and that hairy women "don't take care of themselves".  Hairy = filthy, in these men's minds.

And then, she went on BBC Five Live to advertise her fashion show there, and the first influx of callers - of course - were from men saying how wrong it was.  Then she got some calls of solidarity from hairy ladies who hadn't shaved in years, or ever, and were perfectly happy with their hairy bodies.  She met up with women with problem, fast-growing facial hair; she met a beautiful woman with a beard.  She had an influx of emails from hairy ladies who said they would do her fashion show (although at that point they didn't know what they'd be modelling), and appeared on Richard & Judy to promote it again.  Richard Madeley is also A Bastard. ;)

The fashion show was a complete success and ended on a very high point of euphoria for all involved (lovely to watch), with a whole catwalk of 32 models plus audience members flicking Vs at the camera and chanting "FUCK OFF!  I'M A HAIRY WOMAN!" with great authority.

I found myself getting incredibly annoyed by the opinions and attitudes of all of the men Shazia encountered in her investigations.  All of them thought that body hair on women was the biggest social taboo in the universe.  A lot felt physically sick at the sight of female body hair.  Anyone would think she was asking them to eat their own excrement.  I don't consider myself a feminist, as such, but it's things like this which really get my goat and makes me wholly understand why some women are.  I get annoyed at Paul, even, because he demands I shave my legs regularly because he's weirded out otherwise.  But obviously, it's okay for his face to look like a a porcupine.  That's socially acceptable, and I think that looks far worse than a few stray leg hairs.

The fact is, if none of us ever shaved to start with, nobody would notice.  Our hair would not have to grow back thicker than when it started, and hence we wouldn't have to keep shaving it off.

If I didn't have to shave, I wouldn't - by which I mean, if SOCIETY didn't expect me to shave, I wouldn't.  As it stands I only shave my armpits regularly and my legs when I absolutely have to (and then regret it two days later when the g'damned itching starts up as the hair comes back), and that's just because I'm more comfortable with bare 'pits.  If you ask me to shave anything else, the hair won't be the only thing I'm shaving...

So.  A poll, if you will.  There aren't many men on my f-list (and most of them have probably already run for the hills at the sight of the subject alone :P) so this is for the women on there, hairy, bald or otherwise. :)

( Poll under the cut )

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to sit here and BE HAIRY and therefore a wholly UNSUITABLE WOMAN.  Unclean!  Unclean!