with all the new stuff I’ve been learning!

But of course it’s been a very *uncomfortable* process.

You know that feeling when you’re in the midst of the learning curve,  you’re not proficient yet, you’re still struggling…

Well that’s where I am right now.

And it’s funny but with this artist residency, I’m dealing with people who are at the beginning of the learning curve, and in explaining things to them it actually makes me feel incredibly intelligent (ha! ha!).

And I recall all the things I’ve learned and grown through.

Now to get to the next level.

Had a conversation with one of my son in laws and my hubby and my son about what they would do in a certain circumstance, and in the process I realized, ONCE AGAIN, how differently men think from women.

I really like the way men tend to think.

It seems more intelligent than women.

But not really.

They’re more blunt and up front, which is something I tend to admire.

And yet they can also be harsh and off-putting, which is something I don’t admire.

But then I realize that these are not all men I’m talking about, these are only the small subset of men that are major forces in my life.

And that leads to me to think of how self-selected they are.

I tend to surround myself with honest and upright people. Don’t have much time or use for game players and double talkers!

So the men I’m referring to are a small subset of all men in that these are honest and upright, so no way does it refer to all of them out there!

And I start thinking of all the commercials that put men down these days.

The cold commercials that refer to men as ‘babies’.

And then I think of my husband who sniffles through any cold or flu he has with such stoicism that I usually can’t even tell he’s sick.

Whereas I’m the one grumbling and whimpering under the covers.

Oh it’s all nonsense!

And I’ve been thinking how most of the movies out there tend to sell us a bill of goods that women are emancipated, liberated! And yet the movie roles all tend to feature MEN. The women and girls are reduced to Amazonian stereotypes and that’s supposed to satisfy the feministas, and it does!!!

Like in the movie How to Train Your Dragon (an excellent movie by the way), the girl Astrid character, played by America Ferrera or whatever her name is (can’t be bothered googling it!) is this hot tough chick with a few lines, but the bulk of the heroism is done by Hiccup.

You could interchange these Amazonian sidekick love interests in any of the movies easily! I’m sure! And not even miss a beat!

It’s LAZY storytelling! Using stock characters! And the audiences eat it up! And women in the west watch it and think they’re so much more better off than their Middle Eastern counter parts.

And then you have stupid stupid music videos all inspired by that stupid stupid Miley Cyrus twerking nonsense. #mileycyrus #twerking

The most recent one where the person reviewing it actually said it looked gross, so of course I wanted to see it and then immediately regretted it afterwards, but took away an interesting observation, so I kind of don’t regret it at the same time.

If you can *learn* from something is it still profane??? I actually don’t think so. I think that these people going to these lengths to get noticed is a cautionary tale for the rest of us with enough beans to resist the trends and stand on our own identities.

I won’t mention the video name, don’t want to give it any more publicity (ha!!) but suffice it to say it involves gyrating and basically nudity with a thong, and the whole theme of the song is about how large a girl’s particular body part is.

This is empowerment???

One recent promoter on line tweeted it as soft porn, and yup, that about sums it up.

I call it the  #howlowcanyougo phenomenon.

All these women are competing with each other to degrade themselves sexually!

So all these observations are rattling around in my head, making me feel all unsettled inside.

And yet curiously also making me feel all the more that I’m on the right path #islam

I *like* that I cover up the goods!

I *like* that my junk is private!

And boy am I glad that stuff is forbidden!

Let the girls struggle with it, but stay away from it. John Oliver summed it up well when he talked about fully dressed men walking by women in bikinis at the Miss America pageant. #johnoliver

And it reminded me of the ancient Egyptian concept of the fact that the more clothes you wear, the higher up in society you are. Slaves were the naked ones. And now the naked ones are the ones with their butts in the air, on stage, trying to shock the crowd.

Yuk.

And what happens when they get too old?

What happens when they reach the ‘best before’ date, when their sexuality expires?

When they’re young they never think of that do they?

But live by the sword and you’ll die by the sword. And it reminds me of that autobiography of Liz Taylor’s that I read a while back. Where some producer had told her that they couldn’t imagine Marilyn Monroe old, only young, but that Liz had aged well.

And that goes back to the way men think. It’s like they like women, and they use them sexually, but then they got on with it, and are more focused on DOING things.

Whereas women seem to be more focused on LOOKING hot, alluring, glamorous, what have you, these days. And pity the girls who don’t fit the mold!

Stupid stupid! Don’t they realize that’s just another way to distract them and keep them from achieving their potential???

And that reminded me of Pippi Longstocking, who didn’t give a hang about how she looked. She went out and did things!

More and more things to think of!

And yeah, I want to tell girls, forget the mirror! Get out and DO something! #forgetthemirror