Next week, at this time….I’ll be married.

I completely and totally understand why ostrichs bury their heads in the sand…I realize its not a very effective method of handling stress…but it makes complete and total sense right now.

I wonder….

If Caster Semenya was white, blonde, well-to-do and she blew away  her competition at a sporting event…would her gender be in question? Would her medical tests and results be announced on the nightly news? How much has the Eurocentric, supermodel ideal of not only beauty ideals but standards for how a woman “should” look become ingrained in our minds?

A girl, and she is a girl, from a rural South African village with corn rows, a preference for pants rather than skirts, and defined muscles is judged by her appearance and is forced to prove her gender. And yet don’t lots of girls and women wear their hair short all over the world? Aren’t there girls everywhere who prefer pants to skirts and dresses? Aren’t there women working out in gyms right now with the goal of building defined muscles?

To announce to the world that a teenage girl is in fact being required to prove that she is indeed female is insensitive and cruel….to immediately assume that she was somehow cheating, hiding her gender and hint she isn’t capable of what she’s acheived is demeaning. Her coaches, siblings, parents….people who have known her all her life have all stated that she’s female, why force her to undergo invasive medical procedures?

Had she not been a black South African village girl…would her triumph in Berlin been untainted? Would she have been subjected to medical tests and had those results made public? Would her privacy have been respected and protected?

Inspiration

There’s a number of things I admire about Michelle Obama – her fashion choices, her honesty, her professional accomplishments among them. But really, I want arms like that!

I’ve always been terrified of developing bat wings one day and to that end have been lifting free weights for years…but I think I need to step up my game.

Anyone know what her workout is?

You Know What’s Annoying?

Ok, so alot of things are annoying. People who talk during the movie, hangnails, Spiedi…but my specific annoyance right now is people who don’t RSVP. It’s not hard or complex or difficult. You get an invitiation and enclosed there’s a card for you to tick off if you’re attending and what you’d like to eat…all you have to is tick off two boxes and put the card back into an envelope and mail it! You don’t even have to look for a stamp! The envelope is already stamped! When someone invites you to something…you’re supposed to let them know if you can make it. Geez.

I need a cookie. Excuse me.

Poker Face

Someone involved in planning the Miss Universe pagent has an incredible poker face, they should start keeping important state secrets. They managed to convince the rest of the organizers that Heidi Montag would be that extra touch of class, beauty, talent….just that special something the pagent needed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SUU_R-ld3M

At Least We’re in Agreement

A couple months ago at my engagement party, a step cousin I haven’t seen in years and who nobody is entirely certain was actually invited thought it was the perfect time to announce his (fourth) engagement. So while my family, the boy’s family and our close friends were there to celebrate with us he wandered around and introduced his (fourth) wife to be to my family. And, being that they’re not his family, nobody really cared all that much. Those guests who did know him didn’t much care either because by the time you get engaged for the fourth time people generally aren’t all that excited. 

His mom called me a few days ago to let me know she’s gotten my wedding invitation and wondering if she could also invite her son and his new fiance. I explained that we were really aiming for a small wedding and due to space restrictions I wouldn’t be able to accommodate them. About five minutes after that conversation he called me and told me that if his fiance couldn’t come to the wedding he wouldn’t come either….at which point I asked if he’d recieved an invitation. A mean question, because I know I didn’t send him one….so when he said he hadn’t I told him that should clear up everything for him. 

And then I danced a little jig to celebrate winning that one.

Ruby: 1  Crazy cousin: 0