Image via facebook.
Holding a woman by the throat is a perfectly acceptable means of restraint in Brazil. Just be really, really careful to cover her body with a towel first.
We wouldn’t want to offend anyone, would we?
Maria Santos Gorrostieta: Short Term Memory
Maria Santos Gorrostieta. Image via golpepolitico.com.
At another stage in my life, perhaps I would have resigned from what I have, my position, my responsibilities as the leader of my Tiquicheo.
But today, no. It is not possible for me to surrender when I have three children, whom I have to educate by setting an example, and also because of the memory of the man of my life, the father of my three little ones, the one who was able to teach me the value of things and to fight for them.
Maria Santos Gorrostieta made this statement in 2010, days after she was wounded when a vehicle she was travelling in was attacked by a gang of men armed with machine guns. It was the second attempt on her life in just over three months. During the first, her husband was killed.
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Simon Cowell vs. Martin Gore: Shooting Stars
Martin Gore. 32 years into his career, officially sanctioned “weirdo”. Image via tumblr.
Do you remember those heady days when musicians were renowned for making ill advised, controversial and frequently stupid remarks? When the whole point of joining a band was to make music that would prompt teenagers to festoon themselves in crushed velvet and cover their walls with posters of androgynous young men with unacceptable haircuts and the kind of mutinous expressions usually worn by young offenders?
Those bands, when they weren’t having near death experiences or splitting up over musical differences would write lyrics that scared the shit out of middle-class suburban parents who would become convinced that their once delightful and cheery child was on the verge of suicide and hammer on the bedroom door at frequent intervals, just to check?
We, of course, never answered. We were too busy giving birth to our existential crises.
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Keith Richards: But What Would Bill Say?
Keith. Bugs not pictured. Image: Ian Gavan/Getty Images Europe.
During a live show that eventually ended up on his album, ‘Dangerous’, comedian Bill Hicks was riffing on the subject of healthy living when he made the following observation:
Keith Richards outlived Jim Fixx, the runner and health-nut dude. . . . The plot thickens. . . . Keith Richards is shooting heroin into his eyeballs and still touring, all right? I’m getting mixed signals. I picture nuclear war and two things surviving: Keith and bugs.
Twenty-two years on, nuclear stalemate has prevented Hick’s theory from being proven fully, although to be fair, Keith himself has given it a good old crack – surviving a heavy fall from a coconut tree whilst on holiday in Fiji and attempting to inhale his Dad. Yesterday he was onstage celebrating the Stone’s 50th anniversary.
Somewhere in this godforsaken sphere of consciousness, Bill Hicks is laughing his ass off, y’know. Between cigarettes.
Masculinity Misfire: Team Gay 1 Team Straight 0
When they released their cautionary video, “Gay Men Will Marry Your Girlfriend” a week or so ago, collegehumor.com were presumably attempting to bring some light relief and positive publicity to the still contentious issue of gay marriage in the United States. In this they succeeded – the video went viral, everyone laughed, felt a bit better and then returned to the work some poor unsuspecting employer was paying them for.
Sadly, the same cannot be said of the response.
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Casey Legler: Blazing A Trail
By definition, fashion challenges boundaries of perception.
Whether some of those boundaries need to be challenged is another matter. The fashion industry is frequently blamed for providing us with unrealistic imagery that lead to problems such as eating disorders, negative self-image and obsessions with personal appearance that border on the narcissistic, as well as dispassionately using controversy to promote a message or product.
Facebook: Answering Life’s Eternal Questions
Image via facebook.
Prior to the ceasefire in the latest incarnation of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, this image of two men in New York asking a perfectly reasonable question was published on Facebook and went viral.
Really. Given all we know and regardless of where we come from, why can’t we all just get along?
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Skunk Anansie: Time Waits For No-One
Image: PacificCoastNews.com.
Apart from Skin from Skunk Anansie, that is.
The seventeen years (!) since ‘Paranoid & Sunburnt‘ provided the soundtrack to my summer look to to have had little no influence over her appearance or her attitude to life.
Can’t blame ’em. Too intimidated, probably.
FEMEN: Exposing The ‘Sanctity’ Of Marriage
Image via facebook.
An anti-gay marriage march in Paris on Sunday was disrupted by topless FEMEN protesters who let off smoke bombs and chanted ‘In Gay We Trust’. So incensed by the intrusion into what they obviously considered to be their territory, some marchers, including an otherwise respectable looking ‘gentleman’ in glasses and a red anorak (0:30), responded by chasing, kicking and punching the protesters.
No wonder they’re so desperate to keep marriage between one man and one woman. I’m pretty sure these guys wouldn’t be anywhere near as handy with their fists if they were married to a bloke.
Feminist Critiques Or Bound By Our Own Conceits?
There are few news outlets at the moment who aren’t filling countless column inches with opinions, reviews and essays on the cinematic and literary phenomenons that are Twilight & 50 Shades Of Grey. Hell, it’s hard not to.
Interestingly though, alongside claims that female stars front and centre equal a positive shift towards a more gender balanced entertainment industry, one or two voices have cited these role models as reductive, in part due to their stringent adherence to gender stereotypes.
This may or may not be valid, but if fictional storylines of women being elevated, protected and cherished are so broadly embraced by the audience, is it more useful to criticise the messenger or examine why they might be so appealing in the first place? I’m going to have a crack at the latter.
I’m feeling a bit awkward this morning.
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Kelly Welles 