Waxing

So, as a modern woman I have been thinking about bikini waxing. Of course, as a modern woman, I employed the great and mighty Googles in my research work (Note: I definitely refrained from searching images). I found some interesting information.

First, what are the options for a bikini wax? There are basically three options from what I can tell.

• bikini - for the “Modest”…hair is removed that extends outside of the panty line or crease of thigh.
• Brazilian bikini - for the “Wild”…all hair is removed including backside.
• modified bikini - for the “Adventuresome”…a thin strip of hair is left down the middle of the bikini area (a.k.a. a “landing strip”).

If you want to search wikipedia, there are photos that show all three of these options as well as another photo titled “natural” (or something like that) for comparison. I’m not posting those!

Second, in this research I came across some curious new trends.

• Vajazzling:  The bedazzler might come to mind. Well, that’s not too far off.  This is a “vaginal adornment” – for the exterior, that is. Yep, rhinestones are applied in a design to a just-waxed pubic area.  I have no idea why someone would do this nor do I have any thoughts on how one’s partner might react upon encountering a vajazzled hoo-hoo.
• Vattoos: Temporary vaginal tattoos – you know, another way to accessorize the newly bald area…  From what the interweb tells me, vattoos “are generally done post-Brazilian wax (you need a ‘clean canvas’ for the artist). They're applied a few inches above your actual girlie bits, and the airbrush-and-stencil ‘vat’ washes away after a week.”

Third, there were also more serious thoughts on the general trend towards hairlessness. 

• The Psychology Today web site has a “Sexuality Today” blog and on this blog I found a November 2010 post entitled, “Contemporary Sexuality and the Brazilian Wax.” The post asked some interesting questions about why recent generations are disgusted with body hair, which includes the oiled, hairless-chested male models as much as the women with bald vaginas.  Taking the discussion a bit further, the author lamented that the “efforts [of previous generations] to encourage young women to celebrate their bodies come to this - to their having to alter them so their partners won't be disgusted? This can't be progress.”  This hadn’t occurred to me but is a question worth asking.
• A Slate.com article provides some insight as to what it’s like to be one who does the waxing.  Whether or not one has had a wax, one has likely thought how odd it must be to have a job where you look at panty areas all day. 

I’m not going to comment on whether or not I actually walked into the waxing studio and took the next step. I just thought others would be interested in the research.

It’s Complicated

I really thought I was going to hate this movie.  I didn’t hate it and I’m pretty certain I’m not the target demographic. I found it to be somewhat witty and delightful, even if it was in a world of extreme privilege. 

It’s Complicated (2009)

Netflix description:

Ten years after their divorce, Jane (Meryl Streep) and Jake (Alec Baldwin) Adler unite for their son's college graduation and unexpectedly end up sleeping together. But Jake is married, and Jane is embarking on a new romance with her architect, Adam (Steve Martin). Now, she has to sort out her life -- just when she thought she had it all figured out.

The chemistry between Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin was surprising and engaging.  The whole movie had a sort of lightness – like “life lite.”  Serious life issues are coming up but the movie is designed in such a way that you can’t get too serious about those issues with the prancy music, the comic relief characters and beautiful things everywhere.

The two characters that I found the most enjoyable were John Krasinski and Steve Martin – the funny guys.  Steve Martin really came alive in the pot smoking section of the movie.  I never even imagined that there would be a pot smoking section in this movie!!  What a pleasant surprise.  John Krasinski is fine in The Office (I don’t watch TV but have caught the American version of The Office  a few times here and there) but was AWESOME in Away We Go.  He is  a charming addition to this film.   

Oh, did I mention privilege?  It was a bit over the top.  I mean Steve Martin was her architect and he was tasked with designing her a bigger kitchen.  In one part of the film she just gives her college-age son her credit card!  Who would do that?  Slate does a Spoiler Special on this movie and does a good job of covering this point.

Nothing

Hey, guess what's going on here that's interesting? That's right - nothing. Today was just a normal day, which isn't necessarily bad. It went like this:

• Wake up at 6:30 am
• Breakfast (homemade smoothie, dry toast, black tea, water) and internet (thank you bloggers)
• Shower and get ready stuff
• Walk to work and listen to Slate Spoiler Special podcast on "Up in the Air" No matter how smooth Clooney is or how candy-coated they say it is, I think it was a perfect movie for our times. It hit on many elements of our modern lives, modern technology, modern relationships and the good and bad consequences of it all. It was smooth but not completely devoid of depth or tragedy.
• Arrive at work and work...attend meeting and get peeved. Talk to co-worker and feel better. Continue to work.
• Leave work and go to gym. Swear never to visit Karyn's desk for mini 3 musketeers again (Don't miss the *awesome* recipes at the web site).
• Meet Sandy in the lobby. Catch the 20 bus.
• Get off at Marczyk's. Purchase spicy hummus, an avocado, smokey chipotle chips, baguette and red wine.
• Arrive home. Reheat chili. Eat chili with a Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout (provided by Tony E).
• Purchase animal photo from etsy - Sharon Montrose.
  
• Look at the interwebs until eyes bleed...
• brush, floss, do 5 minutes of crossword puzzle and then sleep.
  

There you have it. Genevieve's Monday.

Oh, here is a Sharon Montrose example (but not the one I got):

XX

I'm a fan of Slate.com both the web site and blogs as well as the podcasts. In addition to the existing podcasts (culture gabfest and political gabfest), Slate has recently started a new gabfest: the Double X Gabfest. There is also a Double X web site, which I haven't spent a whole lot of time on. So, what is it? It's a site devoted to women - not feminist issues per se but women in the news, what these really interesting women (who created and contribute to the site) are reading and thinking and analyzing.

For instance they've got a "Sotomayor Buzzword Watch" which is "keeping track of the arsenal of assaults from her attackers." The most recent podcast (linked above) discussed Sotomayor, of course, a recent study on womens' happiness in America and women action heros (i.e. why aren't there any good ones?).

I'd recommend giving the podcast a listen. Like the other Gabfests, this one makes you feel like you're taking part (kind of) in a conversation and it's real people just talking. These particular real people happen to be women who are lawyers, journalists, movie critics, news analysts and much more.

TV

The yuppie that I am, I have spent this weekend listening to podcasts, watching movies ("films"), knitting, reading books and magazine articles, and making bread (but *not* in a bread machine). I made blueberry bread but the loaves came out sort of less plump than in the past but still tasty:

Anyway, I noted a theme in a few of my mental consumables this weekend: TV.

The Slate Cultural Gabfest podcast, an old episode of This American Life, and my choice in viewing all involved this. I am not really a TV watcher but this topic comes up occasionally in conversation. It always sounds so uppity when I mention that I don't watch TV. What people usually don't hear is why I don't watch - because I'm a freaking addict. If I had cable I'd be about 300 lbs and have jelly for brains because I'd just sit there and channel surf endlessly.

This past week's Slate Culture Gabfest (The Mature Adaptation Edition) - two of the three Gabfest participants do not watch TV and one does. They had an interesting conversation about network TV versus...what, HBO TV? Where is TV going with things like the internet, Tivo, and Hulu around. They also talked about why two of them don't watch TV. Sadly there was no real answer other than time constraints. The show often discusses TV shows but doesn't usually ponder TV in general. Interesting.

An episode of This American Life (What I Learned From Television) from 2008 had TV as its theme. The most interesting act (the show is almost always performed 3 acts) was David Rakoff's bit. He hadn't watched TV for 20 (?) years and the show's producers wondered what someone who has been away for so long would think of TV today. At first he couldn't watch it, then he got into it too much, but in the end he rejected it. He admitted feeling a bit stupid about the things he found funny (e.g. America's funniest home videos) and not really getting other things (e.g. MTV's My Super Sweet 16).

Finally, we started watching a now ended show from HBO - The Wire. We watched the first three episodes of the first season. I was sort of luke warm on it but Sandy really liked it. It takes a while for me to get into things. It seems we're tentatively moving forward with our viewing of the show and trying not to get totally addicted. We've established a "No Blockbuster" rule, which means that we have to wait for the episodes to come in on Netflix and not cheat by running to Blockbuster (we spent a lot of money doing this watching Six Feet Under on DVD).

Ok, well I've gone on loooong enough. Stay tuned for more in the near future.