My most beautiful friend, Ella, c/p-ed a link to an article about emancipation to me: Click here (sorry, it's in Dutch). It's really about two books: "Female Chauvinist Pigs" and the dutch book "Stout" (meaning "Naughty" in English). The first is about how emancipation missed the mark and the second apparently confirms this by being a really stupid book.
Intrigued by the subject I bought "Female Chauvinist Pigs" by Ariel Levy. I devoured it, cover to cover and feel horrible now. I discovered I am a chauvinist pig.

The thing I'm doing is called 'Tomming', after "Uncle Tom's Cabin". To make black people look good the writer made them act like white people. At the time this didn't piss anyone off, but later on people realized it and wrote some angry essays. Girls are Tomming in the sense that they act like men, either because they feel that's the way to be strong or because they think "if you can't beat them, join them".
I do degrade other women by calling them girly-girls and I do like to look at sexy girls and act loud and boisterous from time to time. I'm a bad feminist.

That's not all there is to it though. The book covers a lot more and makes a lot of sense from time to time. My mind is still buzzing from the information overload and all the things I knew but forgot or didn't know, but just realized.
I will have to think about it some more and will refrain from using the term 'girly-girl' until I figured it out.

posted by Marian @ 11:21 AM 4 comments

Yesterday we had the last official collective meeting for Mediatechnology of this academical year. All project groups had to present what ideas they had come up with for their installation. Ours got two thumbs up, so we're going to proceed on this track and make a test version soon.
The barbeque afterwards was nice and the beer cheap. It's a good feeling to know I have no class anymore for a few months, but there's still a lot to do.
I'll miss my trips to Leiden.

posted by Marian @ 10:00 AM 2 comments

Inspired by something Menno's neighbour, Sya, wrote on her weblog http://www.sya-titia.nl/weblog/ about a documentary (Click for an online version) my mind started buzzing. Self image, made identity, women, how they are, how they should be, how they are different from men are all theme's that interest me tremendously.
Ever since I took a course in women's studies I have been fascinated by gender issues. At first I was mostly shocked by how short-sighted the feministic approach really was, they acted like scientists, but only wanted to study one side of the story, the female side. They tried to teach me scientific research methods, and encourage their students to ask "the other question". My essay regarding white males got the highest possible grade.
At this point in my life, I could look gorgeous, I'm positive about it and confident. If I let my hair grow, lost a few pounds, wore more short skirts and some make-up, I would be a catch to die for. I could have ten admirers on each finger, as the Dutch saying goes. Sadly for all those men, this girl doesn't care enough to make the effort.
But, I was wondering... Maybe I could do scientific research about all the theme's I mentioned, by studying my life. What if I did try to live up to the beauty-standards that the media are feeding me? What exactly would happen? Would I have an easier life and be more succesful professionally? Would I get annoyed by all the men sucking up to me and offering to do my dishes and laundry?
It's just an idea and I can't think of what questions I would really like to answer, or what problem I would like to study with this research.
I will think some more about it.

posted by Marian @ 7:37 PM 11 comments

I have to share this with the world: I called Dell about a problem with my keyboard, and the next day I got a new one, for free. The guy at the phone was very friendly and professional, the keyboard was (as I mentioned) FREE.
Ok, their product was apparently crappy enough to malfunction after one and a half year, but they didn't complain about it and instantly resolved the problem. This is how these things should go, this is how you get good publicity and satisfied customers. Congratulation to Dell for making me happy.

posted by Marian @ 5:11 PM 0 comments

After last weeks presentations things calmed down considerably. Of course there's still the occasional project meeting and social obligations have to be met, but most of the time I'm contently doing whatever I feel like.


I = teh b1ggest n3rd.

posted by Marian @ 11:19 AM 3 comments