A rare trend-related post. I LOVE the americana look for S/S 10. Especially teamed with Marina and the Diamonds’ Hollywood:
Oh baby.
Also, in music, there’s of course the look in Lady Gaga and Beyoncé’s Telephone:
Runway-wise..
Alexander Wang. WISH my hair was long enough to do the plait. Love how big shoulders are still incorporated, don’t think I was ready for them to disappear yet.
D&G. Especially love that fringed/slashed-side vest on the top image.
Luella. This is more of a Desperate Housewives/Bree Hodge (should still be Van de Kamp) americana. LOVE LOVE LOVE the bows.
Mulberry. Obviously with the denim, tan and fringing, but think the little dressed-up dog has a bit of a Paris Hilton vibe to it.
Yuss, love it. I’ve got the blonde, all I need now is to turn my pasty complexion into bronzed perfection, ha.
As if I’m doing this instead of work. Although, I guess it is “fashion”, so, maybe I’ll just count is as er, research?
Is there any way to drop out of the game of life, where it is all about having power over women for sex
IT seems like in 2010 America the only point of life is to gain money, power and status, and to use that position to force women into sex. And sexual pleasure is the be-all end all of life.
I used to rant against the immorality of the New Babylon, in my Cotton Mather fire and brimstone days. But it seems pointless now. Live and let die, I guess.
It just seems like where money and sex are the judgments of a man’s worth, life at least for me is not worth living. I long for nothingness But I admit that it is cowardice that prevents me from seeking freedom from the curse of being. I’m not going to judge the lives of others. But I just can’t live that life.
South Park: Sexual Healing gave a pretty good synopsis of Roissyism. Men are driven to be the alpha chimpanzees. They will seek power, fame, wealth, for the sake of sexual domination.
Ah the cruel nature of existence. Who would want to live in a world like that? Everyone, I guess. It seems I stand completely and entirely alone. Utterly, utterly alone. So why bother using words? Words are by definition social. How can I complain that humanity is inhumane?
The best summary of Roissyism is:
"Roissy is in a sense more reactionary than you are. Being reactionary means understanding and appreciating hierarchy, order, roles, duty, etc. And one of his main points is that men and women are, yes, fundamentally different. Your talk of abstract "human abilities" and "human personalities" smacks of extreme egalitarianism that doesn’t take into fundamental differences between men and women, something a reactionary would consider seriously.
And do you even know what game is? Are you that naive? Or have you never flirted with a girl, or never playfully teased a girl? Game is not mutually exclusive with things like "honor, judgment, thought, affection, sacrifice, or commitment." It’s hilarious that you somehow find game and what Roissy advocates as entailing a "constant state of war." I suppose when boys in school playfully tease and make fun of the girls they like (girls who in turn actually enjoy the attention and teasing, despite coquettishly protesting) they are really laying siege against woman in that eternal war between the sexes.
And I would like to remind you that, um, men and women reproduce sexually, and this biological fact entails competition and all the rest. It seems that the only form of reproduction that would satisfy your ideal conception revealed in this quote would be asexual."
What a dark and horrible world I’m sentenced to. I really could take up Gnosticism, and believe that some horrible Satan created this world. More out of stupidity than ill intent. While God’s back was turned. And that the material world is a curse to be shunned. But why make it a lesser God? Why not just admit that God is cruel and evil. He should have just been content to be Aristotlean, forever contemplating just how awesome, wonderful and perfect he was. By definition when only God existed the universe was perfect, but with wretched matter in motion, imperfection began. Why would a good God destroy perfection to create imperfection? That is the greatest evil of God, Creation! It is precisely as Creator that we worship him, and yet it is in that he is most evil. Not that anyone cares anymore. Our only religion is Ceremonial Deism, so who am I even complaining to? I’m an atheist, but I’m perhaps the last man in America to take religion seriously.
Life is a comedy to those who think, and a tragedy to those who feel. Most true. Man’s asinine inanity, would be very hilarious, to an impartial observer. Why do I care? I’ve cut myself off from humanity for nearly a year. Man is just a abstract concept to me now. Xs and Ys. Variables and coefficients. Why do I care about X and Y?
Well suppose I didn’t care? That solves nothing. To survive I still have to live among man. That I can no longer do. Far too disgusted. Even the stench disgusts me.
Aren’t you rejecting the traditions of classical humanism and Enlightenment rationalism, in favor of fanatical superstition? You have no real ground for condemning man’s choice. Other than gut feeling, your inner light that tells you so.
And is society really so monistic? Is working as Dilbert in some vast grey bureaucracy really a wild orgy?
But whats the point? Why should I work for the sake of biological survival? What does the mind, will, soul, spirit, Geist, owe the body? Ah my poor physical body, what a cruel master you were given. A different mind could have put this body to far better use. But this mind just doesn’t give a damn. Its unwilling to life a finger to preserve ye.
Well then this debate is just a elaborate display of your indecision and cowardice.
You complain that society is too fun, but work not fun enough. Because society is too fun, you refuse to endure the unfun of work.
Everything you complain about is biological. The drive for sex, food, and security. The animalistic nature of man. But isn’t the satisfaction of human needs, precisely the gratifying of animal needs?
If you hate all life and existence, then who can help you?
America is the land of the Anabaptists, Rappites, Amish, Hutterites, Mennonites, Shakers, Baptists, Puritans, Pilgrims, Congregationalists. They were ranters and holy rollers, railing against the corruption of the material world. Abandoning the world of biology. It is upon this rock that America was built. The city upon a hill. How many little towns are there scattered across America, founded by Puritan fanatics? How many Frat Us out there founded by fire and brimstone? America, the last great hope. YOU founded America. This was the New Land. In which you anti-biologists had your chance to escape from decadence and domination.
Puritanism is too powerful for its own good. It is capital-intensive investment that must ultimately out-compete all competitors. Voltaire documented it among the Quakers:
"I am not able to guess what fate Quakerism may have in America, but I perceive it dwindles away daily in England. In all countries where liberty of conscience is allowed, the established religion will at last swallow up all the rest. Quakers are disqualified from being members of Parliament; nor can they enjoy any post or preferment, because an oath must always be taken on these occasions, and they never swear. They are therefore reduced to the necessity of subsisting upon traffic. Their children, whom the industry of their parents has enriched, are desirous of enjoying honours, of wearing buttons and ruffles; and quite ashamed of being called Quakers they become converts to the Church of England, merely to be in the fashion."
Because the Quakers are the most industrious, hardest workers, they become the most ruthless and successful business men. For a few generations frugality in the face of vast wealth may be maintained, but in the end the story of the Quakers is that of America at large.
If you do not want to be corrupted, do not be Puritanical to begin with. Does the Catholic road triumph? A moderate hedonism for the masses, and for those few zealous fanatics, monasteries to safely dispose of them. But you worldly ascetics must seek earthly power. If you fail, you will be great martyrs and the stuff of dreams. But ah if you succeed. The you will be cursed with riches. Invest and produce. That is the mantra of the Puritan. You consume nothing and leave it all to your posterity. Generous in wealth, but ah how selfish in virtue you are to your posterity. You leave them mountains of God and an ocean of sin.
You had your chance, and your chance was America. Where else could you have Shakers? A whole community in celibacy, rid of sex. There was never a more anti-sexual nation founded. And look at what greatness anti-sexualism produced. The mightiest empire, the world has yet seen. You fled Rome, only to build Babylon. Perhaps the Pilgrims were right to be fearful on the dark forests they tread. This untamed dark continent. They believed they had entered Satan’s Empire. Perhaps they were right. But how foolish to believe that Jerusalem could be built within its borders. There how wrong they were.
What good is it? You could hardly create a doctrine more beautiful than that of the Anabaptists. And this is their continent. This is the Republic, THEY founded. Would you do any better? What if you could gather a bunch of Perfecti to settle some distant Galaxy? Would you do any better?
This world just wasn’t made for man. It is not our home. All the feeble projects of mice and men, will always be dashed to pieces. How much smarter this New America is than me. They know they are chimpanzees and enjoy it. What fools their forefathers were. What a fool, I am.
Recently, Rihanna appeared on British talk show, Chatty Man, rocking a mean Cosby-meets-lunch-lady-pin-up look. Take a closer look at her choice of accessories. The popstar wore bracelets by House of Harlow 1960, Nicole Richie’s jewelry line.
The Crystal Pave style consists of a black or creme leather band, surrounded by a geometric pattern of Czech crystals. Although they are not available until April, looks like Riri loves ‘em. She’s been spotted wearing one of Nicole’s bangles again, below.
Watch Rihanna’s “Rude Boy” performance from Chatty Man:
The definition of sexy varies, but I think most of you would agree that there are some common qualities in a “sexy” person including confidence, playfulness, sense of humor, intelligence, compassion, generosity, happiness, talent and lets not forget power.
What images turn you on? The eyes? Hair color? Lips? Tattoos? Rock hard abs? Bubble butt, Big breasts? A little extra meat on the bones? Or really skinny? What is sexy to YOU?
When it comes to image, you don’t have to be God’s gift to the human race, but you do have to have a high self-image. Someone who is sexy needs to feel confident, believe in what they are doing and have a great Attitude with a positive outlook on life.
Are you intimidated by a girl or guy who is too hot? If so what are you afraid of? Feeling inadequate when you are with them or being jealous when they get all the attention?
Are you so hot that people are afraid to approach you for fear of rejection?
Can being that hot be a gift or a curse?
Being too sexy can be hazardous to your career…. Harvard librarian Desiree Goodwin, who holds two advanced degrees from Cornell University, Claimed that she was passed over for promotion 16 times because of her physical attractiveness. Goodwin claimed the jobs she sought were given to women with less experience and education and that a supervisor told her she was perceived as a “pretty girl” who wore “sexy outfits.”
Meanwhile in Italy, Caterina Bonci, a teacher, said she was fired from her job at a state-run school for being too sexy. How sad is it that if you flaunt your figure in a professional setting, colleagues and clients may question your judgment or make unflattering assumptions about your character.
I say, if you’ve got it flaunt it! More power to you! It hasn’t hurt sexy Paris Hilton, Pamela Anderson or Kim Kardashian. Sexy guys like Gilles Marini and Fabio Cannavaro can keep on taking it off for me because I say, “You can never be too sexy.”
From a little less than a year, from December 2008 to October 2009, a string of high profile robberies stunned the Hollywood community. Unlike other crime strikes that tend to target particular a particular neighborhood or area, these criminals preyed on celebrities. Their victims include Paris Hilton, Megan Fox, Brian Austin Green, Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson, and Audrina Patridge to name a few.
Unfortunately, there was no time for styling before these shots were taken. via TruTV
Utilizing the same tools that have made privacy essentially extinct, these criminals executed break-ins that resulted in the acquisition of millions of dollars of loot. Unlike common thieves with guns or knives, these wannabe-celebrities used TMZ, the paparazzi, and Google Maps as their weapons. By monitoring when stars would leave their homes, and mapping out their residences via mapping websites and satellite imaging, they plotted their targets out, and in many cases, entered homes that were often kept unlocked or without any security.
Robbing me was totally not hot. via Socialite Life
Along with predictable items such as jewelry and expensive electronics, the items the “Bling Ring” stole reveal a lot about their motives. Rachel Lee, the 19-year-old alleged mastermind of the ring, tried on Paris’ clothing, slipped on Lindsay’s shoes, and burned to feel what it was like to take a few steps in a famous person’s life. According to Vanity Fair, others, like Roy Lopez, a 27 year old accomplice “allegedly stole close to $2 million worth of [Paris'] jewelry” and Nick Prugo, who claims to have “found about, like, five grams of coke in Paris’ house.” While Paris’ team denies the validity of this statement, after finding this alleged drug stash, Prugo says that he and Lee snorted it and “drove around Mulholland, having the best time of [their] lives.”
Bathroom floors are so glamorous. via Flickr
It was to be short-lived. After bragging about their crimes on Facebook and being caught on various video cameras (including an infamous tape that many believed to implicate Lindsay Lohan in breaking into her own home), the criminals felt the walls closing in on them. By November 2009, Nick Prugo confessed to the crimes, and the five other suspects were quickly apprehended.
The sad story about fame-obsessed wannabes desperate for attention should have ended there. But it didn’t. Tonight, E! will premiere its newest reality series, Pretty Wild. After a contestant on a VH1 reality show was revealed to be a murderer late last year, you would think the standards for what’s acceptable behavior on television would have changed. You’re wrong. E!, known for salacious series about wannabe celebrities, famous for absolutely nothing besides their ability to pose for the camera, has based its newest series on Alexis Neiers. Alexis, coincidentally, happens to be one of the six indicted criminals in the Bling Ring.
We're totes gonna be famous. via E!
Rather than cancel production on the series, E!, that standard-bearer of classiness, has instead moved forward with it, and integrated the court drama into the series. So now, the girl who was so desperate for fame that she terrorized those who had it, may now finally get her wish. The only thing more disgusting is that her mother, Andrea Arlington Dunn, is not only fine with this, but she is happy to promote it. In the March 2009 issue of Vanity Fair, Alexis, Andrea, and Alexis’ “sister” (they aren’t really related) Gabrielle, posed for photos in stilettos, clutching giant purses and accessory-sized dogs. Undoubtedly, if this show is successfully (and given E’s track record with semi-celebrities, it seems it will be), they will soon be on the covers of supermarket tabloids and the homepage of gossip blogs all over the world.
Does this venti make me look fat? via Vanity Fair
I would be naive to imagine that in a society so obsessed with fame and celebrity, people wouldn’t be interested in a story full of drugs, sex, and crime. But at some point a line needs to be drawn. Right? Maybe I’m being too old-fashioned in my belief that criminal behavior shouldn’t be advocated on a network that targets a demographic already prone to emulate the rich and famous. If that’s the case, then I guess I can only hope that Alexis Neiers will soon be sentenced to some serious jail time to prevent her from staying in the news. After all, there are no cameras or paparazzi in prison – as long as E! doesn’t decide that prisoners would make for better TV than mere suspects.
It’s Women’s History Month 2010! Yay! Another month to call attention to the gals.
March 2010. Hmm. Let’s see. How are we gals doing? Well, we have Sarah Palin out there doing stand up and shoppin’ for a reality show. She is just breakin’ all the rules. Gosh, I remember when she first came on the scene. I was intrigued, curious and hopeful, as I always am about a new woman on the scene. Then she got everyone all charged up with her (speechwriter’s) lipstick jokes and I became (and remain) terrified that she’ll end up on a poster next to Eleanor Roosevelt. God Forbid.
We’ve got Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric and Candy Crowley anchoring big news shows. Good. Sonia got in, Hillary’s keepin’ the peace and Obama’s got lotsa gals doing big jobs. That’s a start.
And Maria Shriver’s October Women’s Conference was just da bomb, with everyone from Eve Ensler to Richard Branson addressing all the challenges we women face, especially in light of the big news that for the first time, more than fifty percent of American workers – PAID American workers that is – are female.
But. The kids still know a lot more about Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan than they do about Abigail Adams and Lucretia Mott.
MY daughter is turning thirteen. Becoming a woman and all. We’re Jewish and having the big B.M. (bat-mitzvah – bar for a boy). It’s a beautiful important right of passage. She has been studying and preparing for years! I am so proud of her. And I can’t help but notice how she stuck it out – when she was tired or frustrated or just not in the mood – but she didn’t quit. Did ya hear that Sarah Palin? She didn’t quit. Maybe someday she’ll grow up and be the president. She is learning now about how the right choice is the hard choice and how when you make a commitment – be it to do your chores or learn your Torah portion, you keep it. I wanted to quit several times. I wanted to quit reminding her of her responsibilities and I wanted to quit schlepping her every Sunday morning since she was four years old and then Tuesday afternoons and then Tuesday AND Thursday for tutoring. But like a lot of good woman (and jews) I suffered through it – though never silently. That’s just not my style.
Anyhoo, I like being a role model for my girls. I’m a divorced working mother. I don’t know. Maybe if some big book agent came at me waving a big fat check I could be persuaded to quit my job and go off and write about all the neat and not so neat stuff that happened to me in the last year. Of course, my children would probably think it’s OK to quit too, ‘cause ya know it’s not what ya say it’s what you do right? I have a sixteen-year-old daughter as well who really has her nose to the grindstone taking all those A.P. (Advanced Placement) courses for college. I admire her as much as I admire her sister. Ya see, high school has been really hard on her. It’s really hard anyway but then all this icky stuff happened with her dad and he split and she kinda dropped the academic ball a bit and she had to grow up a little faster than she should have.
I look at my daughters and think about how Victoria Woodhull (the first woman to run for President in 1872) was just fifteen years old when she tried to escape a horrible slave driving religiously fanatic abusive father and mother by marrying, only to learn she married an abusive philandering drunk. She learned that when she had her first baby at sixteen. Sixteen. But she didn’t quit or run off. Nope. She hung in there. Being a women’s history freak has given me the most wonderful appreciation of my daughters. As my sixteen year old prepares for college I think about all the gals who couldn’t go to college. Their parents wouldn’t let them. The school wouldn’t admit them. Society wouldn’t allow them. So they fought. Hell, Lucy Stone saved for nine years until she had enough to go to Oberlin – the ONLY College open to the gals (ad the first one to admit blacks AND females) ‘cause when she asked her dad he said, “what is the girl crazy”? She was thirty years old when she finally got in. She hung in there and became the first gal to debate in public and she was arrested for not paying her taxes (she said “well if I can’t vote I won’t pay taxes!”) and of course founded the Woman’s Journal and kept her name when she was married – oh I could go on an on. SHE – like so many of the gals I just mentioned was a real maverick. And Elizabeth Blackwell – America’s first female doctor – well she only got in to Geneva College on a prank. The all-male student body voted yes thinking it was a joke. And Belva Lockwood – the second women to run for President and the first woman to practice in front of the Supreme Court – well she went though hell every time she tried to get an education. She fought to get admitted to College, then to Law School, then to get her degree issued after she earned it (they didn’t wanna give it to her!) then to practice in front of the Supreme Court. She had to fight for every single solitary thing she got. But she didn’t quit. Nope. She stuck it out. “Stick–to– it-iveness” is what they called it when I was growing up. Perseverance. Look it up Sarah.
Now I have issues with organized religion with its history of sexism (see Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s The Woman’s Bible), but a big fat tenet of being Jewish and the Bat and Bar Mitzvah ceremony is “whoever teaches their child teaches not only their child, but also their child’s child and so on to the end of generations”. They are motivated to make a difference, to pursue peace and justice, and have the tools to succeed.” Yeah, this is right out of the “My Bar/Bat Mitzvah” Booklet given to us by our Temple. I LOVE my Temple. It is very feminized if you will. Our head Rabbi is a woman, the temple President is a woman, and there are loads of women runnin’ the place doing amazing things, role modeling and inspiring my girls. I love it! Social justice, giving back, being part of the community, helping those in need – this is what my children have been learning all these years at my Temple. The same things Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. and Victoria Woodhull and all the gals fought for and sacrificed for. I love the kind of women my daughters have grown up around and been exposed to. The kind of women who – for the most part – say what they mean and mean what they say. The kind of women who are hard working, terribly decent and highly principled with a social conscience. These are the kind of women my daughters have been taught and encouraged to be; by me, the school, the Temple, the community and all those mavericks I keep talking about – the ones that never gave up or backed down. Ever.
My daughter is about to become a woman. She can do many things. But for some reason she cannot tell a joke. Not everyone can.
I’m glad Sarah Palin can. I just wish she could handle being the butt of so many. And, she should only be the kind of woman my daughters are turning into.
Lindsay Lohan is suing internet stock giant eTrade Financial for a cool $100,000,000. That’s a lot of zeros. But does she have a case? On a personal, yet still unbiased opinion I think she DOES contrary to popular belief. The uproar is about a recent eTrade commercial featuring those talking babies that I thought were funny in the beginning but not anymore. The woman behind the voice states “…and that milkaholic Lindsay wasn’t over?” In baby terms a “Milkaholic” would be that of an “Alcoholic” to adults. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who they’re referring too. A lot of people are saying she’s a washed up actress, no one likes her yadda-yadda-yadda, but that is irrelevant to this particular issue.
Case in point. If you’re in coversation with somebody and you mention “Paris, Audrina, Miley and yes, Lindsay”, the other person knows who you’re talking about. Although they aren’t Michael Jackson status, they still are part of the first name only club. Case in point part dos. It took me all of about .30 seconds to prove this to myself as well. Google-ing the word “Lindsay” pulls up over 51 MILLION results with you know who as the top spot.
So point proven that the media cannot say it wasn’t about her. Owned. Moving to the money situation. Hell if it was me too I’d want $100M! But lets be serious even she knows she won’t get that. What people fail to realize is that celebs have a team of lawyers working for them and that’s the strategy you’re supposed to aim high then work your way down. I honesty feel she has a valid case with valid points and even if she gets $10k, a win is a win.
The Crystal Pave style consists of a black or creme leather band, surrounded by a geometric pattern of Czech crystals. Although they are not available until April, looks like Riri loves ‘em. She’s been spotted wearing one of Nicole’s bangles again, below.
