rants

Tourist Season at the Gym: What’s Your Pet Peeve?

January 4, 2012

It’s tourist season at the gym! And let me be the first to say that I love a lot of things about the first of the year New Resolution-ers. So much energy! So much enthusiasm! So much more laughter about the bizarre rules the Gym Buddies and I use to play basketball! (Laughing with us or at us? Considering we made Gym Buddy Allison do a personalized cheer that spelled out each of our names with her body when she lost, let’s go with both.) Truly I’m happy that more people are at the gym and working out. But. But [...]

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Why We Can No Longer Afford to Treat Gym As a Throwaway Class

December 11, 2011

“Sport in school is the worst thing you can possibly inflict on children, particularly girls who are going through puberty and are necessarily self-conscious, often in pain and often vulnerable. Rather than being promoted as life-enhancing, health-giving and a fun way of giving you a fantastic body, sport is turned by school, and the frankly pervy gym mistresses who police it with really loud whistles, into an assault course to be avoided at all costs.” So says the ever-controversial (pervy gym mistresses? You went there? Really??) Liz Jones in the Daily Mail. (In an article criticizing a British sports star for [...]

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Irishman Kicks Rihanna Out of His Field & Reignites the Sexy-Jealousy Debate [When your body is your body of work]

September 27, 2011

 image courtesy of the BBC On Monday a farmer in Northern Ireland, upon meeting the international pop star Rihanna, did what I imagine very few red-blooded men would: he publicly admitted to not knowing who Rihanna is. Okay, that’s true, but my great uncles would probably all say the same. No, his real shocker was kicking Rihanna out of his grain field where she was filming a music video. Her crime? Looking too sexy. Alderman* Alan Graham explained that when he saw the singer strip down to a red bikini top and jeans he “felt things were getting inappropriate.” He [...]

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Kiddie Lingerie, Provocative Photos Push the Line: Can Little Girls Be Sexy?

August 24, 2011

note: I am not posting the lingerie ads nor the more risque of the Vogue photos (of which the above picture is a part) because I find them deeply disturbing. I’ve linked to articles with some of the pics if you are curious. Children don’t have a voice. From the moment they are born, we are putting words in their mouths, telling them what to say and how to say it and teaching them how they will speak about themselves for the rest of their lives. Some parents take this power very seriously while others hold it lightly, almost in [...]

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Ethical Dilemma: The Politics of Feeding the Poor [Ban on using food stamps to buy soda struck down]

August 21, 2011

Disappointed. That’s the only way to describe how I felt after my first month of volunteering every day at the battered women’s shelter. It started out all fun and spy games, with the coordinator telling me to meet her on the corner of a crowded intersection and to come alone. Once I got to the shelter, I had to be buzzed in through the razor-wire topped fence by a guard on duty 24 hours a day. The rules were: no men (no male children unless they were under 13), no unapproved visitors, no alcohol, no drugs. Everyone had to go [...]

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OMGsh! Jennifer Hudson is a Size… Who Cares? [Societal Body Dysmorphia]

August 9, 2011

“…for not such good results – drag behind car through puddles and blow dry on roof rack.” Now there’s a truthful clothing tag! Jennifer Hudson, singer and American Idol alumnus, made headlines all over the world this week. Not for her legendary set of pipes and not even for her tragic family history but for her dress size. J.Hud has become a household name by schilling for Weight Watchers and dropping a bunch of weight. So much weight in fact that the Internet got its collective panties in a twist when Joy Behar announced that Jennifer was a size superduperextratiny. [...]

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Have You Ever Slapped Anybody? [Hitting Men: Art or Abuse?]

July 20, 2011

Hitting a woman is not cool and hasn’t been socially acceptable in quite a few decades (see: Chris Brown/Rihanna scandal) but ever since Scarlett slapped Rhett Butler, girls slapping men has been made out to be not only okay but even ladylike, appropriate and, yes, cool. (Okay, let’s be honest: Scarlett slapped just about everybody in that movie from Ashley to Rhett a couple of times and even poor Prissy “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ no babies, Miss Scarlett!!!”) Why is it acceptable for a woman to hit a man when the reverse is widely considered abhorrent? The Slap as [...]

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Is The Furor Over This Yogurt Ad Justified?

June 15, 2011

Oh how I love Natalie Dee! Expensive little non-eco-friendly cups of skim dairy, artificial sweeteners and fruit of dubious origin – I have little love for conventional yogurt.  With all the great health benefits of full-fat plain yogurt that is not only super cheap but super easy to make at home in your crockpot, I don’t see any need to buy the processed stuff. But for all that it is not, is Yoplait a trigger for eating disorders? Watch this first (possible trigger warning for eating disordered thoughts): It’s an advertisement for Yoplait lite yogurt that features a woman looking [...]

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How to Help A Child Lose Weight [Help a reader out!]

May 24, 2011

Courtesy of the State of Georgia’s new childhood obesity campaign Three hours of hysterical sobbing, a whole box of kleenex thrown and self-inflicted eye poking (yes, really) is what my third grader did when I assigned him a second sheet of math problems after he lied to me about having homework so he could go play with a friend after school. I am well aware that kids often do not do what we want them to. But then if parenting was meant to be easy they would’ve given us the user manual in the hospital. Instead we do everything we [...]

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3 Health Trends That Need to be Simplified

May 22, 2011

[No funny picture today. I have one but WordPress isn't letting me upload any pics for some bizarre reason. Will try updating it again later. In the meantime click through to check out this amazing vid!] There is nothing simple about these crazy talented people! You’ll want to watch this vid on full screen! (Thanks Leslie for the tip!) Complicating easy things is kinda my life’s work. I don’t want to brag or anything but I’m pretty much a genius at making things look hard. Whether it’s this whole motherhood thing – I’ve left a child at the gym so [...]

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