Joseph Simpson: Design for a bookplate, c. 1879-1900 (via: Forbes.com)
tagged: #Joseph Simpson #bookplate #1879-1900
siamese cats getting really fucking distressed at their owner being in the shower
“Operation: Save the human from the loud spraying water box of death” is my favorite thing
tagged: #emergency kitty tag #cats #siamese cat
Image description: Afghan Air Force 2nd Lt. Niloofar Rhmani walks the flightline at Shindand Air Base, Afghanistan prior to her graduation from undergraduate pilot training May 13, 2013. Rhmani made history May 14, 2013 when she became the first female to successfully complete undergraduate pilot training and earn the status of pilot in more than 30 years. She will continue her service as she joins the Kabul Air Wing as a Cessna 208 pilot.
Learn more about Rhmani from the U.S. Air Force.
badass
One thing I’ve noticed that’s an interesting note of cultural differences within America is the gendering of hairstyles. I’ve included variations above of the two-braids hairstyle that, where I come from, is a common male hairstyle.
I’ve included two pictures of Snoop Dogg, who is probably for most people the most famous wearer of this hairstyle in a national/international context. Snoop of course is a bit of a dandy, with the signature long hair that’s obviously pampered and well-cared for. An important note: Snoop is from the LA area, specifically Long Beach, which is also my birthplace and hometown.
I’ve also included a photo of Willie Nelson, who’s rather famous for appropriating the two-braids hairstyle, which is generally considered to be the domain specifically of men of color. The braids are most popular among men of indigenous, mestizo, or Mexican descent, including young Black men.
For young Black men who do not perm their hair, the cornrow-braids hairstyle is a bit more common; six cornrowed braids that are then braided again at the base of the neck into two braids instead of hanging free.
Additionally, being a male and having your hair prepared in this style gives another message: that there is a woman who cares for you enough to take care of your hair like this, whether a mother, grandmother, aunt, wife, sister, or girlfriend. It can have the connotation of being spoiled, como “trenzcito” which means “little braid(ed boy)”; it adds a connotation of “baby boy” or “youngest son”.
Two instances of culture clash: when I first moved up north, I commonly fixed my hair in two long braids, which were almost waist length. In Cali, this is a “butch” hairstyle, or at least kinda gender-neutral. I got so many (sexist AND racist) comments about it, especially at work, that I ended up cutting my hair off an inch or two from my scalp.
Another is my ex-husband had very long hair, which I used to carefully and lovingly braid for him as part of my marianisma duties: a single long braid, the double-braid-in-one style pictured above, two sleek braids parted in the middle, and on special occasions, box braids. In contrast, my (white) partner now really doesn’t like me to do anything to his hair at all; he considers it to be kinda feminizing and/or something only to be done in private. I always end up feeling vaguely offended and rejected, but I just have to remind myself that it’s honestly a cultural difference, and that his lack of braids doesn’t reflect poorly on my care for him.
It’s really kind of funny if you think about it. I’m always imagining people see my unbraided partner at work and their pity upon him for being so unloved, before I remember this is the north and no one thinks that here. Still, it doesn’t stop me from wanting to yell, “make sure they know that I LOVE you!” every day when he leaves for work.
This is great commentary but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t focused on dude in the center most of the time.
Mine is a multipurpose and flexible blog
come for the commentary
stay for the beauty
lol this makes me think of Mario’s song “Braid my hair”
OMG YES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT
I didn’t even know the song before (lol I still listen to the music I listened to in high school because I’m an old people) but I looked at the music video and listened to the song, and it’s basically about everything i just wrote about.
“sit me down like you love me.”
I like how this post came up when I did an image search for my url.
Just noting for the record, Willie Nelson’s mother was Cherokee.
Yeah I was thinking that while I scrolled down, asezawesome. I know a lot of people read him white (something I am familiar with), but I believe he identifies as such.
I remember watching a music video with Alicia Keys where she was in a bedroom braiding a guy’s hair as she sang, and I realized what an intimate act it was. I’d never seen it in that kind of context before, between lovers, because in the white Anglo culture I was raised in only women braid their hair.
It honestly surprised me when I read this that men in cultures where they wear braids have women who do it for them, because I simply hadn’t even considered it; I assumed they usually did it themselves. I’m not sure if I know any males who would do something that so clearly advertises a dependence on women, which is interesting.
Our friends tease us gently if they see me insist on brushing my husband’s hair or straightening his collar. He’s expected to take care of these things himself. There isn’t a strong implication that a woman is responsible for a well-groomed man. We’ve done our jobs well if there’s nothing to notice. A man may even be suspected of homosexuality if it looks like he spends too much effort on his appearance.
“When was super depressed, I wasn’t working—I was always too depressed. Hemingway did his best work when he didn’t drink, then he drank himself to death and blew his head off with a shotgun. Someone asked John Cheever, “What’d you learn from Hemingway?” and he said “I learned not to blow my head off with a shotgun.” I remember going to the Michigan poetry festival, meeting Etheridge Knight there and Robert Creeley. Creeley was so drunk—he was reading and he only had one eye, of course, and had to hold his book like two inches from his face using his one good eye. But you look at somebody like George Saunders—I think he’s the best short story writer in English alive—that’s somebody who tries very hard to live a sane, alert life. You’re present when you’re not drinking a fifth of Jack Daniel’s every day. It’s probably better for your writing career, you know? I think being tortured as a virtue is a kind of antiquated sense of what it is to be an artist.”—
In an interview with The Fix, Mary Karr debunks the toxic mythology that it is necessary to be damaged in order to be creative. My own vehement defiance to that mythology is what led me to choose Ray Bradbury – the ultimate epitome of creating from joy rather than suffering – as the subject of my contribution to The New York Times’ The Lives They Lived.
Pair with Karr on why writers write.
(via explore-blog)
I very much got the sense that the English department at my college subscribed to this mythos, which is a big part of why I became a psychology major instead.
Blacksad by Juanjo Guarnido
I was just thinking about this comic and how I wished I could remember what it was called so I could look for it!
tagged: #blacksad #juanjo guarnido
I’d like to write an article detailing how 3D printing and stem cells would be used to produce penises for those without them, but beyond being a really interesting blog piece, I don’t know what I’d do with it. I don’t even know if that’s portfolio material. Who would pay for it?
People who don’t have penises?
Currently, the researchers involved are framing it as a way to replace genitalia of soldiers who’ve lost theirs in battle (land mines, etc), but there are a lot of other people who’d likely be interested:
- men involved in automobile/industrial accidents
- intersex individuals whose micropenises were removed shortly after birth (which happens more often than you’d think, and can have serious consequences)
- trans*men
I’d like to write an article detailing how 3D printing and stem cells would be used to produce penises for those without them, but beyond being a really interesting blog piece, I don’t know what I’d do with it. I don’t even know if that’s portfolio material. Who would pay for it?
There seriously are people working on it as we speak. I want to know how they plan to integrate with patients’ existing vasculature, enervation, and musculature. They’re pitching it as reconstructive surgery for soldiers who have lost their genitals to land mines and such, but the application for trans*men is obvious.
It’s science meets society, which is seriously my favorite thing.
Community: One Photoset per Episode
↳Season 2 Episode 9
Personally, this might be my favorite episode of Community.
tagged: #community
What is this from?!
Rozencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
