So what's the deal with Miss Universe?

"We, the young women of the universe, believe people everywhere are seeking peace, tolerance and mutual understanding. We pledge to spread this message in every way we can, wherever we go”…. In a bikini

Today in my fluey haze I realised that for the last 45 minutes I had been gazing at the television completely blank at what appeared to be a very backwards old fashioned beauty pageant. It was Miss Universe 2010.

Firstly, a little history on Miss Universe, the pageant started officially in 1952 and was orchestrated and owned by a clothing company, Pacific Mills. It was bought by Donald Trump in 1996 and to this day remains one of the most shallow and backward spectacles of mythical femininity in the western world.

If you really think about what Miss Universe represents, you can understand why not much has changed since 1952. Although the pageant now accommodates for a brief interview as part of it’s judging process, these women, from all around the globe and in some homogenous way, representing their countries, are judged for the way they look. Wake. Up. Modern. World. Are we still here really? Are women really still valued only for how they pull off a bikini and evening couture? Have we not learnt anything in the last 50 years? It seems to me, when I look at these ghastly displays of patriarchy and superficial values that the hard work of Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedman, Namoi Wolf and Judith Butler was all in vain. Are we not listening?

But what can we do? To this day Miss Universe has 600 million viewers worldwide, I know it’s easy to be sucked in by the pretty lights, sparkly costumes, cheesy hosts and beautiful women, or perhaps like me this morning we are mentally switched off and don’t know what it is we’re watching. Perhaps it’s time to think critically again about these things, perhaps we need to continue the war that was waged all those years ago. We need to open our minds to what is still considered acceptable, make some noise and engage in public debate about it.

Yes I know it’s a bit of fun and the ladies look lovely and blah blah blah. However, I cannot imagine bringing up a young girl in a world where superficial beauty is still valued over intellect, compassion and humility. It has to change. And as long as there is a Miss Universe pageant with swimsuit and evening gown segments instead of community involvement, academic merits, and worldly achievements being the focus of worth, women will never be valued publicly for their hard work and intellect, and as usual, the 96% of women who do not look like Miss Universe will never be worthy of a crown in our backwards society.

When you are Fired...

Whether you have done something purposefully, had a momentary lapse or reason, just plain stuffed up or been dismissed unfairly, even the best of us have been fired at one point in our lives. J K Rowling was fired from her job as a secretary for writing stories during work hours. Sure, this would have been a humiliating blow at the time but maybe you should ask her how she is doing these days and where she thinks her life would be now had she not experienced this traumatic event.

I was recently fired from my job working for quite a large and reputable global company, something I initially thought would absolutely destroy my life and leave me on the dole forever. While the circumstances surrounding my dismissal are humiliating, my employer somehow getting access to my personal life and turning it into reasons for accusations of serious and wilful misconduct, it seems clear to me now that my heart was not in that job or that company and I am much a much better person for not being there.

But what do we do when our lives are overthrown so swiftly and possibly undeservedly? How do we begin to pick up the pieces and make ourselves truly believe that we are not worthless fuck ups and that we are better off? There is no way we can change what happened, unless we go down the legal path but at the end of the day I had to ask if it was really worth all the time, energy and whether I wanted this incident to sit in the forefront of my mind for an extended period of time or if I wanted to recover and move on as quickly as possible. I chose the latter but some one with more time, energy and vengefulness may pursue. I guess in the end I felt that my own torment and humiliation was not painful enough (or too painful, really) to want to risk dragging it out longer for the sake of retribution.

I guess the argument lays in the fact that maybe that’s not where you belonged in the first place. I feel that since being fired from my big corporate job, my perspectives have changed. I am beginning to remember that this job was simply a time filler while I pursued other paths and that I somehow got lost in the cash, the modern office setting and the cute corporate attire. At the end of the day I did not agree with the business practices of this company in the first place, did not want to work for a large corporation (a promise I had made myself many years earlier) and felt that I didn’t belong there. These very big epiphanies were a bit late in coming and I guess were the reason behind my getting fired in the first place. Whatever. So I guess when this happens you have do ask yourself what it is you really want to be doing with your life. Did you see yourself at that same job 10 years down the track or did you see yourself somewhere else? No matter how unrealistic that somewhere else seems to you, maybe that’s what you need to aim for because if that’s where your mind and heart was to begin with then maybe you didn’t really belong where you were.

Once you try and put your mind at ease, damage control must ensue. Get yourself back in the market as soon as you can, but this time be selective. Apply for jobs you could be really passionate about, with employment conditions that you are happy with. Don’t step backwards out of desperation because it is not going to help with the dire feeling of worthlessness your last employer left you with. I started looking for jobs with smaller businesses, and am refusing to go back to weekends. I have decided that this time I am not going to go for the first job offered to me because I’m sick of looking. I will be persistent.

Also, reassess your life. Do you really want to work full time? Do you want to study? Do you want to do some volunteer work? Money isn’t the be all and end all of how you conduct your life, reassess your situation, do what makes you happy. For me that was freeing up some time to really throw myself into my honours degree and taking up some volunteer work, leaving me with only two days a week for work, not four. This has given me some balance, and while I will make much less money, I have come to the realisation that the money I was making prior was going to a lot of unecessities anyway, not to mention lunch and parking four days a week (you can literally take $100 per week off for that alone!) so while I just get by, and shopping has become seldom, my life has done a complete turn around. I am finding pleasure in the everyday now, rather than just the weekends when I can go and blow my pay to feel better about being a slave for the wage.

At the end of the day it is your life, and we orchestrate our own fate, if you have been fired, it really sucks but while you can’t change that alone, you can change what you do next.

We'll be back after this short break..

Hello to my beautiful 7 followers! it is you that get me up and blogging in the morning/afternoon/evening/early morning...

I am so inspired and have so many thoughts and rants that I just don't know where to begin! However I have some pressing work that needs to be done on account of the fact that I decided it would be really clever of me to do honours this year. So now it's crunch time and I must stop painting my face, talking shit and buying things I cannot afford. So I may be absent for a small amount of time but fret not! when we return I will be looking at Aussie women that rock our world, investigating what happens when you put moisturising cream in your hair and posting a lovely recipe for a bad day that involves my fave carbicide substance of all time- rice!

In the meantime ladies, feel free to comment, disagree, praise or torment and watch this space!

xxxx

Stuff Boys Like

It has come to my attention recently that my Dad secretly wishes he was a cowboy. He likes going out bush and wearing RM Williams and he absolutely loves a good Western flick. Even his ring tone is that tune from The Good The Bad and The Ugly. Then the other day I was thinking about how my brother used to eat anything my mum declared was 'cowboy food' (see my post on 'Cowboy chowder', a revised Mummy recipe) so really he must have wanted to be one also. Then the other day my boy and my girlfriend's boy both bought a new PS3 game that involves riding around in a western country setting on horses, shooting things and wearing cowboy hats. They both deny this has anything to do with a love of cowboys but I think this game is letting them really live out their own fantasies of being one. It might be the outfit, the reckless abandonment and wild masculinity that cowboys represent but they really want to be a cowboy no matter how much they deny it. Boys like cowboys.

Couch Potato

Tonight has been a lovely night in due to the freezing temperature outside and the fact that cold weather makes me super lazy. I thought I would share with you the movies I enjoyed for the 100th time tonight, in case you haven't seen them yet or have forgotten about them

Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

Adorable. That's the only word that could possibly describe this film simply. Miranda July (pictured) stars in this beautiful indie gem that she wrote herself, converging a bunch of different stories about a bunch of lovely people going through life and love. Plus 'the poop back and forth' thing is wet-pants worthy. You'll know what I speak of when you watch it!

Serial Mom (1994)

Just Kathleen Turner's flippant use of the word 'Pussy' is enough to send me into hysterics, but that aside, this is one of those tragically awesome and hilariously lame films that never gets tiring because it is just so weird! plus Ricki Lake used to act? omg soooo funny!

Heathers (1988)

Possibly the best teenage angst, bitchy high school flick to have ever come out of the 80s starring my fave 90s pin up girl Winona Ryder. Murder, suicide and slushies, plus spectacular perms and shoulder pads, my perfect night in flick!