No more Rape or Racists?

Oh, good, I'm glad we got rid of rape and that there aren't any more racists in America. I mean, that must be why we don't get to use those ugly words anymore, right?

I Kissed a Girl Redux

I heard Katie Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" for the first time today. When the DJ announced it was the next song, I wondered if it would be a remake of the song by the same title by Jill Sobule from my younger days. Well, the words were different, but it was exactly the same song. It was the exact same ethos of experimentation with the safe mention of a boyfriend so no one has to worry that this is a *gasp* lesbian song. I'm a little sad that mainstream pop songs haven't moved toward a more explicit acceptance of homosexuality as perfectly normal, but it could have been worse - it could have reflected the Girls Gone Wild kind of experimentation which occurs only for the sake of turning guys on.

It was an interesting coincidence (for me at least, maybe I'm the last kid on the block to hear this song) coming in the same week when a study was released that shows women's sexuality to be more fluid than men's. In other words, most women can be just as easily turned on by women as men, because it's the context not the person that is the trigger.

So, maybe the reason the song remains the same over this past decade is that the pendulum of mainstream attitudes toward women's sexuality has finally reached a happy medium resting point. Art just preceded the science to prove it.

Creepy Phone Ad

Didn't two college students just get arrested for doing this? (Thanks.. uh I guess, feministing)

Why Are You Trying to Make Me a Morning Person?

Over the past week, I've read two articles on becoming a morning person. Newsweek has a typical rehash of tips for tricking your body into doing the unnatural (and notes as an aside that it might be your genes' fault and not your lack of willpower that keeps you at the snooze button). More interesting is the Slate piece, that follows a woman and her boyfriend as they follow doctors orders to become morning people. Though the piece ends on the obligatory high note of making progress, it it fraught with the sheer agony and futility of trying to reprogram your internal clock.

But, seriously, in this day and age of telecommuting, offshore call centers, flex time and so on, is there really still this societal pressure to conform to some industrial revolution 9 to 5 ideal?