In which the author yells at books and they do not respond

Hey kids! Are you ready for your daily dose of outrage?

You are? Well let's get crackin'!

I just read Cunt: A Declaration of Independence by Inga Muscio. More precisely, I tried to read it, but ended up throwing it against the wall in disgust about 50 pages in.

Ostensibly, the book is a feminist reclamation of the word "cunt," which apparently amounts to a long discussion of how wonderful uteruses, Fallopian tubes, ovaries, eggs, menstruation and all associated hydraulics are. I don't object to the concept -- we need more appreciation of these long-devalued body parts -- but I object strenuously to the execution.

Muscio insists that all women have cunts. Yes, she actually writes that. I promptly yelled at the book, "NO THEY DON'T!!!!!!!" but this did not alter her erroneous assumption. Apparently all the women I know who don't have cunts aren't women??!?!?!?!?!?!? Keep your essentialist claptrap to yourself, Muscio.

In one of the book's early chapters, Muscio talks about her childhood in which she was shamed and characterized as unclean for menstruating. She then recounts her reacquaintance with her reproductive system, her determination of her own reproductive schedule and her switch from "feminine hygiene products" to sea sponges and rags. There is also a huge tangent about the ocean and the moon and how this somehow relates to fertility [hint: it doesn't]. Yay hooray, she liberated her reproductive system, and she feels good about it.

The problem arises when Muscio prescribes her reproductive liberation program for all women. First of all, as I mentioned before, not all women have the same biology. Second, even if they do have the aforementioned long-devalued body parts, they don't all menstruate. Third, if they do menstruate, they don't necessarily do it on a regular schedule the way that Muscio apparently does. ["Fun" experiment: try figuring out your menstrual "schedule" if you have PCOS!] Fourth, the ocean and the moon have nothing whatsoever to do with menstruation. Fifth, some of us have slightly more complex relationships to our bodies than "Ick, I'm disgusting; the patriarchy has oppressed me!" then transforming into "My womanhood is wonderful!" However, Muscio presents her experience as the sole option, thereby foreclosing on the full and varied range of experiences that a full and varied range of women have in their bodies.

This is not feminism. This is simplistic, biologically reductionist bilge in complete denial of multiple axes of oppression.

Let's play a game.

I'll say a phrase, and you tell me the first words that come to your mind.

Okay? Ready? Here we go:

"Lesbian vampire erotica."


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You know what really irritates me?

[No, I'm not outraged right now.]

Doll clothing with out-of-scale buttons. I see this a lot on clothes for 1:3 scale BJDs [i.e., ~60cm or 2 feet tall]. Makers of doll clothes will go to incredible lengths to replicate and scale down all the details of, say, a shirt or a jacket, and then WHAMMO! They'll completely spoil the whole effect by using 1:1 scale buttons [suitable for human clothes] as fasteners.

And they're not doing it for a purposeful aesthetic effect either. This is serious, unfunky clothing that they're making, insofar as doll clothes can be serious. It's especially hilarious when you're looking at suits for BJDs: "Oh I like the structure of this jacket. The detail on the lining makes it look almost GOOD GRAVY WHO PUT BUTTONS THE SIZE OF SAUCERS ON THE CUFFS???"

In-scale buttons exist! I know this because I see them with some regularity on 1:6 scale clothes. I know they exist for 1:3 scale clothes as well, but I'm not sure why they aren't used very much by makers of doll clothes in 1:3 scale.

I mean, surely, if you can be arsed to put in-scale zipper flies and functioning pockets on your denim dolly jeans, you can put freakin' in-scale buttons on your dolly shirts, right?

You know what...while I'm pissing and moaning about BJD stuff, let me get this off my chest. Asian BJD companies can now officially stop with the Alice in Wonderland [sic] special edition dolls and/or outfits. Way too many doll studios have done or are doing something with this concept. Boooooooring.

If Asian BJD companies want some non-Alice concepts, I can supply some. Let's try the Chinese zodiac, the months of the year [not the same as the non-Chinese zodiac, more of a personification theme], celestial bodies [again not the non-Chinese zodiac, more of a personification theme], fairy tales, seasons [mud season!], weather, trees/flowers, the Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, ceremonial dress from different cultures, the Major Arcana of a Tarot deck, medieval Western European character types [king, queen, knight, damsel, jester, maid, serf, etc.], characters from famous ballets, et hoc genus omne. Some of these concepts have already been appropriated by some companies, but I think they still have a lot of life in them.

Furthermore, we need more therianthropic characters. I'm not just talking dolls with resin ear attachments; I'm talking dolls with non-human limbs and torsos and such. We have not yet reached market saturation on centaurs, especially female ones, and merpeople. I also strongly advocate for naga [human/snake hybrids], human/bear hybrids and human/zebra hybrids. We definitely need more human/arachnid dolls [Soom Vesuvia and Impldoll Colin being the only ones I know of]. And we're also seriously lacking in human/insect hybrids. That's just for starters...

Poooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

The credit union E-mailed me that my rent check, which tried to go through today, overdrew my account by ~$150.00. I'm seriously not sure how that happened!

Anyway, once I momentarily stopped panicking, I discovered that I have overdraft protection, so the credit union fronted the money, covering the rent check. Of course, they also assessed me an overdraft fee. And, if any of my other pending charges hit today, they will be covered by overdraft protection [I think] and assessed overdraft fees.

Sigh.

Anyway, I had $200.00 sittin' in my Paypal account, so I moved that over to my checking account ["3-4 business days" to transfer]. More immediately, I called my financial advisor and had her transfer some money from my short-term savings to my sadly denuded checking account. That transfer is either happening today or tomorrow. I had to pay a wire fee to expedite it.

I should be fine for the next 7 days [next payday is the 14th]. My only major expense during that period will be my grocery shopping and maybe some gas. I have gathered together enough funds to cover the -$150.00 and then leave me some extra. I think this will all work out. I'm just trying to clear leftover hyperventilation out of my system.

My only picture of Jujube

Jujube, my Elfdoll Winky from the original release, appears in no photos that I have taken because she went directly from my house to work. The only photo I have of her comes from her seller, Demure Dolly on DOA, and I'm posting it here before it gets lost in the marketplace graveyard forever.
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FS: Elfdoll Elf Doll Tiny Dodo [14cm mature] (NS) - $300

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