RSSSociety & Culture Archives
December 18, 2006
Curse you, Zenpundit
I frequently wander over to Zenpundit's place for recommended reading links and commentary. Tonight, after reading his post on Shelfari.com, I found myself utterly engrossed in this so-called "MySpace for Bibliomaniacs".
For those of you who aren't familiar with MySpace, it's a massively popular social networking site, similar in functionality to Livejournal. People create friend-networks, write journals, leave comments (often accompanied by amateurish soft-core photoshop atrocities) and embroil themselves in highschool-type drama. Young celebrities also use MySpace pages to connect directly with fans (or create that impression).
Continue reading "Curse you, Zenpundit"
Posted by eerie at 11:38 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
September 13, 2006
Gen Y and the Workforce
Eva sent me an article that discussed Gen Y and transforming the US workforce. While there are some acknowledged stereotypes and stupid generalizations, on the whole I found the observations thought-provoking (mainly because I'm young enough to be counted among these so-called Millenials and have on occasion noticed inter-generational issues in the workplace).
The rest of the article is unfortunately rather long and not terribly interesting, so I am pasting a few choice passages below the fold.
Continue reading "Gen Y and the Workforce"
Posted by eerie at 05:06 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 28, 2006
Weekend Observations & Site Updates
Had the unfortunate experience of hanging out at an extremely snobby upscale club this weekend (with Kitten, of course). Cover charge was twice the going rate, which resulted in a room full of young male lawyers (wearing, of all things, business shirts untucked over jeans) strutting around and checking out women (who were in turn preening and likely hoping to get noticed by rich professional males).
Now Kitten and I are both fairly successful young women, so we are not impressed by boring, witless men who announce that they are one of 500 associate attorneys at a giant lawfirm, and then wait for the dull thud of women falling at their feet. Why, I actually expected someone clever and interesting to approach us, only to be terribly disappointed by a pretentious wanker chatting us up about "wine culture" because we looked like the sort of women who could recommend a good red (having only recently taken up this activity, I am hardly in a position to be making recommendations beyond "disgusting" and "tolerable").
Continue reading "Weekend Observations & Site Updates"
Posted by eerie at 05:57 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
July 30, 2006
National Post: Why Be Subtle?
A side-by-side comparison of the National Post and a saner daily.
Posted by eerie at 12:36 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
June 11, 2006
Clicking my own Google Ads
Occasionally they're interesting. Today I saw an ad for Muslim Girl Magazine, "The new magazine especially for teenage Muslim girls!". The cover sports a lovely green-eyed girl with a red hijab, in the style of an American fashion magazine.
Continue reading "Clicking my own Google Ads"
Posted by eerie at 09:54 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
April 26, 2006
Half-formed thoughts on plagiarism and buggery
[Apologies in advance for my incoherence, wanted to get this down before I forgot]
Lounsbury's note (and the ensuing degenerate commentary) on Kaavya Viswanathan's chick-lit plagiarism caused me to spend a good portion of the afternoon observing blogosphere responses to the allegations. Sepia Mutiny (a desi blog) posted a useful summary of events that led to a rather lively discussion with links to new developments as they were reported. Aside from the knee-jerk schadenfreude, some pondered the impact of this scandal on the wider South Asian community, others commiserated over the "pushy-parent syndrome" that seems to afflict so many Asian cultures and a few balked at the idea of paying $10-20k to a consulting firm (IvyWise in Kaavya's case) to assist students in preparing college applications.
Continue reading "Half-formed thoughts on plagiarism and buggery"
Posted by eerie at 06:20 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
April 10, 2006
Brazilian Waxing, Feminism and a Dose of Perspective
Now that I've committed myself to elaborating on a previous entry about hijabs and conformity, here are my initial thoughts on Western feminism and Muslim women.
Actually, let me start with a useful, vaguely sexual anecdote, since this sort of thing seems to appeal to Aqoul's highly intellectual yet degenerate readership.
As some of you may recall, I attended a friend's wedding overseas last year. It was a ridiculously ostentatious 7-day event that included a side trip to a nearby beach resort for the wedding party. My role, as I understood it, was to assist the bride with her tedious pre-ceremony tasks, such as accompanying her to the salon where she had all the hair waxed off her arms, legs and pubic area.
Yes, all of it. No more hair "down there".
Continue reading "Brazilian Waxing, Feminism and a Dose of Perspective"
Posted by eerie at 05:49 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
April 06, 2006
Hijabs and Covenants
Had lunch with a good friend and colleague today. She's a devout Muslim who adores me in spite of my bizarre obsessive-atheist relationship with the religion. Today we had a fantastic discussion about Islam, feminism, faith and the West. Feminism in particular has been on my mind lately as I consider how Muslim women view Western-style feminism and how this compares to the way Western women view themselves. I may revisit this idea in another entry, but for now I'll focus on the hijab and my friend's reasons for wearing it.
First, the hijab should not be confused with the burka, abaya, niqab or chador. Second, hijabs don't have to be dowdy or plain. In fact, I recall one girl in university whose hijab was so perfectly coordinated with the rest of her outfit that both Muslims and non-Muslims envied her unique style.
Continue reading "Hijabs and Covenants"
Posted by eerie at 07:31 PM | Comments (41) | TrackBack
April 01, 2006
Many Wives
I'm watching an unusual HBO drama called Big Love. It's about a Mormon polygamist living in Utah with his three wives and seven children. The show's major themes bring to mind why multiple wives, while intriguing in theory, can be a nightmare in practice. I've only seen a couple of episodes, so the background is unclear. There is a no-nonsense alpha-wife, a slightly younger, emotionally demanding wife and an even younger bright-eyed thing who is routinely exploited by the elder wives. The show spends a great deal of time exploring mundane situations, such as the logistics of splitting the husband's time equally (including tense horsetrading over birthdays) and the pooling of finances when one wife works and the other two stay at home. The husband exhibits occasional moments of deep satisfaction, but overall appears pressured by their sexual demands (causing him to search online for herbal supplements and Viagra) and overwhelmed by the sniping between the alpha-wife and the demanding second-wife.
Posted by eerie at 06:24 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack
