Especially if you have to attempt to squeeze love-handles into an elastic waisted bathing suit. Seriously, the tight banded bathing suit bottoms that predominate the swimwear market are ridiculous. This may be the single greatest fashion oversight. Someone, please make anti-muffin top inducing bottoms for those of us who are over 18 and like to drink beer. Or better, let us live in a world where muffin tops are in-style. Or, at the very least, let culture denounce the Posh Spices and give us back our imperfect bodies.
Along the lines of body image and segway-ing back to film, Sleight and I in a moment of adolescent indulgence, watched "Bring It On" this past weekend. What a great movie. Even greater, though, is the representation of female bodies in that film. Sleight and I were gobsmacked that only 10 years ago, the media was fine with showing images of healthy, athletic, strong figures.
Of course, all of these women's bodies are ideal...I would have to do some serious running and strength training to look like that. But I could. And that is the point. These women are real ideals. They have hips. They have butts. They have thickness in their upper arms and a girth to their torsos instead of some concave stomach with ribs showing. These women have strength. Comparing them to the anorexic, sickly ones in shows like the new 90210, I want to cry. Why can't we turn back time?
Enough of my rant. Because summer and vacations can also be fun. You can read books you normally wouldn't have time to. Here is my summer reading list thus far.
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
I just wrote a chapter of my thesis on Mrs. Dalloway and was immediately compelled to re-read this. Love.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A gothic (and yes, gothic in the tradition of the nineteenth century gothic) novel about a man in Barcelona who reads a book by a man named Carax only to discover that someone has been systematically destroying every single copy of this man's work. I'm going to love this one.
What are you reading? What's good? What's not so good? Please share.
And lastly, to make your day brighter if you haven't seen it already...Andy and company's latest, genius social commentary. "Fuck trees, I climb bouys mother fuckers!"
If you're behind on these...
And just for fun...the one that's still my favorite:
Love you all!
I didn't really wear shorts until this summer because I have some cellulite on the backs of the thighs and I'm constantly bruised from God-knows-what (all that rough sex?). But then I realized that I don't give a flying fuck about cellulite and I would rather be cool and comfy and showing off my fantastic legs. Suck it, Posh.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, enough with this anti-muffin bathing suit stuff. My bathing suit from high school looks better on me than my Isaac Mizrahi Target bikini from two years ago. It's the elastic. I'm embracing the muffin top. It's the best part of a muffin.
That gothic novel sounds really good! Let me know how it is. I'd still like to borrow the Twilight series from you as the ones available to check out at the UGA library are ALWAYS checked out.
But I do have a reading list:
"This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession" by Daniel J. Levitin. Everything we biologically, emotionally, and neurologically know about music and its relationship to humanity is in this book. Sooo good.
"The Raw Shark Texts" by Steven Hall. This had a good review on NPR a couple of years ago. I believe it's the kind of book where you can't trust the narrator, a little Memento-esque. I eat psychological novels and movies up with a spork.
"The Sibling Society" by Robert Bly. A nonfiction recommended to me by my boyfriend. I can't remember why but I'll read it.