catbird’s world

I read an article yesterday about Brazilian pageant contestants (and Brazilian women in general) getting extensive plastic surgery. It disturbed me. It seems like society’s ideal of beauty must be really warped if the majority of women have to have plastic surgery in order to meet it. Not to mention the horrible message that this practive sends to young girls who watch the pageant and aspire to look like these women. They can’t – not without one or more surgeries to “correct whatever isn’t pretty”.

And to top it off, some U.S. anthropologist, Alex Edmonds, chimes in with these inspiring words: “In Brazil, beauty is not something natural, it’s something you have to work at.” It kind of makes you wonder if Brazilians really aren’t naturally beautiful, or if there is something wrong with someone’s definition of beauty.

Here’s a clip:

Martha Rocha, who represented Brazil in the Miss Universe contest 47 years ago, but lost because of two extra inches (five cm) in the hips, has since had two plastic surgeries.

“If the pageant permits, I think girls should have plastic surgery,” Rocha told local media. “As a matter of fact, that way anybody can participate, they just have to correct whatever isn’t pretty.”

Want to read the whole disturbing story?

catbird :: Mar.29.2001 :: socio-pop :: Comments Off

Our dining room came to us covered in a hideous pink striped and flower bordered wall paper. I hate it. Not only that, but it wasn’t put up very well, so there are wrinkles in the corners and the paper doesn’t meet all the edges. I can’t wait to rip it down.

But first things first. The other day I went through the big bag of paint chips (Thanks Denise!) and taped some that I like to the wall. We knew we wanted to go with something in a green, so I pulled out everything that was the right tone and shade and taped it up around the room. I checked them out over the course of the day in different sunlight and at night with the artificial light. When Steve came home, I had him pick his favorite and then check it out again in the morning sunlight. Luckily, we both liked the same paint: Creamware from Restoration Hardware.

I have seen the paint on an entire wall in the store, and I want to take Steve to see it before we paint. It’s not all that often that you can see the paint you think you want on a wall first to make sure you like it so we might as well take advantage of it.

I know, it looks yellow in the picture, but it is really greenish and is light enough that it won’t make our dining room claustrophobic. The paint chip is still up on the wall. I moved it to check it in different lighting in a different spot. Now I really can’t wait to paint!

catbird :: Mar.28.2001 :: diy :: Comments Off

Face it. When a group of dogs gets together, once in a while things will get out of hand. The dogs might be playing fine one minute and scuffling the next. If you don’t get them distracted in time, the situation can escalate very quickly. Be prepared. Even if your dog isn’t involved, it’s good to know what to do in case no one else does.

DO:
All you have to do have each owner grab the back legs of his dog and pull them apart. Doing so puts the dogs off balance, distracts them, and gets them apart. Grab at the top of the leg where the leg joins the body. If the dog spins around, move in the opposite direction of the spin and swing him with you.

DON’T:
1. Yell and scream – this just excites the dogs more
2. Get between the dogs – you could get bitten
3. Only grab the legs of one dog – all that does is give the other dog an advantage

Most importantly, don’t assume that because you have trained your dog that other owners have trained their dogs. There are a lot of clueless dog owners out there. This is definitely a time when it pays to think like a Boyscout: Be prepared.

catbird :: Mar.28.2001 :: woof :: 2 Comments »