Curiouser and Curiouser

I totally just cut a bitch on the reptile LJ community that I'm a part of.

Long story short, 14-year-old girl with a troll journal and membership in pro-ana communities declares to the group that she's getting an iguana.

At 14.

Because she's totally ready to take on an aggressive 6ft+ reptile that needs regular vet checkups and special meals prepared every day and a cage the size of a bedroom.

Naturally, she expects her parents to pay for everything and thinks it's unfair that they won't buy her one.

She asks for advice, and is told that it's a bad idea. She stamps her foot and whines that she wants one, and she will have one.

So a few of us stop being nice.

I hate it when people (especially whiny teenagers) claim their love and devotion for an animal while completely disregarding its well-being and safety.

It felt so good to slap her. It'd feel even better in person.

(I took screencaps in case she removes her post, like miss "Where can I buy a baby anaconda?" a few months ago.)

Just.. argh.

If I get one more text/email/meme to the effect of "Obama's president, now all the white folk are slaves lawl" I'm going to rip that person's thumbs off.

Just saying.

-H

So, as I was scanning my f-list just now, I saw a number of posts mentioning something called the "Open-Source Boob Project."

So, I went and read the post, glossing over the few hundred comments responding to it. And felt a tingle go down my spine.

Now don't get me wrong - I'm all about the "it's-not-dirty-it's-a-normal-part-of-your-anatomy" view of the socially-sensitive bits of body* - but something about it gave me a "back away slowly" vibe. Maybe it's that the guy comes off as creepy. Maybe it's the writing. If someone came up to me with a reverent (read:wide-eyed and staring) expression, nervous, and quiet, asking me "can I touch it," my instinct would be to say "no" with no regard to whatever "it" happened to be. Boobs, puppy, can of soup, you name it.

I really think what wigs me out a bit isn't the fact that it's wanting to touch racks. It's wanting to touch people with varying degrees of acquaintance and context. As I just mentioned, if some random guy came up asking to touch my face, feet, or shoulders, I'd say no just as quickly as I would to the same question regarding my breasts. Even if a friend came up to me, wanting to touch my knees with no context whatsoever, I'd be a little cautious. I'd probably let a friend go ahead, but ask why the hell they'd want to. But red flags would go off in my head if they gave me a spiel about desexualizing the human kneecap and having no reason other than wanting to touch, never mind hearing the same bit from a stranger. And I think the general population is going to ask for an explanation when faced with that one.

Not to say that I'm anti-boob-touches. I've been in situations where a friend or more of mine (female, pretty close) were discussing breasts openly, and felt that theirs were unnatural somehow and pretty much everyone around offered theirs as comparison. Or I have a friend of mine with whom boob-grabbing is our standard greeting due to an inside joke. That's one thing. I'm not 100% sure why, but this is another.

I don't know. I think it's just the guy that gives me the willies. There's something deep in what you could whittle the original idea down to that strikes a chord with me, but everything else just ruins it.

What do you guys think? If you have ideas as to why this wigs me out/shouldn't, I'm all ears.

-H

*Though I admit to having no problems accepting free things from men behind counters who stare openly at my breasts.

Oh, man. Where do I start?

First off, there was a really-well dressed guy there (in some awesome dance shoes) who looked quite like Andy Lau. Sadly, I did not get to dance with him.

I did, however, make it a point to dance with people who are a lot better than I am. And when I didn't suck or get "thank you"ed, or even told I was a good dancer, then I got to glow for a little while. Like my policy of asking the teacher to dance at some point in the night.

I also got paid some really nice compliments last night. Sometimes, nothing feels better than having two new dancers pause and point to you, saying "Watch what they do." And some direct compliments! Like after dancing to Sur o No Sur with an excellent dancer, he pulled back and half-stared at me in this fascinated way.
"Wow, you're a handful!"
"How so?"
"You're great, and you dance when you dance. I love it!"
He told me that he loves dancing with people who actually enjoy themselves and put feeling into it. I told him there was no point if you didn't love it, and he agreed. He mentioned the two ways experienced dancers can go, and I knew exactly what he meant: the cool way or the bitch way. There are some dancers who seem to dance for status, usually identified by less than 2% body fat and their noses in the air. These people don't seem to enjoy themselves at all, and even then will only dance with teachers and people they know are skilled. elenuial and I talked about this last night, bemoaning the fact that the inexperienced but enthusiastic dancers often get overlooked for the ones who look like they know what they're doing but refuse to act like they're having fun. That's why I like a lot of the really experienced dancers who'll dance with newbies: sometimes it's the energy someone puts into it rather than their skill at dancing.

I, personally, would much rather dance with a guy who had no idea what he was doing but was having a great time rather than the professional who looks bored the entire night.

And even though it ached, I like being aware of my body. You can feel every muscle, even ones you didn't know you had, as it moves. Same with your partner - the embrace is such that you take cues from someone else's body by feeling every step of the movement process. The biologist in me loves that. =)

One thing that I also enjoy is picking up new moves from peoplewatching. There's a really slick-looking one that's a sandwich into a levantada, which I'm planning to attempt in the near future.

There were a bunch of photographers there. When I get pictures, I'll post them.

All in all, a v. good night.

-Haz