Why isn't 'Batgirl' a valid career choice?

If you haven't heard of the De Anza case yet, here's the scoop:

Rape?  No longer a crime worthy of prosecution.

Basically, a 17 year old girl was apparently horrifically raped by 3 members of a college baseball team while ten others looked on and cheered.  She was rescued by three members of the schools girl's soccer team who took her to the hospital and have been talking to the authorities about the case, describing what they saw.  In an interview they mentioned that one of the guys responsible for the assault said "This was her fault.  She got drunk and did this to herself."

And now the DA has chosen not to prosecute the case because of a supposed lack of evidence.

On the heels of Joss Whedon's recent "What the hell is wrong with you?" blog entry, I have to ask the same.  What the hell is wrong with us?  Not just the media glorification of violence against women, not just the descision to not prosecute a group of rapists, but what was wrong with the other people at the party who didn't stop it.  Other women, who didn't stop it.

Girls, why the hell are we so cruel to each other?  Judge ourselves and each other and worrying about how we compare the girl next to us.  I'm not saying we have to hold hands and celebrate our sisterhood and praising our moonblood (because frankly, bleeding from the crotch?  Not my favorite pasttime either), but why are we so aggressively out for each other?  Is it because we're part of a society that represses female aggression so that we have to target it elsewhere?  The competitive spirit is considered "unfeminine" so we focus it towards hunting and trapping men and protecting our territory from each other?

I'm just as guilty of it as the next girl.  Let's say, hypothetically, I am slightly jealous of a celebrity who's name rhymes with Jashlee Jimpson just because recently she's been hanging out recently with a guy who's name rhymes with Zete Zentz.  Let's also say that in a few places I've made disparaging remarks that were harsh and totally underserved, all aimed at someone I've never even met over time she's spending with someone else I've never even met.  Remember, all of this is completely hypothetical.

I don't know what the answer is, probably because I'm not sure what questions to ask.  I don't nessecarily want to be friends with every woman reading this, but I sure as hell don't want us to have to be cut throat enough to let each other get gang raped or beaten to death.  Let's settle for disliking each other in a kinder, more sensible way.  And maybe fighting for a little more right to be aggressive.

I don't want to be the female Tyler Durden here.  Okay, maybe I do a little, but my point stands.  Tyler argues that men are being forced to be too feminine, controlled by a consumer society that denies their manhood.  Women are just as trapped.  We're advertised a lifestyle encouraging beauty over brains, aquiesence over achievement.  I'm sick of it.  But the solution isn't nessecarily violent, it's just sweeping.

I suppose I'm rambling a bit here, and let me get to some sort of a point:
There is no reason for any woman to suffer sexual assault.
There is no reason for any guilty of said sexual assault to get away with it.
Not doing anything about the alleged rape will send the message loud and clear: the victim has no recourse in this situation.  Now get back in the kitchen and make my dinner, bitch.

I'm putting together a Spy Mix for this summer.  I always do at least two mixes a year: one for the summer and one for Halloween.  The Spy Mix is currently (not in this order, nessecarily):

Theme from James Bond - Moby (duh)
She's Not There - Santana (used in "The Long Kiss Goodnight")
I Disappear - Metallica (From "Mission Impossible II")
American Woman - Lenny Kravitz (from "Austin Powers: the Spy Who Shagged Me")
Independent Women Part 1 - Destiny's Child (from "Charlie's Angels")
The World is Not Enough - Garbage (from "The World Is Not Enough," also, great Bond theme or Greatest Bond theme?)
Mission Impossible Theme ( from "Mission Impossible")

Any other suggestions?

    Apparently Pete Wentz and Draco Malfoy share a birthday.  Down to the year.

EDIT: Slightly wrong: Draco's a year younger than Pete.

But the important question is: can Pete speak parseltongue?

(Yeah, I know, Harry's the one that speaks parseltongue.  Malfoy's talents are more in the field of occulmancy.  And Ginny fucking rules.)

My mother always told me I could be whatever I wanted when I grew up.  And I think I finally decided what I want to be.

Complicated.

No, really.  That seems to be the one thing this world doesn't want me to be more than anything else.  I can't be an amalgamation of my traits and my loves and my weaknesses, I have to be easily readable because the world can't stand the idea of having to sort me out.

I can't both have a visible tattoo and piercing and be considered professional and capable in an office setting.  Because apparently my choices about my body in some way make me unable to be polite with visitors, file paperwork, answer phones and make spreadsheets.

I can't be both strong and weak, powerful and slightly submissive.  No woman can.

I can't have diverse tastes in music.  Liking Fall Out Boy and Panic immediately means I have no taste what-so-ever, because I can't enjoy anything outside of that genre.  People don't want to consider that my favorite band of all time is in fact Aerosmith, that the music I used to drive to when I still had my van (shit do I miss my van) included Bowie, Hole, Destiny's Child, Motley Crue, Jennifer Lopez and the soundtrack to Hackers.  Not bragging, not "look at me I'm so *cultured* just...that's how it goes.

I want to be a balance of 50's Hollywood glam and 80's punk and 90's skater girl.  I want people to not be surprised that I am both a generally nice person and a total bitch.  I want people to stop assuming everything about me based on blogs or pictures, or on the clothing I'm wearing or the music I listen to.  And I want to stop doing the same thing to everyone else in the world.

We aren't allowed to be complicated.  Because that means we have to think about ourselves and each other and that's fucking hard.  We don't want to think about the layers and the depths and the secrets.  Even in ourselves.  We want to be easy to figure out so that we don't think there's something wrong with us, so that we know ourselves a little better.  But you can't change those layers and those loves just to make things easier for yourself or anyone else.  It's not supposed to be easy.  If it were what would be the point?  There'd be no challenge to life and no reason to live for more than a day or so.

I think.  I'm not sure.  I need to consider this a little longer.

And I blame Madonna's video for "Express Yourself" for this little rant.

Blake,

I'm not going to console you over your "loss" on American Idol, because you didn't lose.  You were the runner up and we all know you're going to get a record deal anyway.  Because honestly?  You fucking rock.  Excellent and eccelectic song choices, a great balance of your unique beatbox talent and your great voice, and that remix of "You Give Love a Bad Name" is possibly the most kick ass thing I've heard in a long time.

But I digress.

A good friend of mine is getting married this October.  I am invited, but have no date.  This, Blake, is where you come in.  My friend is a fan of yours.  He was possibly rooting for you to win harder than I was.  I am a fan of yours.  So, Blake, I am asking you to be my date to a wedding in New Jersey.

Yes, New Jersey.  I figured I should get that part of it out of the way as early as possible.

What do I have to offer?  Well...I'm well aware there are much more attractive women fighting for your attention right now, and many of them are probably more famous and influential than I am.  And...

...you know what?  I really don't have an agrument here.  Please disregard everything past "But I digress" to this point.  Right here.  Now.

Okay, this point ----->

But that doesn't mean you should disregard where I told you to disregard things!  Fuck, I am so bad at this!  Fuck!

Um...I really like your music and I can't wait for your first album.  How's that?

Yours,
The New Age Amazon (who stands maybe 5' 5" in boots.  It's an ironic screenname.  Irony.  It's enjoyable, like a Cheez-It.  Mmmmm...Cheez-Its.)

So, Bree mentioned in her journal the other day that they're looking to make an X-Men 4.  While I am both annoyed and delighted by the idea (on one hand X3 was X3, on the other hand  ♥ REMY! ♥ ) I'm also intrested in the status of other Hollywood superhero movies.

I'm pissed Joss Whedon isn't going to be in on Wonder Woman.  I mean, he's JOSS and it's possibly the greatest iconic super heroine in history!  I'm also worried about the casting.  In recent years especially Wonder Woman has been illustrated as a muscular, bad ass amazon.  Which makes sense, 'cause she's a fucking AMAZON.  But with Hollywood's track record I'm expecting some extremely thin waif to fill the part.
Which brings me to this: PLEASE don't cast a waif as Wonder Woman.  Cast an actress willing to put on the muscle needed for the part, someone who's not going to be afraid that having a pair of guns is going to somehow negate the fact that she has a pair of boobs.  In other words: someone who realizes looking strong doesn't mean you can't be feminine or sexy.

I am, however, glad they decided not to go with Jack Black as the Green Lantern.  If they do end up making a Green Lantern movie, I'm hoping it's done right and even more, I'm hoping they go with the Jon Stewart version of the Lantern rather than Hal Jordan.

And I'd like a live action "Avengers" movie, please.  The animated stuff is cool, but the Avengers are a superhero team I'd love to see done in real life.  How about that instead of another Fantastic Four movie?  Huh?  Please?!

Of course,  the guys at Untamed Cinema  really need to finish work on Grayson.  I'm just saying.

By the way, who the hell ordered the pizza with extra kryptonite?

So last night I decided I'm going to be proactive and actually draw Pandora myself.  I did preliminary sketches of Despair and Hope last night.  Despair looks great, but is a simplistic design, and Hope is going to take a little more work.

I haven't even begun on the human characters yet.  That's going to be the fun part.  And by fun I mean pure fucking torture.

Still no cable.

Still no Heroes.

If I do not have cable installed by next week I will destroy something.

On the plus side, I actually got writing done this weekend.  Real writing.  A little bit more of Starsign and some work on Pandora, the other comic I've been tossing around for awhile.  Imagine Pandora (as in "Greek chick with the box of evil") as a hipster living in the city.  Despair, a floating spikey ball with giant eyes and eyebrows, follows her around and hits on her.  Hope's still trapped in the box and spends a lot of time trying to convince Pandora to let her out of it.  Hope is actually cute, pink, and kinda fluffy...with killer claws.

Yeah...now you see why people need to be protected from my brain.

Pictures of my tinfoil hat!

the front:




the back:


I have no pictures of me wearing the hat, because those would just look STUPID.  Trust me.  I tried to take them.  The hat does NOTHING for my hair.

The things I go through to protect the bands I love.  And my sweet, juicy, potentially superpowered brains.

I have finally made the tinfoil hat in order to protect Fall Out Boy, should they try to get into my brain.  There are just things those boys don't need to see in my head.

Pictures will be posted tomorrow, hopefully.

The hat also doubles as protection against brain eating psychopaths...yes, I'm looking at you SYLAR >:(

Me = shallow bitch.

Even if it seems like I have a "pure, artistic soul."  No, fuck that shit.

Shallow little bitch.

New place is shaping up pretty well.  It's cute, but I'm still intimidated by the idea of living by myself.  I'm having fun picking out all kinds of stuff for in there, but it's still weird to not come home to other people.

Note that I didn't say it was BAD.

I'm already getting used to it, though.  Falling into bed felt just perfect last night.  The place has felt like mine since I first looked at it.  So it's kind of like home already.  Even better, I actually HAVE a home again, not just a place for me to crash for a year while I feel transient and displaced.