(no subject)
Sun, Jun. 20th, 2004 12:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterRead Emma Frost #2, 7-12. Emma is strangely nice and not like unto Emma at all. Watch me dabble in the world of X-Men again... the majority of what I actually know from canon has been gathered from various internet sites, given that I am generally too cheap to cough up for graphic novels (with the exception of Sandman, for which I have spent tons and tons of money on, sigh). I am still waiting for her bitchy self to emerge. I like her for the same reasons I like Scarlett O'Hara.
I went to the little Shanghai place again and had loads of food ^_^. Next time I need to somehow drag more people with me so I can order more stuff, but sadly, the lack of any social circle whatsoever seems to put a damper on this idea already.
Interesting thoughts on feminism and romance novels and femininity floating around, thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
heres_luck writing on romance novels and melymbrosia's comments on reading Mars. I'm not quite sure how I "discovered" feminism for myself. Nor do I remember when I actually started having problems with books outside of simply liking or disliking them. I do remember being irked by Wrede's Cimorene in the Enchanted Forest series because she was too perfect, and I do remember the really big effect Lackey's Vanyel trilogy had on me and on actually thinking about homosexuality and homophobia. I had a long tomboyish period which was a complete failure because I realized that unlike all the other real tomboys in the fantasy books I was reading (McKinley, Lackey, etc.), I had absolutely no desire to go out and fight stuff, given that fighting would involve much physical activity, and a rather embarrassing interest in cross-stitching. I was also quiet, not outspoken, not spunky, and not very like those heroines.
I went through a period in which I refused to dress fashionably or care about my appearance because I absolutely refused to do anything too "popular." I think the resulting flannels and ratty hair and lack of makeup were more rebellion against the popular crowd and what I used to call the TAT (typical American teenager). They really intimidated me every time we went to America for vacation. The mockery of romance probably also stems from the period in seventh grade when all the popular girls were part of a couple and my feeling rather left out. I'm not sure if I associated prettiness with femininity. I think I more associated concern for appearance with popularity.
Maybe I read so many of those books with the feisty heroines, who were in a way a reaction against the lack of feminism, that I reacted against that. Because despite the fact that they were orphans/misunderstood/downtrodden, the heroines were still the popular ones. All the proper people in the books would like them, and they didn't really have to worry about all the people who disliked them, because those people were wrong and bad anyhow. And they got the guy and turned beautiful. Actually, a lot of this was a reaction against Lackey heroines, I think. So I always felt sort of embarrassed about the fact that I rather liked dressing up and making up my face and whatnot. I felt even more embarrassed about that sort of thing when I went to summer school in tenth grade and all the girls in my class were relaying tales on how they had never liked Barbie and how they didn't care about their appearances and how they were so good at hanging out with the boys and never felt quite at home with girls as friends.
Heh, complete opposite of how I grew up. I used to play for hours with Barbies with my sister and make up giant elaborate stories. And I think maybe because I grew up with a sister, I was really used to female company. Guys were always sort of foreign and strange and yucky. Our Barbies were always giant families of sisters and daughters, and the three guy dolls (Ken, Kevin and ... er... the kid one) were always sort of boring to play. I didn't quite know what went on in their heads, but the girls I could always playact. I think it's rather interesting that I must have learned to identify very firmly with my physical sex and/or gender early on... I've read people's comments on LJ about how not having a heroine never bothered them because they would just take the hero's POV instead. For me, if there were no girls, in general, I was not interested. And even if the girl had a miniscule part, I would usually take it and expand the story in my head somehow. All of my friends growing up were girls, with a few guys here and there that we made fun of, and I think I only learned to really socialize with guys in around high school or so.
But a lot of heroines in the books were always going on about the restrictiveness of corsets, wanting to wear pants, not wanting pretty clothes, wanting to learn swordfighting, and there I was, reading and squirming over the fact that I was much more like the simpering court ladies who were snobby and liked all these girly things and looked down on the heroine and were therefore wrong. It took me a while to start not being embarrassed about reading romance novels or liking them, and I'm still sort of embarrassed about my frippy clothes. Of course, it's always interesting because I feel perpetually boyish and awkward and underdressed in Taiwan next to all those pretty size 0 doll girls and perpetually too feminine and overdressed and well, just, girly in America.
I went to the little Shanghai place again and had loads of food ^_^. Next time I need to somehow drag more people with me so I can order more stuff, but sadly, the lack of any social circle whatsoever seems to put a damper on this idea already.
Interesting thoughts on feminism and romance novels and femininity floating around, thanks to
heres_luck writing on romance novels and melymbrosia's comments on reading Mars. I'm not quite sure how I "discovered" feminism for myself. Nor do I remember when I actually started having problems with books outside of simply liking or disliking them. I do remember being irked by Wrede's Cimorene in the Enchanted Forest series because she was too perfect, and I do remember the really big effect Lackey's Vanyel trilogy had on me and on actually thinking about homosexuality and homophobia. I had a long tomboyish period which was a complete failure because I realized that unlike all the other real tomboys in the fantasy books I was reading (McKinley, Lackey, etc.), I had absolutely no desire to go out and fight stuff, given that fighting would involve much physical activity, and a rather embarrassing interest in cross-stitching. I was also quiet, not outspoken, not spunky, and not very like those heroines. I went through a period in which I refused to dress fashionably or care about my appearance because I absolutely refused to do anything too "popular." I think the resulting flannels and ratty hair and lack of makeup were more rebellion against the popular crowd and what I used to call the TAT (typical American teenager). They really intimidated me every time we went to America for vacation. The mockery of romance probably also stems from the period in seventh grade when all the popular girls were part of a couple and my feeling rather left out. I'm not sure if I associated prettiness with femininity. I think I more associated concern for appearance with popularity.
Maybe I read so many of those books with the feisty heroines, who were in a way a reaction against the lack of feminism, that I reacted against that. Because despite the fact that they were orphans/misunderstood/downtrodden, the heroines were still the popular ones. All the proper people in the books would like them, and they didn't really have to worry about all the people who disliked them, because those people were wrong and bad anyhow. And they got the guy and turned beautiful. Actually, a lot of this was a reaction against Lackey heroines, I think. So I always felt sort of embarrassed about the fact that I rather liked dressing up and making up my face and whatnot. I felt even more embarrassed about that sort of thing when I went to summer school in tenth grade and all the girls in my class were relaying tales on how they had never liked Barbie and how they didn't care about their appearances and how they were so good at hanging out with the boys and never felt quite at home with girls as friends.
Heh, complete opposite of how I grew up. I used to play for hours with Barbies with my sister and make up giant elaborate stories. And I think maybe because I grew up with a sister, I was really used to female company. Guys were always sort of foreign and strange and yucky. Our Barbies were always giant families of sisters and daughters, and the three guy dolls (Ken, Kevin and ... er... the kid one) were always sort of boring to play. I didn't quite know what went on in their heads, but the girls I could always playact. I think it's rather interesting that I must have learned to identify very firmly with my physical sex and/or gender early on... I've read people's comments on LJ about how not having a heroine never bothered them because they would just take the hero's POV instead. For me, if there were no girls, in general, I was not interested. And even if the girl had a miniscule part, I would usually take it and expand the story in my head somehow. All of my friends growing up were girls, with a few guys here and there that we made fun of, and I think I only learned to really socialize with guys in around high school or so.
But a lot of heroines in the books were always going on about the restrictiveness of corsets, wanting to wear pants, not wanting pretty clothes, wanting to learn swordfighting, and there I was, reading and squirming over the fact that I was much more like the simpering court ladies who were snobby and liked all these girly things and looked down on the heroine and were therefore wrong. It took me a while to start not being embarrassed about reading romance novels or liking them, and I'm still sort of embarrassed about my frippy clothes. Of course, it's always interesting because I feel perpetually boyish and awkward and underdressed in Taiwan next to all those pretty size 0 doll girls and perpetually too feminine and overdressed and well, just, girly in America.
Re: MmmMM...food
Sun, Jun. 20th, 2004 01:05 pm (UTC)Hahaha, I never quite thought about those games as RPGs!! I used to think of them as an early indication that I would get sucked into fanfiction ;).
Are Lisa and Lynn in Bay Area?? I thought they were down in LA!