Saturday, September 11, 2010

Role Model?

wow. wow. wOw!
Let me start at the start.

Discovery Girls Magazine, a magazine for girls between the ages of 9-13, recently hosted a contest to find thirty GIRL role models. Out of those thirty, the ten most voted for will win a trip to California, and a photo shoot for Discovery Girls.


Guess who's a finalist??


Me!

I'm excited because this gives me a chance to show that you don't have to have a license to drive, or have lots of money, or whatever, to make a difference in this world. As I have shared with you, I want my words to reach out and make change, good change. Here are thirty, (twenty nine?)girls who all try to do the same.


So, as I'm sure you've guessed by now, I am asking for your vote. It would be great to win, but if I didn't, that would be OK too. I just want to spread the word. What word? well, you'll have to figure THAT out for yourself...

Anyway, here is a link to the voting page :
http://discoverygirls.com/fun-stuff/contests/role-model?destination=fun-stuff%2Fcontests%2Frole-model



Yours until airplane food actually tastes good,
(Did I mention I just got back from a trip?)

Justina

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Bimbo?!?! Oh. No. You. Didn't.

This has me E-N-R-A-G-E-D-!

In a recent letter in New Moon Magazine, A girl was ranting about a website where girls, aka "Bimbos" play games and be part of an online "community". (Un-ladylike snort here) Some community. Girls can set a goal for their "Bimbo". That sounds great until you see the goals. You can purchase, using "Bimbo Dollars" (with real money sent through PayPal) an eating disorder, or a implant (whether your butt or your boobs is up to you), plastic surgery and, well, you get the picture.Whats really sad? That there are over 2237293 registered users and counting.:(

Now I wonder, WHY would you want to play a game like this?

Here is the definition of "Bimbo" as given by (The Ever Helpful) Merriam- Webster:

Main Entry: bim·bo
Pronunciation: \ˈbim-(ˌ)bō\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural bimbos
Etymology: perhaps from Italian bimbo baby
Date: 1918

1 slang : man, woman Jay Stuller> —used as a generalized term of disapproval especially for an attractive but vacuous person



You get my point?
Now if younger girls are playing this, they are growing up thinking that eating disorders are a good thing, all it takes to get a guy is HUGE boobs, and that being stupid rules.

And who is the GENIUS who came up with this??

3 university students.

The opening statement on their website?
"Become the hottest, coolest most intelligent and talented bimbo the world has ever known!"

followed by...

"# To progress in the game you have to get her a hot boyfriend, a cool place to live, and find her a great job.
# You can also style your Bimbo and show her off to other players.
# You can compete with other Bimbos to see who's the best dressed and most popular."

this gets better and better.. THREE FOURTHS of their management are women.....

Oi.

Anyway, if you want to heck ( erm..check) out this pillar of stereotyping and sexism, here you go :
http://www.missbimbo.com/

I need to go drink some tea...

Friday, July 9, 2010

Housewife? I DON'T think so...

I am sitting in the living room watching that ever informative show, Wife Swap. This week, one mom is convinced that the world is ending in 2012, due to a Mayan prophecy and the other one just announced that she spends 40,000 dollars a year on her daughters golf lessons.

40,000 dollar mom's husband is, to quote the Mayan mom, "a male chauvinistic pig." This so-called "pig" just informed the new wife that if, "god forbid, anything were to happen to his wife, he would just find someone else to clean the bathroom." In the beginning, they kept showing shots of this man sitting on the couch while his wife cleans, cooks, and chauffeurs. He just informed the Mayan mother, that he believes that housework is gender orientated, and that women are better cleaners, cooks, etc.


Is this guy for real?


How many other men and boys think like this?



How many women and girls go through the stuff that $40,000 mom is going through?

Who came up with this theory that all women and girls are good for is house work??? Obviously someone EXTREMELY under-educated and ignorant of our many talents. (Haughty sniff here)

So what do YOU think?

I mean, come ON people! This is the 21st century, not the DARK AGES!!


Now I want to know, WHY would you put up with this kind of treatment? Why not say something? Like, oh, I don't know.."Why don't YOU get YOUR butt off the couch and help me wash YOUR dirty socks, sweetie?" That sounds about right....

I think women just gradually are grown into the idea that men and boys can do things we can't. It is a subconscious message that society presses on us.

DON'T LISTEN!!!!!

Now we are at the end of this episode, and the moms are going at it..Mayan mom is telling $40,000 mom that her husband is "rude, arrogant, and I have NEVER been that disrespected."


Hmph.. Could have told her THAT myself... :)

Friday, June 4, 2010

Dear Marianne.......

.... For the benefit of others just starting out on this, I recently received this comment in response to my post " Gimme Gimme Gimme".

"Marianne said...

I'm sorry, but I don't believe you are thirteen.You write like an adult and see things from a different perspective than I, a thirteen year old girl, do.I think that this blog is just so you adults can pretend to understand us.Please don't post anything else until you have a REAL thirteen year old posting. "

Marianne, I got such a kick out of this,I am writing a WHOLE post for YOU. I am real, and I am thirteen. If you scroll down just a little further, you will see photos of me. No, that is not photo shop. I'll take it as a compliment on my vocabulary that you think I am an adult. And while many adults do pretend to understand us, most of them don't start blogs, and pretend to be a thirteen year old girl. Unless, they are a SERIOUS creeper.

I, and my family, enjoyed this so much, I made a video in your honor:




P.S. My mum is so psyched, she says this is because I am homeschooled :).

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

And Now For A Trip To Outer Space....

"Class, I would like you to closely observe the condition of "Space Case" that is afflicting this poor girl. She, as you can see, can not keep her thoughts in line, and as a result, has not posted on her blog in over two months."

To all of my readers: I sincerely apologize. I have, as you can see above, come down with a horrible case of "Spacieus Casius". Every time I have a thought, I sit down at my computer and begin to write it, then realize I was supposed to be somewhere a half an hour ago. I have so many unfinished drafts in my "Posts" section,it isn't even funny. And that is how it has gone for the last two months,18 days, __ hours and __ minutes.. (Not sure when this will show up, so fill in the blanks)

So if you have not jumped ship, I thank you, and want you to know that in the future, I will take my vitamins.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Gimme gimme gimme!

"But I want it!"

The oldest argument between kids and their parents around.

In a recent post on New Moon Girls' Facebook page, a mother wrote:

"My daughter has fake uggs and when she asked for these 130.00 boots because her friends has them I said no and my reasoning was that she didn't want them because they were good boots but because "everyone" has them."


My first thought when I heard this was, "Just say NO!".Then I thought,"I wonder why does this girl think she has to have the Ugg's, not the Bearpaws, which happen to be about $110 cheaper.Is it because the boot's are better or because "everyone" has them?And if the former, what will she do with her $130 shoes when "everyone" ditches them?

Being an individual when it comes to what I wear,I couldn't care less what "everyone" is wearing.But this girl obviously does, and expects her parents to pay for that.Which brings me to two problems. One, kids expect their parents to just have an outflow of cash for them to spend on stuff they don't really need and two, their parents give in to it. Now I too have things I really really want and want my parents to buy for me. But my mom has come up with a good way to cure this. She gives me this saying:"If you want it that bad, buy it yourself." Boy, does that curb my need! If I really want it, then I'll buy it, but it really makes me think about if I really need it.I don't expect my parents to just pay for everything I want and they encourage me and if I can't pay for a thing may give me half or a third of the price to help.

So to Ugg Girl: Maybe you should, if you really want the boots, buy them yourself. Or if you don't want to do that, maybe you should look into a generic pair, which are just as comfortable and look just the same.The only difference is that they cost a lot cheaper. :)



The lesson in all of this?
Wait, there's a metaphor for it.

If you want it that bad, buy it yourself.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Oh WOW.....

Like I said before... WOW. I spent a day surrounded on all sides by amazing women.I met the first lady of California, Maria Shriver, the first (and only) female Iron Chef, Cat Cora and the amazing Ms.Lula Washington.I heard girls sing wonderful songs and perform poetry they wrote themselves. I saw clips from a documentary ,Girl Culture, that made me want to put every "Mean Girl" on this planet in jail. I saw images from another documentary "Thin" that made me want to cry.I was inspired by listening to all of these amazing girls and women, hearing their stories and seeing their life's works.
Here are some images from the day:


The first lady...

Cat Cora, the one and only female Iron chef. Her Mediterranean chicken? Yummmm....


Mrs.Lula Washington. You know those N'avi dance scenes in Avatar? 'Nuff said.


These women and more, many recipentents of the Minerva Awards, created by Maria Shriver.There was so much women- and girl- power in the room, it was wonderful.
I will (hopefully) be posting interviews with two of the women I met...

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Normal? What's N-or-mal?

Like I said before, what's normal?
Merriam-Webster gives the definition of normal as follows:

"According with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule, or principle b : conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern"

OK, that soooo doesn't describe me...

You may be wondering, "What brought that on?"
Well, I recently walked by a girl on the phone saying " I wish my family was more normal, they are soooo embarrassing!"

That got me thinking, what's normal?

Whatever it is, my family isn't it.

And then I started wondering, why are people so obsessed with being normal?
Is it so bad to be different?

I know that I'm different, weird, strange, how ever you want to put it, and you know what? I'm PROUD of that.

I think girls in general are pressured to act like their friends, or their favorite celebrities, then told that if they don't they are "weird", "different", "odd".. Words that we are taught to mean "bad". Do you know what the definition of weird is? Check it out:
"to be of strange or extraordinary character". Well then, I guess I AM weird!

So the next time someone says "You are so weird", take it as a compliment!

And remember, being normal isn't always the best......

Monday, February 22, 2010

Welcome One and All!

Hello World!
This is the first post in what I am sure will become an odyssey of blogging!
My blog (this blog),Operation Indigo, is place where (I hope)I will share my webshow "Operation Indigo", My thoughts and muses, interviews I conduct, stories I write.......

And ALL of this will in ( my own way) relate to being a young woman in today's society.
Which can be tough, fun, irritating,joyful,great,horrid,mind-boggling,informative,and just "overall the most frustrating and amazing journey you will ever take."(or at least that's what adults say!).

But to tell you a little about me:

I am a 13 year old girl living in "Surburbia California",United States, North America, Western Hemisphere, Earth, the Galaxy, the universe. I love to read anything I can get my hands on and all of the librarians at my local library know me by name.
I have a ginormous German Shepard.I also have a little brother whom I will refer to as "Minor", representing his height. :)


So now that you know me a bit, lets get started!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

You go girl! And keep your eyes open.....

OK, be prepared to be amAzed! I found this website when on one site I frequent.The girls in this video are extremely talented! They wrote, directed, and acted out their play, " Keep Your Eyes Open", based on their own experiences.It is a outstanding writing job and it relates to girls everywhere!You see in this play; peer pressure, stereotypes, body image(and all that other stuff we have to put up with), and the effect all this hullabaloo can have on girls... Everyone should take a peek at this play, and if you happen to be in NYC, go check them out at the Cherry Lane Theatre.




Enjoy!