Goodbye Frowns

It's early, relatively, and I'm switching off between AIM conversations about pro-anorexia web sites and guys who are threatened by powerful women. I'm not sure which one mystifies me more. What I should be doing instead of all this is finishing my writing project and then figuring out what I need to have ready before I head off on Monday. So far the list looks like: buy extra contacts, pack as lightly as possible, secure housing for the summer, watch Green Lantern, rewatch X-Men, and go eat black sesame ice cream.

The biggest question I have so far is: do I bring the ukulele to New York? So far I know four chords and can play the beginning picking part of "1, 2, 3, 4." I still have trouble tuning but I'm sure my future roommates won't mind will they?

This article from Julie Klausner about women who are still girls is spot on in observation but I'm not sure where I stand on the conclusion. I mean, yes it's annoying when women giggle like little girls, yes everyone hates baby talk, but as someone who likes cupcakes, frozen yogurt, and rainbows, I'm totally susceptible to the Zooey Deschanel / Manic Dream Pixie Girl stereotype. I hope this quote doesn't apply to me: "And instead of acting like a woman who might remind a skittish bro more of his teacher or his mother, we're going for the pubeless, twee, Anime-eyed version of whatever dream girl we assume they want or need."

Theresa pointed me over to the Racialicious response which asks "Where is the black Zooey Deschanel?" and touches on the race and class issue involved in this ideal. Again, I'm not sure how to feel about this: "The wide-eyed, girlish, take-care-of-me characters that Deschanel inhabits on film are not open to many women of color, particularly black women. We can be strong women, aggressive women, promiscuous women...but never carefree and childish."

Reading the comments after the article, I was hoping to be able to respond in some way. Instead I find that I'm incapable of posting or writing in a manner that reads as point/counterpoint. I've lost the ability -- or never had -- to write a statement and then back it up with an argument. This is something I'm gonna have to work on because while I love to read opinion pieces, it would be nice to be able to write them too. I think this is what people mean when they say "articulate."