Love Your Body

October 15th is Love Your Body Day, as declared by NOW. I’m not much of a rah-rah-rah, go sister, out-loud kind of feminist, though I do appreciate that those kinds of feminists exist. I’m much more of a leave-me-alone-so-I-can-live-my-life kind of person in general, and that’s the kind of feminism I attempt to embody as well. I do a little letter writing thing when something major comes up. I keep informed, etc. But rarely am I ever preachy-preachy. (Hmm, I just noticed that you can substitute the word “vegan” for “feminist” above, and that pretty much says volumes about how I think of myself. Anyway…)

This, however, is a particularly important issue in my mind. I think “love your body” is a bit of a frou-frou type phrase that makes the cynical, easily annoyed part of my, well, annoyed. But, the message is a good one. Too many times every day do I hear people, mostly women, go on and on about diets, the need to lose a certain number of pounds, how they hate how their pants look, etc. Yes, I’ve done that before, too, so no free pass for me on this one. But the way these kinds of things dominate conversation between women is disturbing. I think it sort of congealed in my mind when someone close to me said, “I’d rather be thin than healthy.” She’s much healthier now, but it was a tough time for a while.

To celebrate the love your body theme, here are some links:

• (video) Tri Delta Sorority presents Fat Talk Free Week
• (book) Linda Bacon’s Health at Every Size
  
• One of my favorite body positive blogs (and one of my favorite blogs in general), Shapely Prose
• For fans of the performing arts, there’s Big Moves, representing all sizes
• (video) And we musn’t forget, the wonderful Joy Nash: Fat Rant, Fat Rant 2, Fat Rant 3

Enjoy!

“My sister’s a ship. We had a complicated childhood.”

So, I finally got around to watching Firefly! Yay for me! Welcome to 2002! I first became intrigued round about the time when people on Ravelry started making and posting their Jayne hats. I love the hat. So orange. So flappy. I needed one. But I had to find out who this Jayne person was. Then I saw this on Unshelved:

I didn’t get it at the time. No more so than Tamara here. But I knew I needed to know. Then a while later, I saw Serenity. Well, it was playing at a friend’s house when we were there. But I didn’t get to see the whole thing. Then not too long ago, someone else was playing it at their house. But I fell asleep. But somehow that night, we were loaned the DVDs of Firefly and it was demanded of us that we should watch (or be stripped of our geek status). We couldn’t not comply.

Plus, I really wanted the hat, and I knew I couldn’t make one until I knew what it was about.

Now I know. I’m in love with every single character. When Wash died in Serenity, I knew he was my favorite. I could just tell. And not just ’cause he died (though almost all of my favorite characters in other shows and movies die). And he still is. But every other character on there is also my favorite. I love River. Simon. Kaylee. Mal. Zoe. Wash. Inara. Shepherd Book. And yes, Jayne. And his hat. Now I can make one in good conscience.

Ok, so it took me six years. But now I understand. Of course the show was canceled. It’s smart, heartwarming, fun. There’s space and horses. Gunslingers and lasers. What’s not to love?

Shiny.