Over at my partner blog Shadowsexposed, I just posted the beginning of a series of posts on my own journey and personal sense on how I objectify women (IOW).
I objectify women through my thoughts, beliefs, and art as well. Just
by tripping the shutter and capturing the image of a woman on film or a
sensor, I transfer a real human (not just women) into a 1/250th of a
second capture of her and convert her to an object.
This transfer is similar to what painters, sculptors, poets, and other
creative types have done for centuries. They take a full human and
convert them to some sort of partial object, a mere small representation
of a fiction or reality of that person. - excerpt from IOW atshadowsexposed.com
Over this series, Miz B and I are going to explore objectification. For me, it will be about my work, my struggles, and how I am evolving and accepting what I do. For Miz B, she will write about being both behind the camera as objectifier and in front of it as the objectified.
I have one favor, please go over there and read this, and the following posts in the series, and comment. You can comment anonymously if you like. The important thing though is to share your thoughts, experiences, and comments about it. We don't mind a bit of debate, even if it gets heated. You can disagree with us as well. The key part is to raise the issues and help broaden the discussion. If you don't feel comfortable commenting there, comment here.
PS - Thanks to D.L. for commenting both there and here. We greatly appreciate it.
My last post got all deep and theological and shit. Enough of the deep stuff for this week. I just turned off my work computer for the evening and it is time to relax with a cocktail, some brie and crackers, and maybe a cigar.
First, I want to say goodbye to 30 Rock. Tina Fey and her companions gave us 7 seasons of intelligent comedy. It was never a great popular success, but a critical one. I thank NBC for giving this smart show a chance when they could have killed it years ago. It ended well. Below is a great montage called "Shit Liz Lemon Says".
I am in Las Vegas for the weekend. Below are a few shots from the inside of my Virgin America flight. I highly recommend flying with them. Good prices, great service, and a Rave Party feel inside, minus the drugs, plus the lighting and music.
And here is a bit of music to start the weekend.
I've been living (living) on a dead-end street
I've been asking (asking) everybody I meet
Insufficient data coming through
*Maybe I should be depressed about this, but while I am not eagerly
awaiting my death, I know everything has its time. I am going through a
religious questioning phase right now about the existence and role of a
theistic being. In other words - do I believe in a God with a big G or
not? For now, I am starting to feel or believe that there is a cosmic
greatness out there, but that my existence influences or is known by that great being is
about the same as my influence on that ant hill in the yard at my
parent's place a thousand miles away. My universe is too big to know of every life form I
have some connection to and potential power over. Those ants walk their
little bits of food and building pieces to their hill and I never know
of their existence and will not know of their deaths.
This is how I am
seeing the great cosmic force that is out there. This greater entity, whether it is powers of nature and science regulating everything, a spiritual being, or the combined energy of all life and forces in the universe, shapes our entire origin, life, demise and whatever is next. It is much like me starting my truck. I installed the engine, hooked up the fuel, and turned the key. The engine starts and I drive away. Even though I am cognizant of the crank shaft pushing the pistons up and down, I am not in control of or care about each rotation in the engine as it spins at 3000 rpm. It is going on its own. Along my trip, I may drive over a pebble that spits out into field and later is used to become part of a groundhog's nest. All of this action is set into motion because I put the engine into my truck. Am I cognizant of each of these interactions? No. It is just the whole system running on what I have done.
I am that little pebble thrown out into field. God, the entity, the forces of nature, or whatever don't care about that pebble or don't even know its existence. This moment of me is just one of the smallest parts of the countless interactions and beings in the universe moving along its own path.
Part of this realization came from looking at the faith I learned along the way. I looked at all the death, catastrophes (natural or man made) and wondered why an "all loving being" could do that, or at least, prevent them? Why would an omnipotent being care about such petty things and how it is worshiped? How could a knowing and loving entity allow different religions to kill in its name? For me, why would a supreme being care about gender, politics, or different religions, race, sexual orientation, etc.? Is the answer truly "42"?
Some of y potential (but not all-inclusive) answers are:
A. It acts like a kid having temper tantrums, not knowing the damage it does.
B. It is something that goes beyond war crimes, genocide, and any crimes of humanity or nature we can understand and makes Hitler, Stalin, and their ilk (speaking of which, why would a deity allow these people to become what they were in first place?), look like doves. (Take the Noah story - why kill every human and animal on the earth, except those chosen few, just to make a point. That alone is an atrocity that goes beyond anything witnessed in history. I am sure that at least a few of the humans wiped out in this moment of wrath were good people that were just unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place. I wont even go into the horrors in the book of Job.
C. It is something that set the whole engine in the universe going and lets things play out by the rules of nature, science, and free will of the mind.
Maybe it is time for me to realize I am just that speck that Calvin alludes to. This is not depressing, it is freeing. I am released from this burden of the exceptionalism of organized religion where each faith knows it is right and all others are wrong. I get to do what I do, help others, try not to hurt, maybe create a little beauty, make things better and then snuff out and become part of the great cosmos again.
George Carlin summed it all up so well.
See I don’t worry about the little things:
bees, trees, whales, snails. I think we’re part of a greater wisdom than
we will ever understand. A higher order. Call it what you want. Know
what I call it? The Big Electron. The Big Electron…whoooa. Whoooa.
Whoooa. It doesn’t punish, it doesn’t reward, it doesn’t judge at all.
It just is. And so are we. For a little while.
*I am not criticizing anyone's beliefs. I am criticizing my own path and analyzing my own journey and what I am slowly learning. I am not saying what I am sharing is the answer to it all. No one knows that for certain, but maybe only what is certain to them.
I promise nudes and shallowness, levity, and other things in my next post.
One of friends who is now looking for colleges had a very endearing and easily understood experience when she was four years old. It happened when we watched Shrek together. There is a scene where Shrek is really mean to Donkey and yells at him to send him away. My little friend crawled into my lap and said to me, "Not liking!" and turned her head to avoid seeing the sad scene in the movie. I had to agree, "not liking".
Over the past few weeks I've seen a couple of other friends that were friends before I met them are falling out. It has probably been brewing for awhile. It hurts since they once shared a deep connection and both respect and affection for each other. Now their relationship feels poisoned. Their growing split is getting harder to witness. Not liking.
Many of my friendships in my life faded away over the last few decades. Facebook has helped a few of us reconnect, but that is a rarity. I understand when friendships slowly flow apart since we all develop separate lives that slowly erode the commonalities we once shared.
It is really sad though to lose friendships over hard feelings and misunderstandings. I've regrettably been part of those splits and witnessed a few as well. Sadly, this is part is life I guess. During my witnessing this recent break, I know that my role is probably best to stay to the side and try to love and support them both. For now though, I want to look away and say, "Not liking."
.jpg)
.JPG)
