Food For Thought: Killing Us Softly

Photo thanks to syafira2191

Hey y’all! I am currently 4 days into NaNoWriMo, and it’s really challenging! Last night, making myself write 1,600 words was like forcing a three year old to eat their vegetables. But to have 11 pages of a novel written? What a great feeling. I’m going to keep pushing through, and report back soon. Anyone who is participating, best of luck! I hope you’re doing well. Please chime in a comment about what gets you through! :)

As I’m heading toward the weekend, I wanted to stop in and share some “food for thought”. I’m taking a sociology of gender class this semester, and it has really opened my eyes to the world. A few weeks ago, our teacher shared a film with us: “Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women”. The filmmaker, Jean Kilbourne, has been making these films for several years. In them, she explores the way that the media portrays women, and investigates how these images affect the treatment of women in our society.

I truly believe these films should be “required watching” for everyone. Even if you’re not compelled to take action after watching, at least you’ll be examining advertising with a more critical lens.

I couldn’t find a copy of Killing Us Softly 4 online, but Documentary Heaven hosts Killing Us Softly 3, a version (still relevant!) made in the early 90’s. I watched about half of this one, and much of the material was identical to that in #4. I would encourage you to watch this version in the absence of a copy of #4 because it explores the same issues!

And here is the trailer for #4:

I hope you find these perspectives interesting, and thought-provoking. I certainly did. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Have a very happy weekend everyone!

xoxo,

Taking Baby Steps

Thanks to mimiBlog for the photo

Here’s the million dollar question: What can you do right now to achieve your goals?

 I just read about this idea in The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Leo has also written about this idea over at ZenHabits.

It’s a very powerful concept. My interpretation is this: many people have big dreams or plans for themselves, and aren’t sure where to start in order to accomplish them. Their aspirations may seem daunting, impossible, or maybe just time-consuming. But the way to achieve them is to start. Somewhere. Anywhere. And according to Tim? You should do it today.

He advocates a very straight-forward approach, and in my opinion the book is worth reading even just for this method of analysis. He includes a monetary calculation as well, which is really helpful for larger goals, but in this post I’m just going to focus on his ideas about first steps in the context of short-term goals.

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Be Who You Are, Not Who You Wish You Were

Photo thanks to WeHeartIt

First off: a caveat. I don’t mean to suggest that there’s something wrong with having aspirations for yourself. Dreams, hopes, future plans, blueprints of your mansion in the Canary Islands – whatever. It’s a beautiful thing to be inspired by life, to be looking forward to things, to wish something for yourself that you don’t currently possess.

There’s also nothing wrong with adjusting your current behaviours in the hopes of becoming a better you, to say no to activities you might enjoy but know are unproductive (like countless hours of watching TV, for example!) or make yourself do the hard work that will get you where you need to be.

The real problem arises wherever we attempt to mold ourselves into somebody else.  When our plans for ourselves don’t match up with our true values, personalities or skills. When we’re operating under a script for our “ideal” self that just doesn’t jibe with who we really are or what truly makes us happy.

Where we get these useless scripts differs from person to person: perhaps they’re sourced from our perceived (or real) parental expectations, our jealousy of a friend, our information from the media of what constitutes beauty or achievement, or our lack of self-reflection. It’s useful to try and isolate the sources of your ineffective scripts, confront them, and keep them in mind as you move through your life. 

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Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Things I dislike: plug-ins that screw up my website, having to get my wisdom teeth out, waking up tired, mushy bananas. Yuck yuck and double yuck.

Things I like: dancing around to this video, late-night walks around the sparkling city, getting inspiration for my NaNo novel, repurposing mushy bananas into something magical.

This is Real Life people, and it’s happening all the time. No more nestling up in the high school cocoon of comfort. It’s the time for strangers telling you they’re going to cut your teeth in half, long walks during which you talk about your feelings, and phone calls from your Mom instead of hugs. It’s also the time for watching too much tv and eating as many sea-salt sprinkled chocolate chip cookies as you want, so I guess it’s okay. (Don’t worry Mom, I didn’t eat that many.)

You know what else Real Life means? It means you should learn to make banana bread. Why? I don’t know. It seems like a grown-up skill. It seems like you’re saying “Look at me! I can use ingredients up! I am not wasteful. I am resourceful.” Also banana bread is delicious, so you might just want to put it in your mouth. Who am I to question your motives?

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