The Revenge Against Barbie

(Written by me, the insecure demon child)

Barbie is not hot. Believe me, she’s just another Paris Hilton hosting all those white trash parties. If you love melting plastic materials, then you must love killing Barbie (and hopefully Hilton). Don’t mind Ken, he’s a no good guy. If you have been playing Barbie dolls when you were younger, then this too along with the other normal little girls, is your revenge. And if you are one of those brothers of the little girls who used to pull off Barbie’s arms and legs, cut her blonde hair and burned her body in the camp fire, then you deserve a little reward.

It was reported that Barbie dolls have lead content that can cause brain damage. As Jay Leno said if your little girl is playing Barbie dolls, then most probably your kid is going to end up like Barbie. Now I won’t make Jay Leno shut up, I must admit, he has a point. Bringing back old times with Barbie dolls? Well, they just rekindle stupid memories when you once wished you were pretty like Barbie but you can’t be pretty because you have pimples and you’re not skinny.

So why get your revenge against Barbie?

1. Barbie influences the little girls with these wrong ideas about being a woman. 1. That women are only considered beautiful when they’re skinny, blonde, long haired and long legged; 2. That beautiful women must wear skirts and fabulous dresses to be loved by boys. Indeed, Barbie set the standard of what is a beautiful woman.

2. Barbie pushes the girls to reach their puberty at an early stage – wear make up and get more boys. Barbie steals their childhood experiences. Daddy’s little girl is off wondering in the streets for boys. expect her to skip dinner because she’s on a diet.

3. Barbie influences the girls that the girls are just created by God to put on some make up, some nice gowns, skimpy skirts, halter tops and low neckline dresses everyday of their lives and their worries only include cosmetics and hair salons. And the worries about the world of politics and economics? Barbie should have clearly pointed out to leave it to the male species.

If you’re still not completely motivated, then you need to drink some soda and sushi to awaken your senses. And if you’re wondering if I ever played with Barbie way back when I was a sweet little girl, the answer is yes, every girl does. Every girl is Barbie’s victim so don’t ask me why I am so pissed off with Barbie.

Now I am in a quest to kill Barbie in our pop culture and bury her where no little girl can ever find her again. Finally, every little girl’s sweet revenge.

Source (from my main blog)

The Revenge Against Barbie

Sabbath Witches

There was a popular notion that poetic language is the language of “images” and this conception was accepted by the theorists of Symbolism. “The Summer Solstice” is considered to be a sort of revelation of women empowerment through the use of gothic and barbaric images. In the last part of the story, a reader is introduced to the idea of man’s submission to woman by the image of a “man crawling on the floor like an agonized lizard, his face flat on the floor, as his lips touched her toes.” This act could be considered as a form of worship to a god or to someone whom you see as a powerful and superior being.

The woman, on the other hand, portrays the image of a woman under the power of the Tatarin being a form of witchcraft, as depicted in the story. A reader is then given a hint by a rich description of the ritual of the Tatarin.

“…they covered their heads with their black shawls and began wailing softly, unhumanly-a hushed, animal keening…”

The description of Amada’s husband and lord being silent all along while she was naked and screaming in bed is also a powerful scene in the story.

The writer never mentioned about sexual submission, whipping and women dominating in the bedroom, the reader is only being provided with images.

The emphasis of the independent value of words extended to the creation of “nonsense” language into a new form of creation. The story is able to submit itself as to what Roman Jakobson called “organized violence” in which a writer is able to roughen up an ordinary language into “formed speech.” Instead of merely narrating the events in the story, Joaquin was able to capture the finest and important moments because of his careful use of his language.

“…her hair flung back and her loose hair streaming out of the window-streaming fluid and black in the white night where the huge moon glowed like a sun and the dry air flamed into lightning and the pure heat burned with the immense intense fever of noon…”

And so, somehow, a reader is introduced to such words which deliberately suggest enchantment and a sense of magical realism. The tone of the story is veiled with sexual desires, superiority and fear.

Then came the idea of foregrounding. Dona Lupeng’s characterization in the end becomes a strong central figure in the story so as to draw out the repressed desires of women and they are being released from such repression through men’s ultimate submission.

The transcendental effect, therefore, is achieved following the idea that literature is always metaphorical and symbolic. Though its goal is not to deliberately reveal issues such as feminism, etc, the content is able to stand with the effective elements of the form. After all, the form s always the main focus of Russian Formalism.

Note:

Tatarin- a pagan ritual to the moon led by female priestesses

Source (from my main blog)

Sabbath Witches

Gender and Literature

Attics do not house humans. They are wasted space. Women are considered half monsters — and they are wasted. A woman inhabits the attic; literally and metaphorically, she becomes a madwoman, both as a writer and a character.

The fact is, Nathaniel Hawthorne is male; and men don’t glorify women.

Nathaniel Hawthorne did not directly say that Georgina is a monster. Only by the way she is presented in the story will it then become clear that literature had always been confined to male writers and male characters. Georgina’s birthmark embodies the unforgivable flaws of the female body and her position as a woman. She is not any different from Dr. Frankenstein’s monster; and the only way to kill the female monster is to destroy male literature.

Georgina is portrayed as a passive character overpowered by her own husband, while Aylmer is a man of science who represents knowledge and invention. Georgina is depicted as a woman who will do anything to earn her husband’s love and fulfill her responsibility as a wife. Since a woman’s intellect is not for invention, she is merely placed in the house to practice domesticity. She even told Aylmer, “I know not what may be the cost to both of us to get rid of this fatal birthmark. Perhaps its removal may cause cureless deformity; or it may be the stain goes as deep as life itself.”

The reader is, thus, introduced to the fact that women are trained by the patriarchal society to become submissive wives and submit to the idea that men are in control — not the ones being controlled. Thus, there is this concept of mastering the “art of pleasing men”. Even when she was about to die, Georgina tried to be the sweet angel that she was expected be. “My poor Aylmer,” she repeated, with a more human tenderness, “you have aimed loftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent that with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could offer. Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dying!”

Given this, the idea of women being selfless, a rather Christian concept, is then highlighted in the story. In literature, it appears to be a norm that the women characters are always the ones who must die and the protagonists must be the males.

Georgina’s birthmark signifies Aylmer’s insecurities. This reminds us of Freud’s castration complex in which the birthmark becomes the figure of a penis in the eyes of Aylmer – and, thus, he wants to remove the birthmark and have the power all to himself. Most male writers never consider writing as an act of women. This is, perhaps, because female authorship would mean female authority. Women, on the other hand, cannot get out of their shell being domesticated beings who, supposedly, have no right to invent and create another world. If a woman shows resistance, she becomes a madwoman in her society. It appears that only the men have the right to be creators.

Georgina becomes Aylmer’s failure because of the birthmark and her death, even when he was confident of his success.

Male writers write only for themselves. Therefore, women writers are the only ones who can write for women. To restate poet and activist Audre Lorde, only the oppressed could understand oppression, not the oppressors. A female writer must get out of the glass coffin or sleep for a thousand years and wait for the prince to kiss her. We’ve been sleeping for more than a thousand years. Perhaps it’s about to time that more women wake up and shake masculine literature.

Source (from my main blog)

Gender and Literature

Drinking with Gods

I am a conquistador. I travel every space, every hole, on every page, make love with words, lines and curves. Writing is my secret conquest. Poetry is pure seduction – a divine madness.

I am formed by fragments. I am a fragment. My tongue tastes poetry, bitter and sweet. And when words are moved around the pages, I feel sovereign. Writers are gods but readers remain the highest gods. I lust for gods. I rage wars. I want to be Jean Claude Van Damme: I want to sweat and fight. Let the mourning end. I conquer gods.

The only thing that keeps a writer alive is his or her insanity. Insanity carries no restrictions. I want to write naked under the moonlight for my soul to wander in the cold night, finally, to digress. I believe one should write and grow, grow and write. Sanity is boring, thoughtless and dreadful. Sanity is a writer’s enemy. It stops growth, it steals thoughts. Sane people only write pretensions, of the things they thought they know.

I want to write naked because only then can I become real, more natural. I do not hide and pretend, I write and offer every part of my self. And so each day, I become like the Aztecs. I become a human and a god. I sacrifice to please my gods because writing is always a sacrificial ceremony. I am writing naked. The hardest thing is to get naked in front of mere strangers, to get real with them, exposing the scars I never wanted to reveal.

The writer becomes a mother and the readers her children, sucking milk from her breasts until they began to explore every part of her that they can suck. And she becomes an open commodity and she forgets she still owns herself. This is what sacrifice is, selfless. We offer ourselves to die and live again only to understand writing, to give justice to our readers as we give justice to ourselves. Once, I read a book which I found offensive and degrading. It was merely a book full of shit and I realized I spent my precious time reading shit. Shit doesn’t just happen, they are made, written. The writer of that book is a criminal; she must be convicted because she was only inflicting a crime upon her readers. If we write without our best intentions, we are provoking suicide. Writing is a matter of life and death. When we refuse to give justice to our artistic vision, then we must face death.

Faith is not just about gods and religion. Faith is poetry. A poet has to have faith in her skill because only with faith can a poet achieve great poetry. With faith, there is an urge to experiment with words and lines and thoughts. Fear must not nestle inside the poet’s head because it blocks the growth of imagination.

Faith becomes the poison against fear. Faith is the resurrection of the poet from loss and death. A poet experiences “loss” when her imagination stops, and eventually “dies” when she stops being a poet. With faith, the poet is “resurrected.” She gets up after being “dead” and having been “buried” underground, like a vampire who slept underground listening to mortals, she feeds on her victims. A poet feeds on life, death, words, imagination, finally, poetry. A faith that death is not final but only a dark sleep is a faith that explains the idea of resurrection. She comes to life and remembers being a poet again.

Source (from my main blog)

Drinking with Gods

Exodus: Gods and Kings

First of all, the movie is not too religious. And also, it’s not too preachy – no preachy tone whatsoever about being religious, praying to your gods or becoming holy.  But yes, it is indeed violent and grotesque for the ordinary viewers. And it’s definitely not for children (though it’s impossible to monitor your child’s online activities considering the fact that it’s easy to watch free movies online).

The movie is focused on the escape of the Israelite slaves from Egypt, thus the title Exodus. Why add “Gods and Kings” in the title? Perhaps to remind us about old societies worshiping many gods and kings. Or probably to not focus on Christianity alone, having only one God, since the story is too Christian.

It is also interesting to notice that the pharaoh, Ramses, isn’t really an outstanding villain after all. It’s true that the Israelites suffered too much under the leadership of Ramses (as depicted in the movie) however, the film also shows his soft side – his love for his wife and son. He’s actually shown as a weak character who still longs for his father’s love. He can’t decide on his own. Like other men, he lets his mother decide things for him. He wants the comfort of a bosom that expects nothing from him. He is the most irrational character in the movie. 

Moshe or Moses, being the central character, is portrayed as an ordinary person who gets married, have kids, and tries to do what’s right and wrong in the eyes of the society. What makes Moses from the Exodus movie different from the Moses in the bible is that he’s not a saintly hero. He is a hero for helping the slaves escape from Egypt but he is not a saint. He doesn’t really pray like most saints pray. He’s simply talking to God, sometimes arguing against Him.

The most interesting character in the movie is the boy who acts as God. In his first appearances, we see him more as a messenger than God. In the old testament, God is viewed as a punisher. The Great Flood might be a myth or based on real biblical events but the antagonist and protagonist in the story points directly to the same character – God. In the movie, God is again portrayed as both an antagonist and protagonist. The boy has a tendency to act childish- having tantrums and mood swings. He’s irrational and emotional. He easily gets angry and his reactions are predictable yet surprising.

The scenes related to the plagues of Egypt are grotesquely violent- the hungry crocodiles devouring humans and fishes, river filled with blood and huge frogs and flies. They are highly emphasized in the film merely to show God’s wrath. Also, another interesting thing about the film is that it attempts to provide scientific explanation and proofs about the plagues and why they occurred. That is why some religious groups condemned the movie and labeled it as a science fiction movie.

The movie didn’t really deviate from the original bible story – the sequence of events, the characters and the plagues. But to confirm if it’s “biblically accurate” is another story. The director, Ridley Scott, is even accused as a racist, deliberately whitewashing the movie. Well the truth is, I’m not so oversensitive about it. I love the action scenes. And to be fair, Christian Bale’s acting is captivating, making you forget he was once the dark knight.

Exodus: Gods and Kings

My ePrepaid MasterCard Review

A friend who is living in a first world country sounded weird when I told her I don’t have a credit card. Then she started telling me how weird it is for people to survive without credit cards. Maybe she just overreacted.

Years ago, it was difficult to buy things online without credit cards. Paypal is another best option and here in Philippines, you can’t have Paypal funds unless you’re working for a US based company or your employer is a foreigner. One of my employers was an American and I was lucky enough to have Paypal funds. However, some sites won’t allow Paypal transactions, especially sites selling Chinese or Korean products. Before Zalora, there was Multiply and other Philippine sites that let you pay through Globe Gcash or bank deposits. I don’t have enough patience when it comes to bank to bank transactions. I don’t like long lines with a bunch of strangers – I feel obliged to smile and engage in small talks.

I like buying cheap tickets online though I don’t travel much. Cebu Pacific offers really crazy ticket prices. It’s a tough competition actually. You have to be quick in booking tickets. The website is always down and you need to have extra patience. Cebu Pacific accepts Paypal and credit cards so it’s convenient for those who have one.

I’ve always wanted to have my own credit card because I shop online. My friends didn’t really have good experiences with credit cards. As for me, I don’t like buying things on credit. Also, I have issues with money management so I have to stick to debit cards.

Last month, I got excited when I got my ePrepaid MasterCard from BPI. It’s a prepaid card and it’s reloadable, no credits. It’s definitely for those people who love shopping online. You can even use it when you buy at department stores or even supermarkets. It’s also possible to connect your card to your Paypal account so you can make an online purchase to sites that require Paypal accounts. You can also check your balance online or through text, making it easier for you to keep track of your money from time to time. The best thing about it is it guarantees 100% application approval so it’s hassle free.

How to apply for BPI ePrepaid MasterCard (from their website):

I. At BPI Express Online

1. Go to the Apply for products and services here


2. Select Prepaid and Gift Cards


3. Completely fill-out the BPI Prepaid Card Purchase Agreement form.


4. Nominate a branch where you want to pick-up your card by clicking the Branch Locator button


5. Click Submit


6. Print-out a copy of the BPI Prepaid Card Purchase Agreement form.


7. Bring the following to your nominated BPI/ BPI Family Savings Bank Branch, five (5) banking days for
   GMMA branches or seven (7) banking days for branches outside GMMA, Visayas and Mindanao after submission of card application:
   
   
   • Print-out of the BPI Prepaid Card Purchase Agreement form
   
   
   • Payment for the card processing fee (P500 for GMMA, P600 for outside GMMA, Visayas and Mindanao)
   
   
   • One (1) valid ID.
   
   
   Note: GMMA consists of NCR, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, and Rizal.

II. At BPI Branches

• Visit any BPI Branch or BPI Express Banking Center nationwide.


• Fill-out a BPI Prepaid Card Purchase Agreement form


• Submit the BPI Prepaid Card Purchase Agreement form, present one (1) valid ID, and pay the card processing fee (P500 for GMMA, P600 for outside GMMA, Visayas and Mindanao) at the branch teller.


• Claim your My ePrepaid MasterCard® at the same branch after five (5) banking days in GMMA or after seven (7) banking days outside GMMA, Visayas and Mindanao. Simply present your copy of the BPI Prepaid Card Purchase Agreement, and bring one (1) valid ID.

For more information on BPI credit card processing, BPI credit card application or other concerns, visit https://www.bpiexpressonline.com/

The Drawbacks

1. You can’t get your money back once you’ve transferred funds from your debit card to your ePrepaid MasterCard through ATM. That means over the counter withdrawal is not possible. And you can’t send the funds back to your debit account through BPI express online.

2. Your ePrepaid MasterCard funds can be viewed online since it’s connected to your BPI express account and as stated in their website, you can transfer funds from your debit account to your ePrepaid MasterCard account online. This is so not true. I went to the bank a couple of times to check and complain but I still couldn’t transfer funds online so I finally gave up. I already enrolled my ePrepaid account but it’s still not added in my enrolled accounts so each time I plan to buy something I have to go to the machine just to transfer funds.

3. You can only book and buy Philippine Airline tickets with your ePrepaid MasterCard. Sadly, Cebu Pacific is not included in the list.

Overall, I’m satisfied with my ePrepaid MasterCard. It’s a debit card that works like a credit card so it’s highly recommended for online shoppers like me.

My ePrepaid MasterCard Review

Outfit Whore Day (Miss Morpheus)

While some girls go for vintage fashion or retro fashion, I go for sensible clothes- sensible fashion to be exact. I dress for comfort.  Sometimes maybe too comfortable.

I’m wearing a black cardigan that I bought from a thrift store, an acid wash soft denim top and my black lacy shorts. I was supposed to sell my cardigan only to realize that this black cardi makes me feel like Morpheus, only with my lacy shorts and sunnies.  So basically I feel like I’m Morpheus having gay feelings for Keanu Reeves. Don’t judge me Morpheus.

Outfit Whore Day (Miss Morpheus)