hardy har har

What did the Buddha say to the hot dog vendor?

"Make me one with everything."

judith butler sums it up

I've finally found a succint explanation of why the term "you guys" bothers me (when used to refer to a group of mixed gender, or to a group of all women).

Judith Butler, an American post-structuralist philosopher, writes this in an essay about gender as a series of performative acts. It is not about the term "you guys" specifically, but what she writes can easily be applied (italics added by me):

"In a culture in which the false universal of "man" has for the most part been presupposed as coextensive with humanness itself, feminist theory has sought with success to bring female specificity into visibility and to rewrite the history of culture in terms which acknowledge the presence, the influence and the oppression of women."

Damn.

In my clumsy, unphilosophical way, what I take from this beautifully written sentence is that the reason the term "you guys" bothers me is that it renders women invisible. It implies that male nouns, or the male experience is universal. It undoes a great deal of the work that feminist theory has sought to bring to light in the last few decades, particularly with regard to gender inclusive language.

When I've remarked on my aversion to the use of "you guys", many people respond that "you guys" has become gender neutral in recent years. Perhaps it has, but curiously, ONLY IN THE PLURAL. No one would refer to an individual woman as a "guy". Also, why is it that only male nouns are considered gender neutral?

I still struggle with this phrase, as it is so embedded in the current vernacular, and I do find myself using it. I have been trying to find another word to replace it with, that is truly gender neutral or gender inclusive. Some ideas: "group" "friends" "people" "guys and gals" "y'all". None of these options is very sexy (no gender pun intended?). I'm still working on it.

a little tea break

I'm still not quite sure about starting a twitter or a tumblr, but I do like looking at good ones when they come along. I was recently directed to goodtea's twitter by my most recent online addiction, Heidi Swanson's online recipe journal at 101cookbooks.com, and though I'm not entirely sure how twitter works (is it meant to be like a combination of facebook status and tumblr?) I have been enjoying the tea paraphernalia goodtea posts on her twitter.

For example, this totally balling "tea coffin" by Jonas Trampedach.



or this shark fin tea infuser by some french company (perfect for red tea!)



but i must say that i enjoyed this little tea commercial from Japan the most. It stars a father and son caterpillar team, and a really cute tea harvester. I especially like it when the tea harvester freaks out.



Hope you enjoyed this little tea break!

monument to the keyboard

spotted somewhere in russia. totally awesome.

from the wooster collective

brown birds

Walking to campus through the snowy streets of my new neighbourhood, I came upon a brown thicket full of chickadees. They are always there, and they flutter and flock constantly, pulsing back and forth, bunches of them set off by passing cars or sneaky pedestrians. I stalked them for a little while this morning and tried to capture them with my camera.

speech bubbles

I spent a few days in Edinburgh this week, wandering around, drinking hot chocolate in cafes and going on ghost walks in the underground crypts. One afternoon I found myself in Meadows Park, and I just happened to have a pack of chalk in my bag, and one thing led to another, and twenty minutes later the park was covered in speech bubbles, emerging out of everything from trees to poles to pylons. It was a nice way to put my stamp on the city, and to connect with people as they walked by. I'm so thankful for the nice weather - not a bit of rain while I was there!

Here are some pictures I took, the rest are on my flickr.

amelie junior

from videogum.com

The person who posted it wrote:

"A tipster sent this video the other day, titling it, appropriately, "Amelie, Jr." But the election was so exciting that I forgot about cute kids for a few days. I fear this little girl's parents might get icky about the amount of fame she's currently enjoying on the internet and take it down, so watch her weave her magical tales while you can:

It's cute because she's French, and it's cute because she's a fucking genius. I can't wait until she starts putting together elaborate, personal, and heartbreakingly delightful pranks on the citizens of Paris!"


Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.