Let me spell this out for you...

If you automatically tune out the female speakers at General Conference, then you are saying that female voices don't matter and/or have nothing meaningful to contribute to a spiritual discussion. Which means that you are further marginalizing women and helping to ensure that the women within your religious community feel completely invalidated. Congratulations.

If you dismiss a girl's (likely perfectly legitimate) anger as "just PMS", then you are being sexist.

If you say something like "I never trust anything that bleeds for 10 days and lives," then I don't care if you happen to be a Sociology professor; you are being sexist.

If you tell a girl that whatever she's studying in college doesn't matter because she's just going to be a mom anyway, you are being sexist, denigrating motherhood, and devaluing education. Do some soul-searching before you rejoin society.

If you tell a girl in a competitive, lucrative, male-dominated major that she's taking a spot that should be given to a man (even if he's a future breadwinner), then you are behaving like a sexist moron. This happens with surprising frequency around here. Let's put a stop to that.

Don't tell me that girls are "crazy" or "irrational". I think the more accurate term you're looking for is "not like men". Similarly, don't tell me that my somehow "talking like a guy" is a compliment because it means that I make sense. The idea that men are the only normal ones automatically carries with it the assumption that women are less than that and therefore deserve to be dismissed. So even if you don't think that's what you're saying, that's what I'm hearing.

That person who beat you at Halo last night by a wide margin did not "rape" you. S/he just played significantly better than you did.

In general, if we're not that close and our interaction has nothing to do with my body, then I don't want to hear an in-depth description of my physical proportions from you. Sorry, I just don't.

It's OK if I like high heels and comic books. It's also OK if I don't like either of those things.

Problems that you have are not always problems had by your entire gender, or even most of your gender. Sometimes they're just problems that you have. Please learn the difference so you can stop telling me that "women" do this or "men" believe that when you're really just telling me about yourself.

OK, rant over.

Blood-sugar's low again.

I feel funny. What was I just about to do? I shouldn't have eaten that donut this afternoon. Why did I spend so much time watching 30 Rock this afternoon? I had so much to get finished. I knew this would happen. Do I have work to do right now? Oh, The Office. I was just about to watch this week's episode of The Office. Wait. Something important. I have things I'm supposed to be doing. Reading Crime and Punishment, probably. I can't remember. My head hurts.

Maybe I should get a pizza.


Yes, I just found this in my YouTube favorites.

Video Round-Up

I have a couple of unfinished blog posts in the works*, but until then here are a bunch of videos I've been watching and enjoying.

Woman at McCain Rally: "I don't trust Obama, he's an Arab."
McCain's reponse: "No ma'am, he's a decent family man."
The Daily Show:


Here's a documentary that I want to see really badly:


Jay Smooth and the economy. So glorious.

(Note that this last one comes with an annoying advertisement at the end. But it's worth it.)

Also, How to Tell People They Sound Racist:


Ian McKellan's thoughts on acting:


And now, 3 reasons why I love 30 Rock:

1.

2.

3.

And finally, something completely different:

(This one is a composite of a couple of clips, so it's like 9 minutes long.)

OK, well, that's enough to fill some time you should be using more productively. Enjoy!

*Yeah, right.

I hate the library.

So the last time I tried to read Don Quixote I was a pretty young kid. I think I was in grade school. I remember I liked the book quite a lot, but it was far longer than my childhood attention span (or, let's be honest, my current attention span), so I never got around to finishing it. I do remember, though, reading a line near the beginning that theorized that Don Quixote really went crazy from reading too many books. At the time I thought this was hilarious; what could be better for your mind than reading books? But now I know. Don Quixote must've been reading books while he was in a library.

OK, OK, so I don't really hate libraries. I don't think anybody with a soul can actually hate libraries. In fact I think the library system is one of those things that modern society can really be proud of. Free books! Free books for all (who have library cards)! It's beautiful, really. So I'm a great supporter of libraries on principle. And I really do love them in the run in, get what you want, get out kind of way. Libraries and I have always gotten along famously provided we didn't actually have to spend much real time together. I take the books and I go. Later, sometime relatively near their due date, I bring them back. This system works well for us. So why did I have to go messing with it by staying in the library all day?!

This place is too quiet. And it's too...the ideas kind of hang around in the air so that after hours of reading Crime and Punishment and Tennessee Williams plays, you start to feel crushed under the weight of all the writing, all the thinking, the overwhelmingly one-sided exchange between you and the book. And at the same time you're surrounded by people - there are people everywhere - but they're so focused on getting done what they have in front of them and not disturbing each other that nobody acknowledges anyone else. It's surreal, I tell you.* I don't know how people spend hours on end here. I've been in and out all day on an extended monologue search/rare study binge and let me tell you, after about the first hour I started to feel completely insane. I know my choice of reading material isn't helping - Suddenly Last Summer alone can make you feel rather mentally disturbed - but still. This place? Not my favorite.

Anyway, I'd better get back to work now. Just another hour or so and then I can go to rehearsal with joy and relief in my heart. I was going to include a video here before I conclude, but YouTube is blocked on campus (way to redeem yourself, HBLL...sheesh). Fortunately I did discover this lovely image:
Yep, that about says it. (And no, I have no idea who made it or where it came from originally.)

*I'd say I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone, but then you'd probably think of the "Twilight Zone" section that they have in the BYU Bookstore. Which isn't a bad place, really - people talk there, and they have an awful lot of food. In fact, I'd much rather be in the Twilight Zone than the library right now.