Fatballerina@aol.com

More insight from my soul mate Lizza.

So Lizza's first email address was fatballerina@aol.com. It cracked me up and made me cry all at the same time. Lizza was an amazing ballerina and never felt pretty enough or skinner enough. She blogged about ballet the other day, and I wanted to send the message forward.

She went to the ballet, and had this experience:

"The last piece was done by some up and coming artist whose name escapes me. I really liked the movement, found the music a little lacking, but the most memorable thing was the costumes. The girls wore no tights, just pointe shoes and a super cool leotard. The men wore a mesh-like tank with spandex.

So, the no tight thing with the girls. I don't know if it was the lighting or what, but ALL of them were fleshy. Not Lizza fleshy obviously, but still jiggly and some even had the slightest hint of cellulite. I was SHOCKED! Can you think of another group of women who are skinnier, more flexible and more athletic-especially in their legs? I can't. And every single one jiggled and had just the tiniest bit to pinch. So here's the moral ladies, we are destined to be fleshy. It's in our blood. Those photoshoped swim suit issues are FAKE. No matter how hard you work out or how healthy you eat, your body wants to be fleshy. The whole experience was kind of relieving, actually. I'm so not worried anymore. I'll be resurrected one day anyways. So let's go back to the time when a little meat was super attractive. I'm not saying let yourself go and gain 100 pounds, but if you think you have "those last 10 pounds" to loose, just let it go. 'Cuz man, they shouldn't go anywhere."

Colbert Report Effect

A student dicussion of Fox News helped me make the connection between Stephen Colbert and my new comfort in watching or listening to conservative media.

So my students in a mass communication and society class were talking about Fox News. They had read an article for class about how Fox has higher ratings because it is fair and balances and appeals to a younger audience. Younger audience, yes, but fair and balanced? I'm not so sure about that. But it did make me think about why, if ever, I watch Fox News and why, if ture, its ratings are going up.

As the students talked about Fox News, they were mostly talking about convservative, dramatic news shows like Hannity and Colmes. One of their questions was, "Does higher ratings mean that they ahve more true, and the audience goes there because they know it has more true?" Well, no. That seems rediculous to me. How can you really measure truth? And I just don't think the average person watches any news show and consciously thinks, "That's not true."

One person talked about access and how maybe cable access for conservatives has increased, which is increasing the number of viewers of conservative TV news. This made me think about the Colbert Report, and how I didn't start watching any conservative TV news or even know that they exsisted until after I got hooked on Stephen Colberts spoof version. After regularly navigating through the Report, I got a better understanding for how conservative TV news in layed out. I soon started stopping on those channels when I wanted news because they felt familiar. This is just another aspect of access. After watching the Report, I had more mental access to the other shows and to the Fox network all together. And it was mostly subconsious.

I don't have many strong opinions, so conservative media sometimes makes me feel uncomfortable. i'm not a name caller, and I like to hear both sides. In the past I would avoid extreme political discussion on either side, but again, I think watching Colbert has made me feel more comfortable because its not real. I just get used to listening and thinking without all the stress like I used to have. I listened to Rush in the care for like an hour a few weeks ago because his voice put my baby to sleep, and I was able to listen and think and have my own opinions when in the past I would have change the channel.

At the beginning of class we also talked about the CSI effect that makes juries nervous to convicted people in court these days because they expect more evidence and high-tech results from forensic science. This effect is obvious and huge, but I can't help but think that the Report effect is small and subtle but maybe making Rupert Murdock a lot of money and maybe helping a few young independents feel more comfortable learning and growing on the political scene.