Choke me....
Everyone has linked to the study
that confirms that lesbian and bisexual girls tend to smoke more (up to 10x) than
their heterosexual friends. I have trouble understanding everyone’s surprise
at these findings. It has been apparent to me for many years that lesbians (at
least in the South) are cigarette smokers, and many are proud of it or enjoy the
‘look’ of it. As a non-smoking lesbian in Florida, I am in a very
small minority. When my group gets together, many times out of 25-30 lesbians,
I am the only non-smoker among the group.
To say that gay bars are smoky is an understatement. When there are outings
among my group, many times it is me who has to change my behavior to ‘fit
in’. Restaurants are chosen because they have outside seating. Bars are
chosen because they allow smoking (limited food), and although everyone is very
courteous when visiting my house, the party invariably moves outside! Why is
‘lesbian’ synonymous with ‘smoker’? I don’t think
it looks sexy (except in old movies when the starlets use long cigarette holders!),
and I do not enjoy being involved with a woman who has a high probability of
future health problems.
Now that I have pissed off The Pilot, my friends, my group members and probably
a large percentage of my readers, I’ll move on to something else.
Russian teenager threatened concept of Beauty
In Russia, the internet was used this year for the first time, to pick the Russian
beauty to go to Ecuador to compete in the Miss Universe pageant. That is, until
a ‘regular’ teenager, Alyona Pisklova, was entered in the competition
and began taking the voting by storm. Supporters of Alyona quickly launched
a web site (now off line) to whip up support and to express the manifesto behind
voting for her. This was a vote, as the web site stated, “against the
"Barbification" of society, against fake emotions and smiles in professional
photos, against the accepted standards of beauty and size, and against corporate
goods and fake pop music’. The campaign worked. Alyona quickly stormed
to the top of the Russian Miss Universe competition, with 10,000 hits on the
first day, and most voters giving her the top mark of five points.
And as could be expected, Alyona's rise threatened to destabilize the entire
competition. "It was the biggest hit of the pageant and the biggest threat
for us," said Zassoursky of Firebird Productions, the American company
that had been contracted to oversee the Russian selection process. They began
to see that the voting might end up with a teenager at least 10 centimeters
shorter than the other competitors (and not the ‘beauty’ that they
expected!). "I must admit that our American partners truly panicked,"
Zassoursky said.
Luckily for the pageant, Alyona who was entered in the competition without
her knowledge, was only 15, and was not really interested in competing. However,
before she officially exited the competition, she experienced hostility from
the other contestants who were “not happy to see their limelight dimmed
by a girl who they looked down on, and not just in the physical sense.”
(more...)
It is too bad that Alyona was too young to compete this year. I think it is
really important for us as a society to examine and expand our definition of
‘beauty’. This is an antiquated institution, and a concept in need
of er-examination. We need a shake-up of the sorts that Alyona and her backers
were promoting.
I’m sorry, but I’m not a political blog....
I read a lot of political blogs and news articles, but after awhile I just feel
numb. I spent four hours reading blogs and news feeds and this is what I want
to share with you....
Thanks Good
Shit for this photo....I really appreciate a little bit of flesh without
the pop-ups and sleeze. Thanks!
7:47:52 PM 
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