the Dalaverse

*gasp* They're giving away the old TDS couch! I WILL ENTER THIS CONTEST!

Also, Keira was on last night, being adorable and beautiful. Child is thin, though, and while it doesn't bug me the way it does a lot of other actresses (*coughMischaBartonandherhorrendouspostureomghershoulderbladesaretryingtostabyouRyancough* Also, *hackwhathappenedtoyourhipsJenniferAnistonouchsplutter* ), I do hope she eats.

It's not so much the overwhelming numbers of skinny actresses that bother me. Well, okay, it is, but what bothers me more are the ones who lose scary amounts of weight, usually as they move up in the biz -- Nicole Kidman, Lindsay Lohan, the aforementioned Ms. Aniston, Renee Zellweger (I'm not talking about the Bridget Jones weight, which in my opinion looked great on her but it was clear in the second film how uncomfortable she was; you can see the difference from "Jerry Maguire" to now), and a bunch of others I can't recall at the moment. Even Drew Barrymore looked much thinner in the "Fever Pitch" trailers.

Look, I understand that women can be very thin and still be healthy. I think Keira Knightley is gorgeous exactly as she is. It's just that slimness is literally the only option according to the media, or close enough to the only option. We've got, like, Kate Winslet and Reese Witherspoon and Catherina Zeta-Jones and Toni Collette as representatives slightly closer to the average woman's size, and that's it. For every one of them, there are twenty actresses or models who are stick-thin. Some of them are built that way, sure, but a lot of them spend thousands and thousands of dollars and deny or actively harm themselves to maintain that ideal. It's not a fair or realistic image for young girls to aspire to.

This was prompted by Keira promoting P&P, but really I was doing most of the pondering last weekend when I saw the week's People magazine. The cover story was effusive praise for actresses who make an appearence a month or two after giving birth, looking pretty much the same as they always have. I've never had a kid, so I don't really know what the recovery is like, but this seems like another example of unrealistic, possibly unhealthy goals. Again, it's not so much the fact that these women are able to get back into shape so quickly, it's the way they are worshipped for it and the implied accusation beneath it. Fuck, if Britney Spears can squeeze back into a size 4 four weeks after giving birth, why can't you? Why can't you, huh? Oh, maybe because I don't have a fortune to spend on personal training and diet regiments, but mostly because I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO.

Skinny women should be celebrated as beautiful. Fleshy women should be celebrated as beautiful. The concept of beauty should also rely less on physical appearance, but I realize that's asking too much of the media. For now, I would settle for seeing more actresses have a tummy when they lean over, and thighs that touch when they walk.

Fucking USA Today! They totally spoiled "Lost" for me! All you nice folks spoiler-cut as always, and I totally avoided the TWoP recaplet, but here's the cover story of their stupid purple section, which I COULD NOT AVOID since I had to stamp it to check it in.

Stupid newspaper!

In other news, Vanessa and I are driving up to Pennsylvania tomorrow to visit her little sister Val. I'm looking forward to it because Val is awesome, and also because the trip is four hours so I'll have time to get some real reading done. I plan to put some new music on Grace O'Malley, settle back with a book or two, and read until my eyes fall out of my skull.

AUUUUGGGGGHH. I have just had a conversation with my dad for the THIRD time. I told him exactly when I need to be at Oxford, therefore exactly when I need my plane to land in London, and when I need to leave in April. THREE TIMES. IN TWO WEEKS. And yet he's still all "Well, I didn't know this, and I didn't know that," and what airline do you want (I DON'T KNOW I HAVE NEVER BEEN OUT OF THE COUNTRY OR FLOWN IN TEN YEARS) and which airport do you want to fly to (I DON'T KNOW! PICK ONE IN LONDON! IT'S CLOSEST!) blahblahblah, JUST BOOK THE FRICKEN FLIGHT! I would do it myself, but I do not have the means to pay for the ticket, and apparently I cannot make them sit down and do it. We have a family friend who's a travel agent, but have they called her? Noooo, "because I can find the tickets on my own," only you HAVEN'T, and how do you know for certain Tammy won't help unless you ASK?

And now he's all "the flights were cheaper last week." Then perhaps YOU SHOULD HAVE BOOKED IT LAST WEEK WHEN I BEGGED YOU TO.

Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Oh my god. What has happened to me? I can no longer write smut with my roomie in the room.

This is so not good. I meant to finish this PWP tonight, because I have no time to finish it tomorrow before we leave. But I keep opening it up, and then minimizing it before I can do more than stare or maybe time a letter or two.

Wahhhh. I guess I'll just write my paper proposal instead, then. I'll be back on Saturday anyway.