Happiness, + segue

Last Friday's VSL email was another gem. It turns out that Sundance has a virtual movie festival this year. And best of all, it's free. I've seen about 5 so far, and they were more weird than interesting or good. And I actively tried to pick the normal ones! VSL knows their stuff though: the recommended short was an 11-minute film called Happiness. After watching it, I found out that the "star" is Polish actress Elżbieta Czyżewska, ex-patriate. It doesn't mean anything for the movie, but what can I say - I like seeing Polish people around. Also, watch it. It's beautifully done, and all women should be able to identify with its message.

[Spoiler!] So the short is about this old woman (probably a spinster, lives alone) named Iwona, who works in a condom factory and visibly leads a pretty dreary existence. In the condom factory, she sees her supervisor, who superficially seems to be very confident, because she wears white stilettos at work. She also wears band-aids on her heels, the typical symbol of the pain required for beauty or style. One day, Iwona buys an expensive box labeled "happiness" from a Russian store. Eventually, she returns it... I suppose she knows how she will get happiness herself. She buys white stilettos, wears them to work, and goes through all the pain of wearing ridiculous shoes. She puts band-aids on her heels. In the last shot, we see her feet, and her supervisor's feet - this time wearing red stilettos.[done]

This is where the segue comes in.

I was reading about why women desperately want to be skinnier than what men find attractive. A few observations:
* women are more comfortable being naked in front of men than women, because women are critical.
* on an evolutionary layer, attractive=fertile looking, BUT
* on an environmental layer, what is hard to attain = attractive, because people admire this. So if food is scarce, well-fed women are beautiful, while in plentiful America, thin is the thing to be, AND
* on a cultural layer, thinness is prized because it is a sign of independence, strength and achievement.

I completely agree with the last point (the second point is not one I've thought about before). Every time I look at a thin girl, I always see her achievements first: she's so driven because she's skinny; she's so hardworking because she's skinny; she's so disciplined that she can keep her body skinny. She's in control. It always comes back to issues of control - I wish I didn't understand the anorexics quite so well, especially when I'm cursed with this complete lack of self-control that, luckily, sets me apart from them.

"Infidel" and Other Matters

Today's VSL email is the first that really struck me.

The advertised book is part Salman Rushdie, part Gloria Steinem, part Iman; it's called "Infidel," and it's written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born woman who served in the Dutch parliament and, I assume, knows a good bit about the life of a Muslim woman. In 2004, she and filmmaker Theo Van Gogh made a powerful and *very* controversial 10-minute movie portraying the abuses of women in Islam, depicted as a woman's prayer to Allah. (See it here, via Google Video.) Van Gogh was assassinated by a Muslim; Hirsi Ali is now hiding, a la Salman Rushdie. So, watching the movie, I realized that one Cause that I can really see myself getting involved in is this oppression of women; I'm not sure what I would do, but I firmly believe in giving women all of the same rights and freedoms as men (though I recognize that there are inherent differences between the genders). For some reason, out of all the issues plaguing the world (and there are many), this is the one that strikes me the most, and moves me most to action. Anyway, Hirsi Ali's book comes out in February, and I'm planning to buy it.
Best price: http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=PRODUCT&PROD_ID=2141325&cid=80486&fp=F
Also good: http://www.strandbooks.com/profile/?isbn=0743289684
(Even Amazon has a pretty decent deal on it.)

I'll buy it once I convince myself that I have time to read it.

In other news, IAP stuff is going strong; I'll try to keep this blog updated on 6.370, the Berwick UROP, maybe some SATPrep, and other generally good stuff. Now it's either back to coding or off to sleep.