malka

This classic movie opens with a troop of drably-dressed children being surprisingly acrobatic while pretending to do housework. There is a meditation on the meaning of names. The many meanings of love form a constant philosophical backdrop. I'm currently watching a scene in which preparation for clothing design is being completely mangled in an overly aerobic fashion.

Which movie am I half an hour into?

It's not that I'm opposed to other people having a gender binary as a hobby. I even do so myself occasionally. It's just that I have other more interesting hobbies, like collecting pine cones, and I'm very tired of constant evangelism for this one particular hobby.

[Program X]'s user interface is a cross between a gray metal filing cabinet and the US tax code.

There are two rants from literature which are emblazoned on my mind. (Unfortunately, neither of them is actually in the literature in question.) Today was definitely a "If this tie does not tie, Mother" day.

For the life of me, I cannot remember which of "covariance" and "contravariance" means which. And not for lack of trying -- I have all the concepts in my head, but the names refuse to stick.

It's an hour+ past my bedtime, and I really don't want to go to bed. Possibly ever again. No bedtime, no sleep, no no no no.

Which is why I'm about to get up, do a few last household chores, and turn in.

I am apparently A Grownup.

Every time I see a big online sexism discussion that includes men, there's at least one man who takes it on himself to explain to the women that, see, sometimes men are just shy / socially awkward / not very observant / insecure. This is always presented as some fascinating revelation that will be completely alien to all the women in the discussion.

I want every woman who has never felt shy / socially awkward / not very observant / insecure to raise her hand. Right here, right now.

Okay, Galinda, put your hand down.

Newsflash: everyone who is past adolescence has felt that way at some point. It is not some unique male emotion.

The five declensions of Latin, in order:

• feminine
• masculine
• neuter
• wacky
• invisible

.

This post has been brought to you by my frustration at the common back-formation "virii".

I do not have time to talk about WisCon. I will not have time all this week to talk about WisCon. I will have time after next Tuesday to talk about Wiscon. Make that next Wednesday, because after-next-Tuesday is when I get to read Deadline.

However, I'm enchanted by something that happened at work today, my first day back after WisCon.

Coworker-who-I've-known-for-a-decade and I were discussing the weather, and how, despite having picked my bike up from the shop, I was not going to ride it home today (no bike gear with me at work, and also, while I'm willing to ride in the rain, I'm not thrilled about it). Coworker suggested that I use my umbrella to at least stay dry while biking (coworker, despite having biked quite a bit cwself, has clearly forgotten how much of the wetness involved with biking in the rain does not come from the sky). I responded with the (possibly incorrect) factoid that was not learned at WisCon that that would be illegal in Tokyo.

Coworker said, "WisCon made you weird."

One of my standard doodles has now morphed into feminine clothing for insects. I'm...a little confused.

I'm of a generation where girls, starting at some point in (pre?)adolescence, were supposed to shave their armpits and legs, but where mons and vulva shaving was not considered.

I remember discussing armpit shaving in the geek summer camp cafeteria at one point. All of us were roughly 14 or 15. One girl argued that it's just more hygienic that way, and didn't have a good answer to my question of whether boys should be doing it. Since then, I've repeatedly seen bodily shaving referred to as a hygiene issue. Occasionally people will describe it as a hygiene issue for both sexes, but often it's just for women/girls.

I think shaving-for-hygiene is just the same sort of social delusion (?) or polite fiction (?) that wearing-shoes-for-hygiene is. I don't actually know whether shaved armpits interact with sweat better than unshaved armpits, but there's an area of my body that is far more deserving of hygiene-inspired shaving: my scalp. I have thick, oily, slightly dandruffy hair, which I usually wear long. It is easy for me to build up skin flakes, or oil, or (especially in the summer) sweat on my scalp and the first inch or so of my hair. It itches. It probably smells bad (there are obvious mechanical obstacles to me smelling my own scalp), at least when I've just been exercising. It looks grungy. It's been hard to get lice out of on the occasions when I've gotten lice.

And yet, nobody has ever suggested that I shave my scalp in the name of hygiene. Not even when I was trying to transition to a low-shampoo lifestyle while biking everywhere.

Armpit shaving is absolutely part of expected grooming for women in my current culture. It's not hygiene-driven, though. Nor is leg shaving (which, to be fair, many people don't even try to argue).

I have vague thoughts about why hygiene and grooming are lumped together like this, but they haven't gelled yet.

(Oh, and to be clear, I have no problem with other people's grooming choices, as long as they're not expecting my choices to be the same as theirs. Your body (follicles, pores, skin evenness, etc.), your choice.)

My brain just started mapping out Seymour/Audrey II slash[1]. Using a combo of the lead-in to the Audrey and Audrey II song and the lead-in to Mushnik and Son.

I don't write fiction because I'm terribly bad at plot. Not in the "Plot? What plot?" sense, but just in the sense of someone who's forgotten that things have to happen in stories. Ever. I cannot write this story. Yet I desperately want to read it.

[1] I am seriously unsure of Audrey II's gender[2], but in my universe the Mean Green Mother song isn't canon and the "find the deepest bass you have and tell him to sing with Intent" tradition is. I think I can safely call the concept slashy, though.

[2] Oh wow, does the story get interesting if you change anyone else's gender. I want the Dentist to be a woman so badly now.