sundries

[rm]

I tend to flip out right before travel. Tonight, like clockwork -- flipping out. Not _about_ the traveling, just inspired by.

I bought a new cell phone today, so that I am reachable in Europe, since I will be there a lot over the next year. So now I have a Blackberry. I totally don't know how to use it at all, and I'm all like "I need my Torchwood logo background" again and "OMG, how do I download my ringtones again" and "I hope I set my alarm right." But you can call me when I'm in the UK now (but don't, unless it's an emergency because it's really expensive). Anyone got a rec for apps? Which Twitter app do you like?

I also had long, horrible battles with Parallels Desktop tonight, that have been vanquished for the moment.

All of which means some editing I needed to do has not yet been done. Bah! Tomorrow is another day.

Meanwhile, there is, more Angel 1.19 "Sanctuary" and Buffy 4.17 "Superstar" --

- Now that was an episode. Things have consequences the next day! Wesley's been tortured and he's fucked up about it. Cordelia is in physical pain and scared and covering. People care about each other. People are angry!

- Oh, those fucking Watchers. They're so an American cliche of what British thugs would be like or something. It's really rather ludicrous.

- Go Wesley for not going along with their plan.

- I just... yeah, I ADORE Wesley. It's funny. I don't identify with the character, and I don't respond to him from the standpoint of identifying with a different character, but the complexities of the character, which include a lot of shit traits I have (arrogance, superiority, fear, wrath, open emotional wounds), make me keep going "but this is a good man" and if he's okay, I'm okay. Or something. I don't know. It's been a rough night.

- Meanwhile, over on Buffy. IS THERE NOTHING RTD DIDN"T STEAL FROM THIS SHOW? It's like "Superstar" was spun in a centrifuge to get us "Adam" and "Random Shoes" on Torchwood. And you know, I liked this episode. I'm the person who hated, _hated_ "Adam" on Torchwood (I mean, other than Ianto in the hot coat and the leather gloves and the strangulation and the crying in the rain business). Of course, I also loved "Random Shoes," which like no one else did, but what can you do?

- Overall: I can't believe the casting they let Whedon get away with. These are all relatively normal looking people. Faith has a hot body, sure, but a pretty average face. Tara isn't tiny, and her face could be considered homely. They work hard to make Willow less cute than she is. And yeah, all these people are still "above average," but when I get told to lose weight to be in this business, I do find the casting in these shows to be notable. I also feel like it wouldn't happen today. I am a pessimist.

Comments

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

While I've never met her in person, I've been told Amber Benson (Tara) is pretty tiny IRL and the other women were just tinnier.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Patty keeps saying she's a size six. I'm a size six. I'm really tiny. It blows my mind that that's how we arrive at our size 00 culture.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Well, but saying somebody's a size 6 tells you less than you (that is, you generally, not you in particular) think. It doesn't say a thing about shape or proportions -- which would be why I can tell you that I'm a size 6, and that's at the top of my 6-pound-or-so weight range; often enough I'm a 4 or even a 2. And you're tinier around than I am: you're noticeably thin, while I'm just normal-sized.

That is, I think Amber Benson's probably just normal-sized, 6 or no 6. And yeah, normal looks startlingly large next to what's become the norm for television.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I have the smallest bones EVER.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

How are you and I both a size six?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Fuckery, industry fuckery!

Sometimes I'm a 4. And at stores for women my age, I'm a zero! It's so fucked. I think I'm like a 10 at Forever 21.

[abnormal-apathy.livejournal.com]

You're a size six? I would never have guessed that in a million years. Size zero. Yes. Maybe even perhaps a size two. See, I'm totally skewed here.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'6" and 110 lbs, and wear a 6 about 70% of the time now, which should tell you how batshit crazy everyone's desire to be a size 2 is. There's literally nothing I could do to be a smaller size even if I wanted to be. Hips, I have them. I am extremely small-boned (which is why I look so slim), and don't have a lot of flesh on me, but as others note, it's about, among other things, where the bones are.

[abnormal-apathy.livejournal.com]

That is absolutely insane. I would assume that at your height and weight, your clothing size would be smaller - however, this is coming from someone who hasn't worn a size six since I was that many years.

There is seriously some crazy shit happening with sizes. I'm plus-sized, but can wear somewhere between a L-XL. When I was looking for a dress for the rehearsal dinner, I came across a Calvin Klein XL that seriously wouldn't fit my thigh. What happened to standard sizing? Is that only a distant memory since vanity sizing came into existance?

My grandmother, who had an amazing figure when she was younger told me she was a size 4. There's no way those curves would fit into a 4 these days. I'm so lost.

[rm.livejournal.com]

My mother, who was built like me when I was a kid, wore an eight when I was growing up. And, an eight was really what you aspired to be. Now every store sizes differently (in sewing patterns I'm a 10/12, btw) to "flatter" their customers, but it's maddening.

And yeah, if I'm wearing separates, I wear more like a two in a top and a six in a bottom.

The whole thing is absurd. I've been in stores where I can't get a four more than six inches past my knees.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

So much has to do with the bones and how one carries weight. As someone who hasn't seen those sizes in 30 years, I'm very conscious of shape as playing a role. When I was in high school in the '70s and weighed 90 pounds, I wore a size seven jean. Even though I was thin, I had no hips and not that much waist definition. Whether I'm thin or heavy, those two factors have always been the determiner of which size I wear. I've always had to buy based on whether something fit me in the waist. I can fluctuate a size, even two, based on how given garments are cut in the waist.

[sethg]

Enforcing standards of weight and measure has been a generally-recognized role of the government ever since... ever since human beings had such a thing as “the government”. Why can’t NIST get a few million bucks to survey the actual range of variation in how women are sized and shaped and then lay down definitions with the force of law?

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

You're tiny. My ideal weight is 155 and I am pretty stunning at it. I can't imagine being a size six. I was a size five for like two weeks, and then my hips split the seams.

The size 0 culture is insane.

[ilovecsr.livejournal.com]

Amber is way smaller than a 6. I'm a 6 who's clothes are often a little too big, and I look like a giant next to Amber. The other women are just a whole lot tinier. Alyson, for example, is definitely no more than a 2, and a small 2 at that. On the day I met her, I felt like a whale.

Here from metafandom, btw. I just thought this was an interesting discussion.