Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2003 - 1:04 p.m.
Things are going well. Today has been interesting at work. I came in and there were Squee t-shirts left on my chair. They were given to me by the Slave Labor Graphics contact in the office (since he would not fit into the obviously women's shirts). They're a bit big, but it's always nice to get something cool.
and I got really nice, personalized Christmas cards from a couple of people; one of my editors and the other full time intern.
I was also given a gift card to Hot Topic by a friend here and that was a surprise and so it made my day.
And then, they're just walking around handing stuff to people. ( I think they're cleaning the warehouse). so, I've ended up with 2 action figures and a stuffed animal.
Plus, aside from having a ton of stuff to get done, there's a really nice atmosphere at work today.
And tommorrow I head home. I still don't really know exactly how I'm getting to the airport. It looks like it's going to be a complicated mix of taxi, train, shuttle rides, but I think I'll do ok. And I still don't know who's picking me up from the airport, but that just requires some phone calls this evening.
It should be really cool.
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I was reading in a book about body image.
It said that studie have shown that women usually perceive themselves to be bigger than they are and believe that men want tiny women (even though the same studies show that many men prefer most women a little bigger than they actually are).
But the same studies show that men usually perceive themselves as actually being smaller than they are (and thinking that women want big beefy guys when studies show most women want men to be a little smaller than they are).
I thought this was interesting and sad....and honestly, frustrating.
It's society that does it. This is the reason that so many women I know think they're fat when they're not. This is the reason that I've met so many men with guts that think they should only be getting the hottest of women (because they don't think they actually have a gut). But mostly it frustrates me to live in a society that feeds insecurities to women, to the point that it is amazing and uncommon if they are comfortable with (or even realistic about) their body. And yet, the same society hands men a security with their bodies (or perhaps it just doesn't scrutinize it enough to have the opposite effect) to the point where they don't feel any need to be in shape.
I can't even count the number of guys that I've heard talk about how a woman needs to lose some weight either in her thighs or butt or all over or question why a woman just doesn't dress up a little, and yet they themselves are walking around in a ratty t-shirt with a gut.
No, I'm not saying women never scrutinize men, but in my experience, it happens much less often and the women mean it much less seriously, and they do it much less vocally.
