Sugar Bowl: Week of 5/11/13

I’ve been spamming up this blog quite a bit this week. However, I wanted to stick to my promise that I wouldn’t skip this week’s Sugar Bowl or post late. I’ve also adopted the habit of writing loads and loads of commentary along with my links, which I tried to do less of this week. Plus I just found a lot of neat stuff to read over the past few days and would do well to direct my comments about these posts, you know, on the actual posts. Anyway, click below to see my favorite links.

• I featured this link on my Facebook which resulted in many of my friends commenting that no one really cares what the “message” of The Great Gatsby is. To be honest, although I’ve yet to see the new movie, I’ve been swept up in the resurgence of 1920s luxury trends such as in the realms of fashion and home decor. After reading this post, suddenly I remembered: “Oh. Luxury and decadence is emptiness.”
• I have mixed feelings about Jennifer Lawrence. I hate when entertainment journalists pit her against Anne Hathaway but regardless of that nonexistent “feud,” I do find the cultural obsession with her worth some study. She just seems to have that “I’m not like all the other girls” way about her (of course, this is based on her public image, as I do not know Miss Lawrence in person) that I find somewhat abrasive.
• Sometimes I feel like a bad feminist because frankly, explicit discussion of menstruation kind of squicks me out. To be fair, I’m squicked by all blood, no matter its origin. That being said, I was a little unsure when I clicked on this link to a post about menstrual “shame” in other cultures, but ultimately I am so pleased that I was exposed to this information. The post details the lack of proper sanitation and hygiene products offered to women in many developing parts of the world.
• Though I was initially drawn to The Lingerie Lesbian blog because of the unique reviews of delicate, lacey underwear, I was pleasantly surprised to see a post exploring why women’s sexuality and intelligence are “linked” in our culture.
• I like reading posts about experiments that don’t play out exactly as planned. Acculturated featured a post this week about a man who “unplugged” by abstaining from the internet for a full year. Although the hypothesis of his experiment suggested that he would find life more fulfilling, instead he wound up indulging in tasks equally as boring and meaningless as scrolling through the internet (perhaps he isn’t a book person?).
• Speaking of life without the internet, have you ever considered the hold that the world wide web has on your identity and your connectivity to others? I really like how this post explores the intersectionality of instant gratification and memory as it relates to the internet.
• As someone who won’t so much as buy a bottle of shampoo without reading reviews (and I should mention that I usually only ever buy cheap shampoo, too), I put a lot of stock in anonymous reviews. Perhaps too much–isn’t it true, after all, that the only people who write reviews are those who are either extremely pissed off or those who are tremendously thrilled with their purchase? Reviews do not really serve as objective criticism, after all.
• Read about awesome old ladies in North Carolina who are campaigning for access to early education among kids in poverty.
• I used to be really into art and drawing. Reading Molly Crabapple’s recent post about why she draws filled me with a feeling of painful nostalgia. I gave up on art because I was ashamed of my ability (although in retrospect I was quite good for my age) and because of the teasing I suffered from others. Maybe now is the time for me to reconnect with my old passion.
• And now for something completely different! I charge almost all of my purchases but I usually pay off my entire credit card balance every month. The Daily Muse recently featured a post about how credit cards can actually help your credit and how to be a responsible credit card user.
• Egg freezing is yet another method women can now utilize to control reproduction. It baffles me that people could be against this practice or see it as “selfish,” as the post describes.
• I never played red rover as a kid; however, I did engage in a lot of vicious dodgeball. Maybe it’s a good thing that my childhood is free from any violent memories of red rover.
• The Bangladesh garment factory disaster breaks my heart. This is exactly the reason that I do everything I can to avoid “fast fashion” from brands that I know are subjecting their workers to poor working conditions. Read here about the companies who are (sort of) doing something about it.

Have a good week, everyone. I’m not exactly sure at present what my next post will entail. So, err, ’til then…!