OK I was bored this morning so I decided to check out that bald barbie page that got me so wound up the other day, and I have to say they have raised the bar for attention seeking behavior. They are now asking their supporters to shave their heads to show support of the bald barbie. Not to advance research or donate money. No no, that wouldn't make any sense. Why n=be noble, when you can be commercial? And just so you don't think I am making this up, here it is, directly off their facebook page.
Beautiful and Bald Barbie! Let's see if we can get it made
This Wednesday, we offer you a chance to show your support for the Beautiful and Bald Barbie to be made in a very passionate, giving and heartfelt way.
To show Mattel how important making a Beautiful and Bald barbie is to you. We invite you to the Go Bald! Go Bold! for Barbie. We encourage those who want to show their passion for this to shave their heads on this day. Jan. 18, 2012. If your hair is long enough we encourage you to donate the hair to one of the organizations below that make wigs and provide them to children free of charge.
When you do this, we ask that you take pictures (preferable before and after photos). In the after photo please hold a sign that says "I went Bald and Bold for Barbie! If I can do it, she can do it!"
Let's show the kids how important this is to us. We know not everyone will be able to do this but for those of you who can! You can make a difference! Together we stand, for the children who have to live with hair loss due to chemo, alopecia or trichotillomania. They are not alone!
Places to donate your hair to:
Ok now this just makes me sick. I applaud the events hosted by St. Baldrick's to raise awareness and funds for cancer research, but they are not asking for that. They want to show Mattel, in big capital letters, that they want a bald Barbie. Like the 124,361 people "liking" their page isn't enough. I am pretty sure Mattel has gotten a slew of emails about this, any I bet that somebody in some department somewhere within Mattel most likely has learned to hate Barbie, facebook, and going to work every day at this point. In my first post, I said I was not a cancer mom. But in this day and age, you would be hard pressed to find anyone whose life has not been touched by cancer in some way. So today, I speak from the heart, as one that has lost loved ones from cancer, and my heart is disgusted at this stunt to garner 15 minutes of fame.
I lost my grandmother to cancer, and yes, she lost all of her hair during horrific chemotherapy treatments, where the loss of her hair was the least of her worries. I lost my mother to cancer, and she didn't lose a single hair. Just her life. In fact, almost everyone that has died in my extended family, was lost to cancer. No bald Barbie, or any other toy will fix that. I take the stance that more research is needed. Better ways to seek and destroy cancer are needed. Same goes for alopecia. Let's find better, more affordable treatment options for baldness. Let's delve deeper into autoimmune disorders, to gain a better understanding. Again with trichotillomania, help the sufferers by ending the suffering. In fact, trichotillomania is an impulse control disorder that is self destructive in nature. These people need help with psychological problems, not a standing ovation for bald Barbie that leads them to believe this behavior is ok.
I said earlier that I admire them for wanting to help raise awareness, but this stunt forces me to take that back. Their earlier message, misguided as it was, has gotten lost, and they are so enamored of their own PR that the stunts will just get bigger, longer, and more appalling. I think I will email Mattel and tell them that if they mass produce this idiotic doll, I will boycott not only the Barbie, but anything else bearing the Mattel label. Enough is enough, people. Your 15 minutes of fame is over. Now you just come across as attention whores, and that's just sad.
Peace out.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Frenemies...Or An Open Letter to all the Nutjobs I Know.
As of today, have officially had to block too many people from my facebook page. Any number of things have caused this to happen. It ranges from people ghosting my page to people being just plain nuts. What is it about facebook that brings out the frenemies in people? Generally, once I friend someone on fb, I let them hang around, and just hide their posts if they become annoying. That way, I don't have to be annoyed and they don't have to be unfriended. I find it is a system that works well. But there are things that just cross the line for me. Preaching to me, at me, or about me will get you blocked. Throwing temper tantrums on my page will get you blocked. Lecturing me about what I post on my page, or my blog page, will get you blocked. And unfriending me, but continuing to read my posts and blogs will get you blocked. It's a social networking site, people, not the bible. And it's not as private as you might like to believe. Since I have the blog page, I have this little tab on the side that says Insights, and it is indeed insightful. I can tell who checks my pages, whether they are at home or work, pc or mobile device, and what platform they use. I can tell when they were on my page, how long, and how many times. I even have a special little tab for Mac users. Now granted, fb insights are not as informative as the ones here, but I am able to cross reference, and do the math myself.
Facebook makes it fairly simple to block people, and I hate that I have had to use it so much lately. (Word to the wise here...don't post your bullshit on my kids page, and we will get along a tiny bit better, mkay pumpkin?) Sadly, I have yet to figure out how to block a select few on here, without removing myself for the search engines. Which would defeat the purpose of having a public blog anyway. So consider this a kind of public notice. Feel free to read. Hell you can even comment. But the bottom line is this...I am not you secret friend. I am not the person you can only claim to know in certain circles. Either you know me or you don't. Either you are my friend or you aren't. And once you decide you are not my friend in ANY circle, well you aren't my friend at all. (See earlier posts regarding cowards....oops, you can't see that anymore, can you? My bad.) As for anyone commenting here, I invite them, adore them, and appreciate them. But if they are inapproprate or vindictive, if they attack me or mine on a personal level, I delete them. But I think you already know that too, from past experience, huh?
Here's a little food for thought. I have been married, and I have been in a few serious relationships, and I have had countless fights with my spouse/sigother regarding my friends. I won't give up my friends unless they want to be given up. I sure as hell won't give them up because someone else tells me to. I have friends that have lots of friends themselves, and I have friends that nobody else can tolerate. As long as I can tolerate them, nobody else needs to worry about it. I don't do the kindergarten mindset that if X isn't my friend, then you can't be friends with them either.
It's simple, really. Stick by the ones that stick by you. And don't believe everything you hear about me. I don't believe all the bad I've heard about you. I just believe in how you treat me, and I would hope you do the same. If not, well then I don't feel so bad about blocking you after all.
Facebook makes it fairly simple to block people, and I hate that I have had to use it so much lately. (Word to the wise here...don't post your bullshit on my kids page, and we will get along a tiny bit better, mkay pumpkin?) Sadly, I have yet to figure out how to block a select few on here, without removing myself for the search engines. Which would defeat the purpose of having a public blog anyway. So consider this a kind of public notice. Feel free to read. Hell you can even comment. But the bottom line is this...I am not you secret friend. I am not the person you can only claim to know in certain circles. Either you know me or you don't. Either you are my friend or you aren't. And once you decide you are not my friend in ANY circle, well you aren't my friend at all. (See earlier posts regarding cowards....oops, you can't see that anymore, can you? My bad.) As for anyone commenting here, I invite them, adore them, and appreciate them. But if they are inapproprate or vindictive, if they attack me or mine on a personal level, I delete them. But I think you already know that too, from past experience, huh?
Here's a little food for thought. I have been married, and I have been in a few serious relationships, and I have had countless fights with my spouse/sigother regarding my friends. I won't give up my friends unless they want to be given up. I sure as hell won't give them up because someone else tells me to. I have friends that have lots of friends themselves, and I have friends that nobody else can tolerate. As long as I can tolerate them, nobody else needs to worry about it. I don't do the kindergarten mindset that if X isn't my friend, then you can't be friends with them either.
It's simple, really. Stick by the ones that stick by you. And don't believe everything you hear about me. I don't believe all the bad I've heard about you. I just believe in how you treat me, and I would hope you do the same. If not, well then I don't feel so bad about blocking you after all.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Today I am a follower...
And I don't wish to hear any smartass comments from the peanut gallery, either. This means you, Kim LOL!
But today I am indeed a follower. You can't log into any social networking site without seeing a push for the Bald and Beautiful Barbie. And I confess that on the surface it sounds like a wonderful idea. But one woman was willing to stand up and take a public beatdown for thinking it wasn't so wonderful, and if Mary Tyler Mom can do it with her several thousand followers, I can sure do it with my...uhhh..I think I have 42 followers between here and facebook. For those of you that enjoy reading blogs, I recommend hers. ( http://www.chicagonow.com/mary-tyler-mom/2012/01/barbie-v-cancer/ ) She singlehandedly started what is now being called a movement. Even if it is being said a tad bit tongue-in-cheek. So I am a follower of the Anti-Bald Barbie movement. I agree with many of the reasons she writes about, but I have many reasons of my own.
I applaud the founders of the push for the bald beauty for what they are trying to do, which is to increase awareness of childhood cancer, alopecia, and third thing that I honestly can't remember, and couldn't spell even if I did. Please feel free to fill in that blank in a comment if you know. Raised awareness does indeed raise funds. Look at Susan G Komen For The Cure. Or the wearing of red to raise awareness of heart disease in women. So my hat is off to them for that. But I still think it's a bad idea, and here's why.
I have issues with Barbie that go way back. When I was little I wanted to BE Barbie when I grew up. Or at least a brunette version. Yeah, that didn't work out so much. For one thing I am flat chested as can be, and I have a huge butt, and lets just tell it like it is, Barbie's plastic perma-panties are unhygenic and chafe in a horrific way. And then there's the whole pink corvette trauma, but that's a different post for a different day. The point is my idea of beauty stemmed from Barbie, and it took me a while to realize that there are other types of beauty, and she wasn't something I needed to aspire to. So I am just anti-Barbie right out of the gate. My issue with the Bald and Beautiful Barbie is a little deeper though.
Let's say they succeed and little miss perfect is mass produced sans hair. At the same time, will they also mass produce Down Syndrome Barbie, Lupus Barbie or Dialysis Barbie? Do you see a wide market for Myasenthia Gravis Barbie, or how about Multiple Sclerosis Barbie? I just don't see that happening. So here's the hairless icon, and little girls that have hair, but may have other issues are left to wonder why they don't have a Barbie with their symptoms. Are they not as special? Dealing with illness, physical and neurological ailments and symptoms is hard enough without feeling like the toy industry is discriminating against them too.
Yes, yes and YES there needs to be more awareness of pediatric cancer and more research and more ways to help these children. I wholeheartedly agree. Have a fundraiser, do a fun run, host a casino night, have a wet t-shirt contest, or any one of a nillion other ideas to raise funds and awareness. Me, I would host a Barbie burning. Bring your Barbies and torch them in the communal bonfire at a buck a Barbie head, all proceeds to go to St. Baldrick's. (Good Lord, there is a lot of B's in that last sentence.)The moral, beauty is only on the surface, but fake goes all the way through. Whether bald is beautiful is really a moot point. Everyone is beautiful in their own way. Life is beautiful. Courage is beautiful. The ability to feel is beautiful. And the ability to care is beautiful. You can't mass produce it. Mass production would cheapen it, and you would see that all that iconic bald beauty is still just covering something fake, plastic, and highly combustible.
As I close, let me say that no, I do not have experience with a child with cancer. What I have is a beautiful daughter that needs a kidney transplant. She has roughly 2 feet of catheter tubing coming out of her stomach, which she connects to a dialysis cycler for 11 hours every single day of her life so that she can have a life. And her thoughts on Ailment-Bearing-Awareness-Raising Barbie? If someone gave her a Barbie with 2 feet of tubing hanging from it's stomach, she would burn it. She wants to be treated just like you and me and every other "normal" person in the world. She defines her disease, and does not let it define her. So if anyone wants to host a Barbie Burning, you just let us know. I've got just the girl to light that first match.
Peace and love.
But today I am indeed a follower. You can't log into any social networking site without seeing a push for the Bald and Beautiful Barbie. And I confess that on the surface it sounds like a wonderful idea. But one woman was willing to stand up and take a public beatdown for thinking it wasn't so wonderful, and if Mary Tyler Mom can do it with her several thousand followers, I can sure do it with my...uhhh..I think I have 42 followers between here and facebook. For those of you that enjoy reading blogs, I recommend hers. ( http://www.chicagonow.com/mary-tyler-mom/2012/01/barbie-v-cancer/ ) She singlehandedly started what is now being called a movement. Even if it is being said a tad bit tongue-in-cheek. So I am a follower of the Anti-Bald Barbie movement. I agree with many of the reasons she writes about, but I have many reasons of my own.
I applaud the founders of the push for the bald beauty for what they are trying to do, which is to increase awareness of childhood cancer, alopecia, and third thing that I honestly can't remember, and couldn't spell even if I did. Please feel free to fill in that blank in a comment if you know. Raised awareness does indeed raise funds. Look at Susan G Komen For The Cure. Or the wearing of red to raise awareness of heart disease in women. So my hat is off to them for that. But I still think it's a bad idea, and here's why.
I have issues with Barbie that go way back. When I was little I wanted to BE Barbie when I grew up. Or at least a brunette version. Yeah, that didn't work out so much. For one thing I am flat chested as can be, and I have a huge butt, and lets just tell it like it is, Barbie's plastic perma-panties are unhygenic and chafe in a horrific way. And then there's the whole pink corvette trauma, but that's a different post for a different day. The point is my idea of beauty stemmed from Barbie, and it took me a while to realize that there are other types of beauty, and she wasn't something I needed to aspire to. So I am just anti-Barbie right out of the gate. My issue with the Bald and Beautiful Barbie is a little deeper though.
Let's say they succeed and little miss perfect is mass produced sans hair. At the same time, will they also mass produce Down Syndrome Barbie, Lupus Barbie or Dialysis Barbie? Do you see a wide market for Myasenthia Gravis Barbie, or how about Multiple Sclerosis Barbie? I just don't see that happening. So here's the hairless icon, and little girls that have hair, but may have other issues are left to wonder why they don't have a Barbie with their symptoms. Are they not as special? Dealing with illness, physical and neurological ailments and symptoms is hard enough without feeling like the toy industry is discriminating against them too.
Yes, yes and YES there needs to be more awareness of pediatric cancer and more research and more ways to help these children. I wholeheartedly agree. Have a fundraiser, do a fun run, host a casino night, have a wet t-shirt contest, or any one of a nillion other ideas to raise funds and awareness. Me, I would host a Barbie burning. Bring your Barbies and torch them in the communal bonfire at a buck a Barbie head, all proceeds to go to St. Baldrick's. (Good Lord, there is a lot of B's in that last sentence.)The moral, beauty is only on the surface, but fake goes all the way through. Whether bald is beautiful is really a moot point. Everyone is beautiful in their own way. Life is beautiful. Courage is beautiful. The ability to feel is beautiful. And the ability to care is beautiful. You can't mass produce it. Mass production would cheapen it, and you would see that all that iconic bald beauty is still just covering something fake, plastic, and highly combustible.
As I close, let me say that no, I do not have experience with a child with cancer. What I have is a beautiful daughter that needs a kidney transplant. She has roughly 2 feet of catheter tubing coming out of her stomach, which she connects to a dialysis cycler for 11 hours every single day of her life so that she can have a life. And her thoughts on Ailment-Bearing-Awareness-Raising Barbie? If someone gave her a Barbie with 2 feet of tubing hanging from it's stomach, she would burn it. She wants to be treated just like you and me and every other "normal" person in the world. She defines her disease, and does not let it define her. So if anyone wants to host a Barbie Burning, you just let us know. I've got just the girl to light that first match.
Peace and love.
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