XXBlaze Has Moved!!!

From today on, consider this site officially closed. I will leave it up here, but all new updates will go on http://xxblaze.wordpress.com. Please update your blogrolls, feed readers, and bookmarks!

I'm very tired of deleting comments and not having as much control over them as I would like. Plus, if you recall, I made a kick-ass new banner a few weeks ago, and I am looking forward to using it. Being able to post on my blog, and know that it looks nothing like anyone else's will be a real treat. I guess it will just feel more like real blogging instead of LJ-style ranting.

One feature that Wordpress has that Blogspot does not is the magnificent ability to truncate posts. The new front-page will allow you to quickly scan through my posts without having to scroll through thousands of words of my pedantic speechery. If you want to read the entire text of posts, all you have to do is click on the handy-dandy "more" links at the bottom of post.

Anyways, Blogspot was awesome while it lasted, but I'm moving on for greener pastures. Actually, I lied. The new blog is red.

Photoshop + Feminism

So I was working on a new banner for the blog, and I came up with the above. I really like it a lot. I think I might port this blog over to Wordpress, simply because I like the features over there more. I'm up in the air, though, of what exactly I'm going to do. I do think that the new layout is going to be something with a lot of red, and something with a lot more sidebars than what I currently have. I want people to stumble upon my blog and immediately know what they're looking at, but I also want a lot of interactive features. Currently, Blogger doesn't do so well on tags and comments. I abhor their comment system.

Search terms that uncover radical feminist blogs

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Body Positivism: Health in a post-BMI Mentality

One of the most valuable things I have taken away from Feminism is how to love myself and everyone, no matter what shape they are. I especially have to give a hat tip to the lovely ladies over at Shapely Prose for all of their hard work. I feel like the battle to accept myself, and others, is constantly uphill. The work of feminists and fat acceptance activists has helped me increase my self esteem and be healthier, mentally and physically.

Nevertheless, various health issues connected with food run in my family. For years, I struggled to control my intake and exercise religiously. This struggle was mostly fruitless, because I love to eat and cook. Running in place on a treadmill was nowhere near as fun as inhaling the heavenly aroma of home-made risotto as I stirred it on the stove, and then receiving glowing compliments on my culinary abilities from my family and friends.

The age-old "diet and exercise" shtick wasn't sticking. Fat Acceptance mentality in tow, I decided to go to a friend-recommended local nutrionist for a check-up that I refused to receive from my weight-obsessed general physician.

Before she began, I set a few rules. No talk of BMI. No discussion of weight and "weight classes". I stressed that I really did not care about what size I wore. I wanted to know if I was getting the right vitamins, if my cholesterols were in balance, and I could pass basic physical fitness tests. In short, I wanted to know everything worth knowing, and nothing that wasn't worth knowing. If I was healthy and moderately fit, I didn't need "weight loss tips".

She agreed, thankfully. I don't know how well such rules would have worked for regular nutrionists (she was more of the natural hippie variety), but she was perfectly agreeable, and understood why I asked her to leave such inconsequential things out of my check-up.

I passed the physical fitness tests, with moderately high endurance ratings, but low strength ratings. She said those could be increased with more fiber in my diet and simple things like carrying more grocery bags at once. I'm awaiting my blood and urine tests though.

I feel like looking after my health in this fashion is much more productive. Weight does not really determine a lot of health issues. I could have the body of a super model, but be malnourished. I could be as toned as an Olympic athlete, but have serious cholesterol issues. More than weight and BMI, excesses and deficiencies of certain vitamins and minerals in your blood are responsible for various ailments. Besides, dieting has been found to be useless in the long run, and a constant drive to "improve" my body, on the assumption that it is "bad", is not healthy mentally or physically. My intestinal disorder and allergies can and have put me in the hospital. I have no wish to screw around with food unnecessarily.

Fat Acceptance and health are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I have found them to be very inclusive indeed. Here's to enjoying food, my body, and my life!

Firefox 3.0

Yeah, I'm going to download Mozilla Firefox 3.0 the day it comes out, June 17. I'm a huge dork. Rumor on the street is that it's more secure, and not so much of a system hog. As someone who's crashed her laptop several with sixty or more tags open, I'm really going to appreciate this. My only hope is that my beloved plug-ins, like the javascript blocking and ass-saving No Script, will be compatible with the upgrade.

What is this?

This is my personal blog. Here I hope to keep scraps that I cannot post else where and bits of pieces of things I want to save. I want to archive everything I post here. Eventually, I'll get around to fetching old material.

Introduction to the Madness

Think of this post as a glorified FAQs where I post snarky hypothetical interview questions and answer them in the usual obnoxious, but awesomely intelligent, manner.

Why did you start this blog?

The world needs more radical feminists. I found that most blogs are speaking into the vast echo chamber that is internet idiocy, and I wanted a place where I could express controversial sentiments that would otherwise horrify my peers and shock my parents.

Why do you hate men?

It's not men that I hate, actually. I hate the patriarchy, and its enforcers. I hate those that defend their right to more than their fair share on the basis of their genitalia. I hate those that exploit and defend the exploiters. I hate rapists, murders, abusers, and chauvinistic pigs. I hold men more responsible for the deplorable state of the world simply because their gender collectively profits off the subjugation of the female sex. This sentiment is more common-sense than radical, considering that men own 99% of the world's wealth and make up more than 50% of their country's leadership (excepting Sweden). I hate those who deserve to be hated, pure and simple. If that's radical, then I'm a radical motherfucker, okay?

What's with the title?

I'm really passionate about being right when it comes to feminism. Thus, my intellectual superiority (I wish I was kidding) when it comes to gender issues fills me with a fire, or a blaze, of political righteousness. Also, women have two x-chromosomes, so I attached XX to the Blaze. Also, I thought it looked cool. Recently, I discovered that people were accidentally getting referred to my site with searches such as "XX Rape" and "XX Women". The thought that deviant perverts looking for disgusting abusive smut are accidentally stumbling across my blog is extremely amusing.

Why are you so shameless and personal?

The personal is political. If I only spoke impersonally, I would sound as if I was some outside observer that thinks herself above the patriarchy. Nothing is further than the truth. The male-dominated world influences my life every day. If I recorded here all the nasty misogynistic things I heard and saw, personally, I would have to post eight times an hour. Feminism is personal. The ideology has radically changed how I think of myself and the world around me. If frank talks of masturbation, sexual abuse, and "deviant" bisexuality bother you, then I'm glad to be a nuisance.

Why are you so pedantic and wordy?

I have a bizarre sense of humor that culminates in written expression that is riddled with hyperbole and sarcasm. I have a very dark sense of humor, and I weald my metaphorical pen like a beating-stick. I abhor dumbing down my writing for the sake of being gentle. Fuck that shit. Half the problem with radical movements is that they are not radical enough. I really don't care how accessible my message is to teh menz. The status quo coddles nay-sayers all day long, so I figure that is my job to be as brutally honest as possible.

What the hell is with your terminology?

I read a lot. A lot of what is read is gender theory like Dworkin and other advanced Patriarchy-blaming goodness. If the terminology doesn't make sense, ask politely and I might clue you in. Otherwise, see Feminism 101, or I am Not Responsible for Your Basic Education for more details. I go out of my way to disseminate my vast gender knowledge to you. If you go to a whale-hunt with a small pointy stick, you're going to be in trouble. Please don't attempt to debate if you have no idea what things like "false consciousness" and the "rape culture" are. It's disrespectful.

Why are you such a bitch to commentors?

Quick question: would you go to an astrophysics blog after completing high-school algebra, assume a lofty tone, and attempt to school others on their erroneous calculations? I really hope not. Also, if you have a penis and you think that peppering your comments with "honey" and other infantilizing rhetorical devices makes you teh smartzors and superior, kindly fuck off. All sexist commentary about my shrill tone, alienating rhetoric, and self-victimization will get the banhammer.

Can I link to your blog?

Sure. Please drop me a line in the comments to let me know that you have done so. If I ask you to remove the link, please do so. Unless you're a complete asshole, I probably won't.

Comment Policy

This is my blog and personal space. I reserve the right to delete any comment, regardless of content. Contributions are encouraged, trolling is strictly prohibited. The following will always be deleted:

1. Threats of violence against the poster or another commenter
2. Insults directed at the poster or another commenter that are unduly inflammatory, sexist, racist, or offensive
3. Off-topic posts
4. Hijacking the thread and soapboxing
5. Spam or link-heavy comments
6. Exceptionally horrible grammar and syntax
7. Proclamations of my utter failure as a human being and a supposed inferiority to your awesome powers of reason
8. Inquires or statements of the poster's or other commenters' weights, attractiveness, or mental complexes
9. The serious use of labels like feminist, fat, strident, bitchy, young, or gay to discredit someone
10. Anything that pisses me off

This is my space, and I get to be as loud, opinionated, and mean as I want. Deal with it. If you really want to whine about how horrible I am, use your own damn blog.