'Tis the Season for Receiving

What a week.

Let's have a moment of silence to commemorate exactly how cool it is that I can sit on my ass long enough to say that!

Alright, loves.  I drove up to Vermont last week to visit (I cannot believe I'm saying this!) my campus.  And I am so unbelievably excited about this place.  Honestly, you will be too.  What blows my mind in particular is: 1. I will be cold... all the time... which is ideal for my polar-bear self; and 2. Similar to Hampshire College and Bennington, etc, seniors are expected to complete, essentially, a dissertation, alongside a two hour oral presentation of their final project.  Any ideas what my project will be?

Hard to believe it, but I think I can work college in a way to prevent school from conflicting with the book.  Score.

So I visited the school, I got to walk around and eat crappy food like a real college kid.  And it was divine.  It also gave me a bit of a break from this little whirlwind.  My birthday is coming up in less than a week--it still blows my mind that I only have 5 days remaining to be an awful teenager--and so I may spend the next few days teetering on the edge of staying on the grid and falling back out of sight again.  Rest assured, dears, I'll be back...

I've gotten some amazing interviews back from various people, and I'm currently working on one for Ms. Sarah of Fatally Yours which is, by the way, a wicked cool site.  And if she's reading this, rest assured, I haven't forgotten about getting it out... you just do too much!  That's something I've come to realize about all these wicked awesome ladies in horror.  So many of them have a million projects, a million deadlines, a million everythings to balance... and they never fail to deliver.  A special challenge has come in the form of interviewing women in interview for a living.  I, personally, love flipping the tables on them and putting them on the spot.  Journalists--surprise, surprise--are clearly thought-driven creatures; so it's always a delight to get their responses in.  I digress in my accidental flattery.

I'm waiting on a few books to come in, all of which I'm terribly excited over.  'Tis the season for receiving--it's my birthday, I'll be spoiled if I wannaaa--and these are some books I'm excited to receive:

•  From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies written by Molly Haskell

 

This particular book comes closest in nature to remaining on (current)

topic with my subject matter: women in (horror) film.  I've already gone

through Recreational Terror and Men, Women, and Chainsaws --both of

which were essential reads--but this book takes an interesting turn,

in that it doesn't deal exclusively with horror, and that rape may be discussed

in greater depth.  How morbid am I for loving that?

• Ad Women: How They Impact What We Need, Want, and Buy written by Juliann Sivulka

I know, I know: we don't have to say it out loud, but I went right

ahead and went off topic.  Forgive me.  For those who don't know,

this entire book will not focus solely on horror movies: as of now,

my research topics have been divided, quite simply, into 

ART v. PORN

ART v. CENSORSHIP, and

PORN v. CENSORSHIP;

later on in my research frenzy, I plan on addressing sexuality

and gender as addressed by marketing teams.  More pictures will

come in time--I'm ranting as it is--but my main focus originated with

Dov Charney (American Apparel) and Terry Richardson (freelance

fashion-sleaze photographer).  With this book, as with the next few to be

listed, my focus is slipping over to how women impact the scene.

Because we'd all be lying to ourselves if we didn't give due

credit to the ladies.  Remember the ladies, okay?

• Something in the Way She Moves: Dancing Women from Salome to Madonna written by Wendy Buonaventura 

I am... not entirely sure what it is this book will be in response to,

as far as my project goes.  Let's see how I can link this into my research...

How about this:

I will discuss porn culture, along with sex work in general, so 

stripping (and how, of all the sex professions, this one in particular has become

so DIY, so integrated into both bedroom and social cultures alike) will surely

come up, and from there, I wanted to look into Burlesque.  What is the difference

between Burlesque and Simply-Stripping?  If it's a matter of art,

of humor, or self-awareness on behalf of Burlesque, then I'd like to look

further into dance as a sexual--and not necessarily literal SEX-centric--

art form.  The art of tease, as it were.  Since dance is really so focused

on the body as it is, so certainly it could be liked to gender and self-

expression of sexuality.

There.  Told ya I could do it!

This, now, leads me to me latest revelation: Valerie Steele is kinda amazing.  Whether or not shoes or pretty clothes hold you mesmerized as they do she, you'd be out of your mind to deny her contribution to the fashion world, and the analytical, feminist one, at that.  She seems downright brilliant, and when fashion isn't off topic, I can't wait to read up on her work more.  In the meantime, here are some of her selected books, that I will shamelessly sneak peaks into, in between scenes of slaughter and Michael Bay remakes.

• The Corset: A Cultural History written by Valerie Steele

The punk in me is showing.  And what about that cover isn't 

gorgeous? 

The book opens with: 

"The corset is probably the most controversial garment in the entire

history of fashion,"

and that, right there, sold me.  If I'm looking to address the sexual

provocation in fashion advertising, wouldn't it narrow-

minded to avoid the complete opposite: the uber-restrictiveness

of that garment we love to hate/hate to love--the Corset?

• The Red Dress written by Valerie Steele

This particular book discusses the topic of Red in actual fashion pieces

as well as what the color, as a color, means.  Even if I can't fit this book into

my research, I'm curious to read this one.

• The History of Underclothes written by C. Willet Cunnington

Again, I don't necessarily hold out any serious hopes that this book will

severely change the course of my own book, but the synopsis

did make mention of some little-known (to me, at least) fashion curiosities,

like an early prototype for a men's corset.  Hopefully I can find

some little snippets of info like that to plug in to the fashion section.

Who knows!

• Fashion Cultures: Theories, Explorations and Analysis/Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing

/

These I group together, not because I'm lazy or they're really

a dime-a-dozen quality, but because they run alongside

the same theme.  How that theme comes into play here...

fuck it, I'm too lazy to get into it.

This is everything, for now.