Must Watch Video Of A Nice Guy Explaining How Normal It Has Become To Disrespect & Objectify Women
By Ari Eastman
Last year, I packed up my entire cozy, little life in Northern California and moved to the city where all your dreams come true (if your dreams include soul-sucking traffic, feeling like you aren’t nearly thin/tan/beautiful/not-human enough, and endless conversations about which juice cleanse is the best): Los Angeles. Okay, it’s actually not THAT bad, but that article is for another time and another place (lamest cliff-hanger in the history of ever. You don’t care. Please care. Love me!).
Change of any kind tends to send my routine driven brain into total panic and I seek shelter in the two things that have always been a constant in my life: my bed and all 10 seasons of Friends. However, one of the first friends (actual friend, sorry Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, Monica…) I made in Lalaland, and now I’m lucky enough to call her my roommate, refused to let me wallow, muttering about how I missed the cold, NPR with my mom, and people who honked to say hello and not crush my spirit. She had been to a nearby poetry lounge recently with her boyfriend and had a feeling it was going to be my kind of scene. She took me one chilly, autumn night and all dramatic/cheesy/god-this-girl-is-too-much feelings intended, my life was changed.
Spoken word became therapy for me, a creative outlet for shit I didn’t even know I had buried deep down, and maybe most beautifully, I formed families. We listen, really, truly listen, something that I don’t think we do in society enough these days. I actually now have to be hyper aware because when I’m in writers groups or workshops at school, I have the tendency to go “mmm” when someone is reading something that I’m connecting with. Oh, don’t mind me. Just having a little, audible orgasm over here because WHAT YOU ARE SAYING SPEAKS TO MY SOUL.
And the most “mmm” worthy piece I’ve heard recently has to be shared with my newest family/community, you beautiful Thought Catalogers. Catalogees? This piece by the charming Dave Anders-Richards is absolutely beautiful, profound, and something that more people need to see and think about. And ladies, try to keep your pants on. Actually, just go ahead and take them off right now.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYSsSqm6rSI&w=584&h=390]