I brought this to the beach, thinking, “Ahh, pictures – nice light summer read!” Then I realized that within the first few pages, heartbreak, suicide, and poverty had already made appearances. This book made my heart hurt. I liked the relatively sparse use of dialogue and the “zoom-out” views of the city. It felt cold and silent

Speaking as someone with a background in gender studies/anthro, nothing in this book was terribly new, and although some of the generalizations were annoying and simply not true (boys are more easily aroused than girls, eh?), for the most part they managed to stay pretty well planted in the constructionist mindset. I’m not a parent, so it seems funny to recommend it to them, but – I’d definitely recommend it to parents, teachers, or anyone working with boys. I already told my mom to check it out, though it’s kind of a moot point since my brother’s managed to make it adolescence with emotions intact. But I know too many college-age men who’ve grown up emotionally illiterate – almost started welling up at one point, actually, because it reminded me so much of him – and it doesn’t have to be that way.

It was so cheesy and over-the-top but super cute. David Cross turns everything he touches to gold. And I have a major crush on Amanda Bynes pretending to be a boy.

I saw this book at my professor’s house while birdsitting and read the first chapter, figuring that I would finish it when I go home in a week. Then I remembered that we seem to be missing our copy. I wish my dad would stop loaning books out and then forgetting to whom he loaned them…

RAWR!! I was really enjoying this, got about halfway through, then the DVD player broke. I’ll have to borrow it again sometime. Thus far I’m loving the fact that Disney has (gasp) a sense of humor about its own animated films and their unrealistic portrayals/expectations of women. And the two exceedingly attractive male leads don’t hurt either.

D’oh.

This book was frustrating because I could not for the life of me tell when Kipnis was being sarcastic, funny, serious, or just what her position was on anything. In a way, that made it interesting, because it forced me to think about my own opinion on everything. But mostly it just made me want to throw the book at the next biological determinist I see.

I probably won’t get around to finishing this book for a while, so I’m going to write an entry now, while I’m all jazzed up about it. This is the first time that I’ve ever wanted to finish a book of which only certain chapters were assigned for class. Simply put, it’s fantastic and everyone should read it. It forced me to look critically at so many things I took for granted – the objectivity of scientific fact, the metaphors we use daily to talk about menstruation and reproduction, etc. And Emily Martin’s writing style is totally engaging and easy to read – I’ve never had assigned reading speed by so quickly.

I highly recommend playing the Snakes on a Plane Drinking Game (look it up) while viewing this film. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it otherwise. As such, it was a blast.

Actually, the whole movie is worth it for the music video at the end. Oh heck, just listen to the song.

Why did Matthew McConaughey feel it was necessary to talk out of the side of his mouth the entire time?! He looked like an idiot and his accent sounded forced. I couldn’t take him seriously.

This film was visually stunning and had some very humorous moments, as well as poignant ones. My biggest problem was that the English captions (at least in the version I watched) were terrible, and I found myself getting extremely lost. It would definitely be helpful to know some background on Indian politics and culture of the time, particularly dealing with family structure and gender roles. I enjoyed watching it, though, regardless of whether or not I knew entirely what was going on.