1. Pinterest = ?

    Friday, February 24, 2012

    Pinterest.

    This Baby:

    http://pinterest.com/

    It's a massive hit with a great number of people I know - but the fascinating kicker (at least for me) is that Pinterest only seems to capture the attention of females in my life.

    Honestly. Of the people I've heard talking about Pinterest - in person, on facebook, on blogs - ZERO of them have been men. If you checked out the link (or have been to the site otherwise) it's quite clear that Pinterest is very gendered in terms of content, but it strikes me that it doesn't have to be that way, and it baffles me how polarizing this one is.

    Pinterest is essentially a photo blog - not unlike tumblr, or a very image-heavy wordpress layout. A user creates categories, and then either 'pins' content uploaded from their computer, or re-pins things that others have already put up. All of this is pretty normal, and there's no face reason why I shouldn't be interested. In fact, take a look at this photo:


    Architecture? Motorcycles? Music, Film, and something called Geek? By name alone, I'm interested in half of stuff on that list. I'm a very visual person. I love design, art, and cool photos. I should be stoked on Pinterest. But here's the thing:

    I don't care. At all. 

    Pinterest has absolutely zero appeal for me, and every guy I've talked to feels the same way. Men are supposedly visual creatures, and this is an image blog with lots of potential for cool things guys would like. So honestly, I'm putting this out there to people: Why is Pinterest so captivating to women, and so utterly 'meh' to the large majority of men? I have no doubt that some guys like Pinterest, but I feel confident that my sample isn't entirely unrepresentative. 

    Here's one theory perhaps, courtesy of my girlfriend. Perhaps it's the very organizational nature of Pinterest that creates this divide. I love the chaos of tumblr. I love the weird, stream of consciousness, mental bleed that are the tumblrs of most people. The quotes, the mini-tweet-like-statements and the self photography. I eat it all up, because it feels like a snapshot of the inside of someones skull. When it's bad, it's really bad. But when it's good, it feels like an experience unique to the internet, and a totally wonderful one at that. I know plenty of girls with great tumblrs, so this isn't to suggest that women don't respond to tumblr, but maybe that the hyper-organized system of Pinterest taps into something that girls respond to way more than guys.

    What gives, friendly folk?

    Posted by Alastair at 11:23 PM | Labels: , | 0 comments | |



  2. Kanye West is the definition of the dude you love to hate, but he's certainly appreciated for the music he makes. After last years outstanding 'MBDTF' and this year's very good 'Watch the Throne', I'm not exactly breaking ground by saying I have a lot of love for Yeezy. But right now I want to pay tribute to something that I don't think gets acknowledged very much: 

    Beyond the bravado, clever rhymes and world-class beatmaking, Kanye has continually revealed himself as one of the most progressive voices in not just hip-hop, but all of mainstream media.

    Kanye on Pornography and Sex Work (from Hell of a Life):

     Tell me what I gotta do to be that guy
    Said her price go down, she ever fuck a black guy
    Or do anal, or do a gangbang
    It’s kinda crazy that’s all considered the same thing 

    Ok, so first up, Kanye sends up the racism in porn that equates the 'depraved' nature of interracial sex in certain eyes to other 'taboo' sex acts. For some, sleeping with a single black man equates to fucking 5 white men simultaneously.

    Next, he takes a critical shot at the pay scale for many porn production companies, and the inherent problems with paying actors and actresses differently for what they are prepared to do, or to refrain from doing.

    THEN he does some serious judo.

    Well I guess a lotta niggas do gang bang
    And if we run trains, we all in the same gang
    Runaway slaves all on a chain gang
    Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang

    To my mind, he's making two spectacular points here:

    1) The sexual double standard of guys who would happily engage in 'taboo' acts like group sex, but then use a woman's participation in the same act as evidence of her being a slut and a whore

    2) Sexually and culturally, a lot of racism still ties black people in America together, no matter who's on the 'upper' end of this racism. Black men might employ black women in a rap video and show her in a erotic and degrading light, but those same black men are still being seen by other (white) men as dangerous animals, goons and thugs. In the constraints of racism, black women are whores and black men are criminals. The 'bang, bang, bang, bang, bang' refers to both slang for fucking, and the sound of a gunshot

     Kanye then turns his focus to society as a whole:

    One day I’m gon' marry a porn star
    We’ll have a big ass crib and a long yard
    We’ll have a mansion and some fly maids
    Nothin’ to hide, we both screwed the bridesmaids
    She wanna role play, 'til I roll over
    I’mma need a whole day, at least rolled doja

    At first we have a celebration of hedonism (not exactly new to rap), but look again. Kanye isn't going to have a house full of porn stars to pour champagne on, he aspires to marry a porn star - legitimately and with full implications. He makes it sound fun, and sees her propensity for sexual adventure as a perk, and not a source of shame. Kanye sees nothing wrong with being associated with a sex worker. But others do:


    What party is we goin’ to on Oscar day
    'specially if she can’t get that dress from Oscar de
    La Renta, they wouldn’t rent her they couldn’t take the shame
    Snatched the dress off her back and told her, “Get away”
    How could you say they live they life wrong?
    When you never fuck with the lights on

    According to Kanye, the stigma associated with sex work is society's fault, and not sex workers'. He even takes a nice jab at the prudes, and implies (correctly) that a lot of the baggage around sex and sex work stems from personal guilt and discomfort.

    The fact that anyone is articulating this stuff so well, let along someone in a genre as frequently problematic as commercial rap, is downright amazing. I'm almost out of space here, but just to prove that this one song isn't an out-of-character move for Kanye, check out a line from this year's 'No Church In The Wild':

    We formed a new religion
    No sins as long as there’s permission
    And deception is the only felony
    So never fuck nobody without telling me

    An egalitarian, sex-positive, couple-defined relationship with a textbook definition of a 'Monogamish' commitment.

    And the beat is dope.


    Long live Yeezy.



    Posted by Alastair at 5:47 PM | Labels: , | 1 comments | |