Month: May 2010

Allstate’s Deficient Brain

May 30, 2010

So you all most likely know about Allstate’s disgustingly ageist teen brain ads, where they repeat all the “teens can’t drive well because they’re missing part of their brains” bullshit, which has been running for like three years now.

So here’s my letter to them. Enjoy!

Dear Allstate,

Recently, I was shopping around for car insurance. I checked several companies, but Allstate was not one of them. Why? Because Allstate feels the need to run magazine ads spreading disgusting lies about teenagers missing parts of their brains. I will not do business with a company like that. As a youth rights advocate, these sort of ad campaigns work against everything my colleagues and I are giving our lives to work for. Spreading these negative stereotypes about teenagers not only doesn’t make your insurance policies or your company look any more appealing even to a neutral observer, but these widespread beliefs cause real harm to young people. Telling people that teenagers can’t think for themselves not only causes teens to be mistrusted and prevented from gaining experience they’ll need to have in adulthood, but also it contributes to them being mentally and physically abused. When you spread the idea that a group of people are mentally inferior, people will treat them that way. By running these “teen brain” ads, Allstate is stating they are fine with teenagers being treated as less than human. As such, as long as the company chooses to promote itself this way and without an apology, I will never buy an Allstate insurance policy and will do all I can to persuade others not to.

Sincerely,
Katrina Moncure
National Youth Rights Association

Do the same. Go here.

This has been Day 7 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 10.

I’m Sick of Hotel California

May 24, 2010

We all get sick of the newest, popular songs get the living shit played out of them on practically every radio station. That new Train song. That Lady Antebellum song. Just about anything by Taylor Swift. And if I hear Kelly Clarkson’s “Already Gone” or whatever it is one more time, I will scratch someone’s eyes out.

But songs don’t have to have come out within the past two weeks for you to get sick of their constant, constant, mindnumbing play. Hell, they don’t even have to have come out in the past two decades.

That’s right, this is about even classic rock songs that radio stations play the living shit out of. While any one of these songs might get fewer plays on a given day than any of the aforementioned brand new pop stuff, it’s also worse in a way because many of the overplayed pop songs will disappear without a trace in a month or so, while Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” and Steve Miller’s “Joker” and Journey’s “Any Way You Want It” have been getting played sooo much consistently for many many years.
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Milk or Water

May 20, 2010

I hereby decree…

You don’t have anything to drink.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone over to someone’s house, and been expected and invited, and when either I asked if they had anything to drink or they offered something to drink, and I asked what they had, they replied, “Milk. Water.”

*facepalm*

So, in other words, you don’t have anything. Who the hell goes to someone’s house to drink fucking MILK? Water might be okay, even though they’re usually just talking about unfiltered tap water.

It’s one thing if I’m just one guest, or one of two or three. But I’ve seen this even when someone is hosting a good sized gathering at their house, and there isn’t shit to drink besides those two non-options. And probably didn’t bother to tell the guests beforehand to bring their own drinks.

Maaaybe there might be juice. Depends what kind of juice. But that’s at least something. It actually has flavor. Same with iced tea, so long as it’s actually sweetened.

Or sometimes they might have juices, sodas, etc. Except they didn’t bother to put any of it in the refrigerator beforehand, so it’s all warm! Lame!

I don’t mean to sound like as a guest to someone’s house that means I’m entitled to them having stuff I like. Yet if I brought my own drinks without being invited to do so, could be seen as rude. *shrug*

Of course, got to wonder, is milk and water all they drink? Or did they just happen to run out of real drinks right before having guests over? Or is this a common case of hosting fail?

Now, if you don’t mind, I’m thirsty, and am going to get some orange juice. The kind fortified with calcium so I don’t have to drink milk! 🙂

Self-Sacrificing Saints

May 9, 2010

Alright, I think after not doing it the past two years, I’ll throw in yet another anti-Mother’s Day spiel. Why not?

Although, in a weird change of pace, I’m not so much attacking mothers this time but more the stereotypes and lofty expectations, the vision of what an ideal mother is supposed to be.

I heard a quote the other day (for those of you here in the DC-area, it was 97.1 WASH’s “thought of the day” they do every morning) which was something like “when there are four pieces of pie left for five people, it’s the mother who says ‘I never cared too much for pie anyway.'”

Another example. On a Simpsons episode from last year or so, at the beginning, the family is making these shoeboxes so they could watch the upcoming solar eclipse. They each have their own, but Homer is a dumbass and breaks his and thus can’t watch the eclipse. What does Marge do? Practically without thinking about it or even being asked, she hands hers over to him, and now she has to be left out of watching the solar eclipse (only to end up looking up anyway and getting blinded).

In both scenarios, WTF? People act like “oh, mothers are so wonderful, they never think of themselves!” Uh, not quite. More like they are expected to never think of (or for) themselves! Had Marge not given Homer her shoebox and told him “you broke yours, your loss, go to hell”, then she would have looked like a bitch. Had the mother taken one of those four pie pieces and someone else had to go without, she would have looked greedy.
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