Misogyny at it’s finest.

A couple days ago Floyd Mayweather posted this tweet:

Dress how you want to be addressed pic.twitter.com/Imj5yRDjh3

— Floyd Mayweather (@FloydMayweather) June 13, 2014

I didn’t expect to get as angry as I did because I don’t really consider myself as someone who dresses exceptionally revealing or sexy (unless the occasion calls for it) but for some reason this really pissed me off. Men like Floyd Mayweather see women as objects that they can comment on and control for their own entertainment.

Saying that a women is asking to be disrespected because of what she is wearing is absolutely ridiculous. Especially coming from a man who beats the shit out of people for a living. Sure, what someone wears is definitely a reflection of how they are viewed as a person but it is not what defines them as a person. As a woman I am free to show any part of my body that I please and I still deserve the same amount of respect as anyone else.

Are men so afraid or threatened by the female anatomy that they have to publicly disrespect women who are confident enough to wear whatever they please? I don’t think it’s so much that are afraid or threatened but that they are so insecure in their own self control and abilities to control themselves around women who dress “sexy”. It’s easy for a man to see a woman dressed scandalously, pick her up, sleep with her and then call her a slut. It seems that it would be a lot more difficult for a man to control himself around a woman wearing a certain outfit..and as punishment for their lack of self control men expect women to dress conservatively as to not put them in compromising positions where they’re unable to think with the brain inside their heads.

AND HONESTLY. It doesn’t even matter how women dress. Women get harassed and objectified every day, walking down the street, wearing basic shit like jeans and t-shirts. It’s just so much easier for men to blame women for their actions saying that their outfit is what caused them to act the way that they did.

Things like this are what makes women think that things like rape and assault are their own fault and not the fault of their attacker. Like they should be blamed for being assaulted because of what they are wearing rather than the fucked up thoughts that men have when they see a women in a particular outfit.

Misogyny at it’s finest.

Summer Jam 2014: In review

June 1, 2014 marked the 2014 Summer Jam music festival hosted by Hot 97 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. This was my first year attending Summer Jam and the first time I had really been to a music festival of this caliber. I had no idea what to expect other than the advertised set of artists. Certain aspects of the show exceeded my expectations. I hate the word epic but it was pretty epic.

First of all: I was really only expecting (and excited) to see a select few among all of these that were advertised to be there such as Wayne, Nicki, 50 Cent, Wiz Khalifa, The Roots, Childish Gambino, Jhene Aiko, Nas and Iggy Azalea.

What I was not expecting is that basically every artist relevant in music today (and 10 years ago..*cough* G-UNIT *cough*) would show up and make an appearance.

First there was the festival stage. Notable performers included Iggy Azalea, Jhene Aiko, Childish Gambino and others that people basically used as alcohol breaks. Iggy was Iggy, she had a lot of energy and no one really paid attention until ‘Fancy’ which she ended with. She did have dancers which is always fun to see on stage. I was most looking forward to see Jhene and Childish perform ‘Bed Peace’ together, which they did and it was fantastic. Jhene looked flawless and I immediately want to copy her entire wardrobe. I was skeptical about how Jhene would sound live but she surprised me and I was really impressed by her performance. Childish killed it as well. My only wish is that he would have done some of this older stuff like ‘Heartbeat’ or ‘Freaks and Geeks’ but each artist really only had time to do 3 or 4 songs for their set.

After some tailgating, parking lot loitering, and almost getting punched in the face by a drunk bitch who was unaware of how to act at concerts…we finally made our way up about 6 stories to our seats in MetLife Stadium. For how much we spent on tickets they should’ve thrown in a pair of binoculurs because damn…we were FAR. Although! After being in the pit for the majority of concerts it was nice to have a seat and not live in fear of being suffocated or elbowed in the face.

Action Bronson had a good set. The cameras mostly focused on his choice to perform barefoot. Then there was Wiz Khalifa. I’ve seen Wiz in concert before and he’s actually a really good performer. Then came the first surprise of the evening when he brought out Snoop Dogg.(!!!) Which was awesome.

I’m not going to mull on the rest of the performers. Nas was there and brought out French Montana and Meek Mill. Meek KILLED IT. Anytime he does ‘Dreams and Nightmares’ the crowd is guaranteed to go off.  Trey Songz came out and killed it per usual. He even threw in a little “Free Breezy” chant (UPDATE: Chris Brown was released from jail the very next day so obviously it was because of our chant). Somewhere in there as a G-Unit reunion which, ok, was pretty cool. There were about 85 people on stage at this point and I really had no idea what 50 Cent was saying but G-Unit was there. He didn’t do ‘In Da Club’ which upset me, but I couldn’t be upset for long because pretty soon Nicki Minaj came out.

Nicki did her amazing rendition of ‘Boss Ass Bitch’ followed by her verses from ‘Monster’, and ‘Up All Night’. She also performed ‘Did it on ’em’ which is one of my forgotten favorites. At one point even Soulja Boy came out to assist in performing their new song ‘Yass Bitch’ (yes the actual name of the song).

THEN!!!!!!! Nicki says she has an announcement..she proceeds to talk about a certain member of YMCMB that she is very angry at…how they used to be cool but not anymore because…MF’ers never loved her………………….

YES. OMG. DRAKE!!!!! Drake came out guns blazing and performed ‘Worst Behavior’. He did some other songs too but by that point everything had become a euphoric blur of screaming and crying and a little bit of hyperventilating. (I love Drake. if you couldn’t tell)

Eventually Wayne came out, did ‘Believe Me’ with Drake, and his part of ‘Loyal’.

At that point…nothing else mattered and nothing was the same, so we left.

Here is a list of basically everyone that was there:

Jhene Aiko, Iggy Azalea, Childish Gambino, Trey Songz, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Drake, Soulja Boy, Kid Ink, Mack Wilds, Chinx, August Alsina, Snoop Dogg, Nas, Meek Mill, French Montana, The Roots, 50 Cent, G-unit, Fabolous, Nipsey Hussle, The Lox, Yo Gotti, Ty Dolla $ign, DJ Mustard, A$AP Ferg, ad more that I can’t remember.

I also really enjoyed Jersey so Summer Jam may become an annual thing.

I’ll say things that are serious and put them in a joke form so people can enjoy them. We laugh to keep from crying.

I have a love/hate relationship with Kanye West. I say this like I actually know him personally…But I look at everything from a PR perspective. At first I thought he was arrogant and everything he said deserved the hashtag #richpeopleprobs. But I’m starting to understand where he’s coming from and why he acts the way he does.

He considers himself a visionary. and if you really look back at what he has accomplished, he is. His approach is just one that makes people angry, which causes people to not take him seriously, which then makes him angry. I get it, it’s a vicious cycle. It’s extremely frustrating when people don’t take you seriously, and your means of expressing yourself, the only way you really know how, is the main reason people write you off. I feel you, Kanye.

I’m a huge Kanye West (the musician) fan. No matter what I say or what he does I’m gonna keep listening to his music.

He was on the second night of Late Night with Seth Meyers and I thought he handled himself very well. You can tell he wasn’t coached into saying things for interview purposes but it’s so funny how hard he tries to please, while simultaneously preaching that he doesn’t care.

Anyways, I’m really excited for Seth Meyers taking over Late Night. He has great chemistry with guests.

 

 

The social media struggle

I just started my last semester of graduate school. (yay..kind of)

My first class of the semester is a graduate-level social media research class. I like research, and I’m fascinated by how social media affects people. (Notice I didn’t say I ‘like’ social media…See previous post). But now I am torn.

I had previously been operating two personal twitter accounts. Being a mass comm major, a lot of professors thought they would “challenge” the class by having us tweet throughout the semester. Knowing that the account would be monitored by people controlling my grade made me extremely uncomfortable so I created a “professional” twitter account. On this account I would tweet PR and classroom related things…then, subsequently, would go on my “personal” twitter account and complain about how stupid the assignment is.

Now being in grad school, I care much less about the perception of my tweets from my peers but the thought of a professor reading all of my stupid twenty-something, related tweets still makes me uncomfortable. Even though my personal twitter shows my true personality…do I want professionals to see that? In a way I do, because this is who I am. Another part of me is like “Sarah grow up. If you don’t want professionals seeing those tweets than maybe you shouldn’t tweet them?” but then again I think..well..it is MY account and I’m free to say whatever i want, right!?

This is my social media struggle. HELP!

UPDATE: This article “5 Questions to Ask Before Posting to Social Media” is great! 

What defines you?

This woman is totally inspiring. Like puts everyone to shame how inspiring.
2 things. 1.I love a good public speaker. She was funny, heartwarming, interacted with the audience and was confident as hell doing it. 2.I love people who rationalize negative situations and turn them into positive things for themself. Lizzie could have spiraled into a pit of depression and self loathing after being mocked on the internet. Instead she turned it in to a career for herself.
And aside from overcoming her syndrome, she put herself out there, in the public eye, on purpose, which is not an easy thing to do. This is awesome. Definitely worth watching.

She kept saying, figure out what defines you. I have no idea what defines me. Good for her for figuring it out. AND she’s twenty-five. If she can figure out, we all can.

2013 in Review: My favorite albums of the year

2013 was a pretty good year for music in my opinion. I feel like I have a very diverse taste in music and I’ll listen to pretty much anything. Also, as a disclaimer, having absolutely no musical talent other than ability to listen and critique my opinion means pretty much nothing other than the I just really enjoyed listening to these albums repeatedly in their entirety. So the following, in descending order, are the 6 albums that pretty much dominated iPod during 2013.

6. Long.Live.A$AP. A$AP Rocky

I saw A$AP Rocky in concert 3 times this year. YES THREE TIMES. Once pre-L.L.A$AP, and twice post album release. I’ve got to saw he and the mob put on a good show. Despite almost getting suffocated at each show I have no regrets seeing him three times.

When I know I’m going to a show I try to listen to the artist non-stop before the show. It’s no fun seeing someone live and not shouting all the words to their songs. That being said, I listened to this album for about a month straight non-stop.

Favorite song: Probably a tie between “Long Live A$AP” and “1Train“.

5. ARTPOP Lady Gaga

This woman could probably release a blank CD and I would be all over it. I’m not sure what it is. Her eclectic style, or the fact that she is probably one of the most genuine performers of my generation, but I am always instantly drawn to anything Lady Gaga does. Her passion for her music and her performances is so obvious and she has the talent to back it up. I like ARTPOP because it reminds me a lot of her first album “The Fame”, which I still listen to like it just came out.

Favorite Song: “Do What U Want” feat. R Kelly.

 

4. Yeezus, Kanye West

You can hate Kanye for being an ass but theres no denying the man knows music. I feel like when ever Kanye releases new music, you can appreciate it if you go into it with any sort of expectations. Each album is so different than the one before it. People might say that he’s lost his touch but I think Yeezus is one of the best. It’s so dark and different and I love it.

Favorite Song: “I’m in it”

3. Yours Truly, Ariana Grande

It really blows my mind that Victoria Justice got a record deal before Ariana. I think people are always hesitant about young Nickelodeon/Disney stars going from acting into singing. Take away her cheesy acting and TV shows and I feel like Ariana is the real deal. People compare her to Mariah Carey which is no doubt a lot of pressure but I was truly shocked by how good her album is. Her voice is really unlike anyone else her age and in her genre. I hope she keeps going with music and does great things as she gets older.

Favorite Song: Tattooed Heart. 

If you haven’t seen it, watch her preform this song live at the American Music Awards. She even gets a standing O from Lady Gaga at the end 🙂

2. 20/20 experience, Justin Timberlake

Both parts are good but Part 1 was really hard to top. I literally still listen to the whole album at least once a week. The only weird thing is imaging him writing all of these songs about Jessica Biel.

Favorite Song: Pusher Love Girl 

1. Nothing Was The Same, Drake 

Anyone that knows me knows that I pathetically worship the ground that

Drake walks on so it’s no surprise that NWTS is my favorite album of the year. There’s just something about the way the album flows, you just have to listen to the whole thing all the way through. I’m obviously a bit biased, but you can really tell that Drake puts so much of himself in to his music and doesn’t just write songs to make hits. I mean, he raps, he sings, sometimes it sounds like he’s just talking to you. OK I’ll stop because I could probably write an entire post about how much I love this album.

Favorite Song: “Own it”, and also the way it is kind of a continuation of “Wu-Tang forever”. I always have to listen to the two back to back.

Just because the previous 6 are my top favorites doesn’t mean I didn’t listen to other things. Here a few honorable mentions, of other albums that I really enjoyed

• Bangerz (Don’t lie, you low-key liked it too), Miley Cyrus
• Midnight Memories, One Direction
• My Name is My Name, Pusha T
• MMLP2, Eminem
• Born Sinner, J Cole
• Because the Internet, Childish Gambino
• Sail Out EP, Jhene Aiko 
• Beyonce: The Visual Album, Beyonce (Special Sidenote: I do love Beyonce and her new album but I am still somewhat recovering from the fact that she just dropped it with no heads up so that’s why it didn’t make the top list. I don’t doubt it will be on my 2014 playlist for months to come.)

From a man’s perspective

Men and women belong to different species and communications between them is still in its infancy.
– Bill Cosby 

I stumbled upon this YouTube channel called “Guy Moments“. Even though it is aimed towards men and the annoying things women do, I was laughing the whole time. This video in particular, “Just Come Over” was super relateable and really shows the difference between men and women.

 

A couple things to learn from this video:

• Women over analyze everything. Men over simplify everything. 
• Women are stubborn. Men don’t realize that they’re just as stubborn as we are. 
• Women just want men to say what they want to hear. Even if men don’t really mean it, it’s still comforting. 

This video is hilarious and I can definitely see where the guy is coming from. ALTHOUGH in her defense if a guy said “I ain’t trippin” I would have reacted in the same way. A simple “yeah come through” or a “nah I’m good” would have sufficed. 

Also, the word “female” is oddly degrading. Just say “bitch” if that’s what you really mean. 

Regardless, this is relateable for both men and women. Let’s just face it, we’re both always going to think that we’re right. Women will always be stubborn and men will never quite understand how to deal with it. 

“…but then you print some sh*t that makes me wanna scream”

I recently distanced myself from social media. Mostly Twitter. I’ve come to hate most social media sites in the past year or so, with the exception of a few niche sites like Pinterest and LinkedIn.

I decided to get off of Twitter because I realized that I really don’t care about what any of my followers have to say. That mostly speaks to the quality of the people that I follow. Everyone on social media has an opinion, which duh, that’s what social media is for. Giving people the opportunity to express themselves and yes, everyone is entitled to say and think whatever they want.

Lately, every time I log on to Twitter it’s all the same stuff. Complaining when you’re bored, complaining when you’re busy, men slut shaming, women slut shaming, everyone calling everyone out for the way they live their lives all while boasting these meaningless quotes and prophecies about what you need to do to be successful or how to be a better person. No one really lets anyone live their life without having some conflicting opinion about what’s cool and what’s not.

I live by the philosophy that if someone is doing something that makes them happy, and they’re not hurting themselves or anyone else, then just let them do the damn thing. Who cares? People care so much about how other people live their lives and spend so much time telling others how to live via social media. Twitter and Facebook especially have made people think that just because they have an opinion on a subject then that makes them an expert, and they can pass off their knowledge as some kind of supreme law.

I know that me telling people to shut up on Twitter is hypocritical and doing exactly what I said I hate, which is telling people what to do, so that’s why I just logged off. The only downside is that now I feel so out of the loop. I mean I didn’t even know about Beyonce’s new album until like 12 hours later (a long time in the world of social media).

I think in the near future I will be doing a cleanse of my followers and only keeping the ones who’s posts I enjoy reading. For now it’s actually been nice not knowing what people are saying or doing. It’s also been nice not being glued to my phone which is a habit that I hated myself for acquiring.

Sorry this is a bit of a rant but I just had to get it off  my chest.

Dress code: There is none.

I’ve never had a job that required a strict dress code. I’ve worked at in an IT department and in a gym, and while both were professional environments, it was a pretty casual setting. Starting my first full-time job, we have the same kind of dress code I was used to. “Business casual”..but….not really.

A lot of people would be stoked to not have to dress up for work everyday, but I’m somewhat indifferent. Being the youngest person in the office it becomes a struggle between dressing for the culture of the job versus dressing to be taken seriously. It would be impractical for me to go into work wearing a power suit, yet I don’t want to be the girl who wears hoodies everyday.

Anyways, I’ve come up with some creative ways to keep it super casual, yet professional, that seem to work for my work environment. I don’t consider myself a fashionista by ANY MEANS, but here are a few of my go-to outfits for a typical day at work.

Side note: I practically live in leggings and the majority of my wardrobe is black, but I’m trying to mix it up!

 

Revitalization Project: Little Bits of Inspiration

I’m starting a sort of “revitalization project”. It started off with just my apartment but I am putting it into effect for other aspects of my life. I want to be a positive person which starts by surrounding myself with positive things and getting rid of the negative. I don’t spend a lot of time at home. I’m usually at work, the gym or the library, but when I am home I want it to be a place that makes me happy. I’ve been slowly decorating different areas of my apartment and am pretty pleased with how it’s turned out. It’s funny because 90% of my clothes are black but everything in my apartment is a different color. It’s all about balance I guess. Here are a few bits of inspiration I’ve placed here and there to keep me sane and positive.