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Kids in gyms: A new trend?

by on August 18, 2011, in health, or something like it, jump aboard the crazy train, me and Murphy Brown

Ian and I have been going to Gold’s Gym for about a month, and in that time I’ve noticed something disturbing: People are bringing their kids to work out with them. I’m not talking high school kids, I mean I have seen parents—men and women—setting elementary and middle school-aged kids up in the Circuit Training area and on the bikes and treadmills to work out alongside them.

Now, I’m all for teaching kids good health habits, but does an eight-year-old boy need to be lifting weights? Does a pre-teen girl need to run on a treadmill? None of the kids I have seen at the gym have looked obese, either, so I can’t imagine they’re there following a physician’s order.

I don’t have kids, so I am the last person that should be giving parenting advice—and I’m not. But when I was in elementary and middle school, I had gym class. I ran around outside at recess. My mom wanted me to be healthy, and I remember her doing some Denise Austin workout tapes in the basement, but had she been a member of a gym I can’t imagine her dragging me with her.

Maybe it’s my own issues I have with body image and how the narratives differ per gender (“men go to the gym to get beefy, women go to get un-fat”), but it just seems a little squicky to see young kids hanging around a place that, while helping people get healthy, is still promoting unhealthy stereotypes for the people within its walls.

I don’t know, I guess I just feel like these kids are going to feel pressure eventually to be thin or to be built eventually. Can’t they just enjoy the years in which they’re not supposed to care how their bodies stack up to society’s fucked up expectations?

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Stop spamming me, Diane Black

by on April 21, 2011, in me and Murphy Brown, news/politics, stupid assholes

In the wake of the vote to defund of Planned Parenthood, I sent an email to my representative, Diane Black, informing her of my disappointment in her vote. Admittedly, it was a canned email scraped from Planned Parenthood’s site, but I figured sending something to acknowledge my disappointment was better than nothing. Predictably, I received a canned response back explaining why she doesn’t want to fund abortions.

Ok, except she’s completely ignoring the fact that only about 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services involve abortion-related care, and none of the federal money they receive can be used for abortion services by law.

I obviously wasn’t going to argue with Diane Black, especially via email with a staffer at that, so I just grumbled and deleted the message. (Incidentally, I just tried to dig up the email and can’t find it anywhere. So much for archiving, Gmail.)

But today I got a spam email from her telling me about her newsletter and how to sign up for it. She also explains that I can unsubscribe at any time; which is all well and good, except I didn’t ask for her to continue to email my ass in the first place. And there was no unsubscribe option on that email.

Since email spam is one of my biggest pet peeves, and public officials who send out mass emails without the choice to opt out piss me off even more, I decided to write back. I’m sure she won’t even see it, and the staffer who does will laugh and shake his head at my heathen, baby-killing ways, but I don’t care. Here are the emails:

Dear Mrs. Morris,

Did you know that each week I put out an e-newsletter on my work for you in Washington? If you would like to sign up, just click here. I will only ever use your contact information for official purposes and will never share it. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Sincerely,
Diane Black
Member of Congress

And my response:

Please remove me from your email list. I do not support nor do I want to hear from you, as you seek to limit and harm the health and choices of other women. Your vote against Planned Parenthood makes you an abomination to our gender.

Best,
Megan Morris

I wanted to sign it “smooches” but decided against it.

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Women’s lib my ass

by on February 8, 2011, in life etc., me and Murphy Brown, media

Last year after all of the misogynistic GoDaddy commercials during the Super Bowl, I transferred all of my domains from them over to BlueHost, where I host this blog. I have about 10 domains, which I realize is not even enough for GoDaddy to notice. But it made me feel better to not support a company that obviously doesn’t mind alienating its female customer base. This year, GoDaddy’s overplayed and tired “look at Danica Patrick’s b00bz and hey! maybe she’ll make out with this other chick” commercials confirmed that I made the right move by severing all ties with the company last year.

But one thing keeps sticking in my craw: So Danica Patrick is a woman succeeding in a field that is obviously dominated by males, right? She’s doing this awesome thing—playing the boys’ game and winning, right?

And how does she celebrate her badassery? By signing on with GoDaddy to make commercials that ensure she’s only seen as a pair of tits. Instead of being seen as a woman kicking the boys’ asses and taking their names, she’s allowing herself to be devalued and objectified. If this really is the only avenue she thought she could take to build her brand, I’m sad for her. And for our society as a whole.

I don’t watch Nascar or the Indy races, but if I ever hear her talk about how it’s hard for a woman to be taken seriously in a man’s field I will laugh so, so hard. And then cry. Like a girl, right?

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