The Femme Files

Reality Bites

It’s Friday and I know how hard it is to siphon through your emails and be randomly inspired via my somewhat random thoughts….

 As a result I thought I would share with you this hilarious anecdote to advertising.

 I don’t know about you, but I am a sucker for a good piece of photo shop. Be it humbling or reality biting, it just makes me feel that everyone’s a little less than perfect. (That’s me included!) Indeed I remember a radio interview with Sophie Monk where she was asked about being nervous posing nude for some sordid male mag…her response? Well she knew there was no need for nerves because of the wonders of photo shop. So reassuring. I only wish I could do this to half of the photos I’ve been tagged on Facebook with!

 Regardless, here is to a Happy Friday, a wonderful weekend and I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed it. If anyone else has cracking examples of food that fails to visually impress I would love to hear your thoughts!…I’m thinking a kebab should have been there…

Right now though, I am off to send this link to my partner in crime. See what he thinks now of his Big Mac.

Are Powerful Women Funny?

Having been generously given a bucket load of DVD’s from Thailand (need I say more) filled to the brim with the type of trash relegated for lazy Sunday evenings, my boyfriend and I slipped on “Horrible Bosses”.

 What was an initially somewhat funny, became downright ludicrous as we cringed and shrunk in our seats every time scenes between female boss (Jennifer Anniston) and her colleague/mignon (Charlie Day) came onto the screen.  Good comedy is funny because it is based or steeped in elements of truth. Not only was this a stupendously unrealistic situation, which negates the whole point of a good comedy, but in my humble opinion it was downright rude and offensive.

Look, I appreciate that this was a trivial Hollywood film meant for apparently trivial minds, but comedy shouldn’t stoop so low as to suggest that an abusive relationship is something someone has to just deal with. Apparently switching the ‘traditional’ roles of female and male power paradigms made this acceptable. That is, by having Jennifer Aniston’s character function as the obnoxious, sexually explicit boss this whole scenario was meant to be P.C?

On another level does the fact that this even made it onto page and then filmed with millions of dollars behind it suggest that this scenario was just funny because  women don’t have any sexual power and therefore can’t hurt a man? Does it also reinforce that men, contrary to women, are not tainted by negative sexual encounters? Apparently so.

So perhaps, I am being a masculinist (opposite of feminist!?) , but I think that displaying any form of O.T.T abusive relationship in the name of comedy will just be never funny, regardless of the sex of the people involved and the nature of their relationship.

 What do you think? Has anyone else seen this film? Equally shocked as I was? Or am I being a prude?

Plan the Man?

Working in an all female office it can be hard to gear the conversation away from the inevitable tirades we start to outpour regarding the inability for partner to do x,y and z.

As a rule of thumb, I really do hate making broad sweeping statements about gender, as I honestly feel that gender assumptions should be abolished in the name of equality. That being said, given that all of us here at Hypoxi HQ manage to gravitate to the same uncanny findings regarding men, perhaps I should admit defeat with some aspects of the guys in our lives (I dunno….perhaps we know the wrong ones!?)

The most common complaint I here among women is that the men in their lives don’t make plans. That there partner is indifferent. Conversations go like this: “What do you want to do Friday night?” He shrugs and says, “Whatever.” Women get annoyed by this, express said frustration, and are immediately dismissed as “nags.” Which is a term I hate. Because we aren’t nagging, we are simply trying to ensure that our partner is able to think of us even when we’re not in the flesh….wait that might be asking them to multitask.  

No Hangover? Yes Please!

We all do it, have those big weekends that make Monday just seem so unfair. What a waste of a day Sunday becomes when we don’t do anything but lie in bed!  If anyone is in this boat today, (I’m with ya!) then hear me out…this is what I do to start feeling semi human again. Banish the bloat in a few simple steps? Absolutely!