Kyary Pamyu Pamyu -- PonPonPon

This video has been described as "almost too good" by someone whose judgement in such matters I trust implicitly. This is J-pop with a decidedly surrealist bent.



A little googling turned up Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's story -- evidently a model and fashion blogger from Tokyo who earlier this year put out her first ep and has gone viral with this video.

I think it's beautiful.

Gender is Only Partly Cultural

I run up against this a lot, and it bugs me: In researching my paper on Cherokee women, I found a work that is really comprehensive on a crucial period of the history that, in its introduction, asserts that gender is a cultural construct. This runs counter to both my beliefs and my personal experience. I also have read medical research and case histories that suggest that some aspects of gender -- identity for example -- are not of cultural origin.

I do not discount the cultural components of gender, but I do posit that there is more to gender than what is learned. Gender permeates us as physical as well as spiritual beings, from the molecular level to the most general physical aspects of our bodies, including brain structure.

We are genderized by culture, and culture can have effects on our physicalities, absolutely, but baldly stating that gender is a cultural construct only puts the cart before the horse -- we had gender and gender differences long before we had culture.

I feel a sense of mission about this. As much as it bugs me that certain branches of our academic world dismiss the importance of gender to our beings, I think that is the degree to which I feel passion to understand better what gender is and to communicate my understanding.

I don't know for sure how that passion will play into my current research. I have a lot of thinking to do and a lot more research.

Vlog for 11/27/11

Here's a little update about my life as of... ummm...

I mean to post in this blog more. I have not forgotten you! I'm really struggling with my relationship to Facebook right now, and I think I need to rely on it a little less for connections to people. I'm just going to start referring people here from there & doing most of my posting here for a while and see how I feel about that.

Vlog for 10/16/11

It's been awhile since I posted a vlog. This is a general update. It's not a complete update, but it's a little sump'n to show what's been happening w/me until the next time I post.

I won't promise, but I want to do a live performance of a new song sometime soon. That might be my next video.

1. "If I don't like something, just don't play it around me!" 2. "Not that you play much music anyway." That's 2 consecutive statements that are bouncing around in my head. I wonder why the originator of these statements can't hear the way they bounce off of each other.