----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- sis pigs So I read "Are you there god, it's me Margaret" by Judy Blume. This book was totally forbidden to me when I was a kid, and it seemed like every girl in my class had read it and raved about it and loved it. I felt like I had to pretend I had read it just so I wouldn't get teased. That happened a lot, actually. I was forbidden a lot of books as a kid, and it seemed like every other kid in my class was reading it. It made life extra difficult for me. I don't get it about this book (or any of the books I wasn't allowed to read). It was boring and kind of ridiculous. Full of stereotypes and gender bias and old-fashioned sensibilities. It says first published in 1970, but to me it seemed like it took place in the 1950s or something. Maybe that's exactly what my parents didn't want me influenced by. They definitely raised me differently and maybe they didn't want me to think the way the kids behaved in this book was normal or OK. My parents were definitely over-protective of me, which I suppose is better than not giving a good god damn, which is how most of the other kids I knew got treated. They were one step away from being feral. The only thing I got out of this book was that the line "I must increase my bust" was on a tape by Lords of Acid in the early 1990s and I knew people that thought that was the funniest thing in the world. I guess they had all read the book as kids. Obviously the musicians in that band did. But I didn't know what it was a reference to until about a week ago when I read this POS. I really didn't enjoy this book. I don't know how I would have felt about it as a kid. It probably would have made me confused, because I didn't know anyone that lived like that or did those things. Maybe everyone else lived that way, but I didn't. I wasn't privy to that lifestyle. It's about a 12 year old girl, and beginning menstruation is a big part of the story. I got my period at the average age, and when I told my best friend, she replied. "So fucking what, I've been bleeding since I was 7." And, that's pretty much how everything in my life has gone. No one ever gave a shit about any rites of passage in my childhood or adult life. And usually people have tried their best to make me feel like shit over it. My mom sure didn't hug me and treat me like I was now a young woman when I started bleeding. I'm pretty sure she laughed at me a little. And I definitely was not concerned about growing breasts. That was a non-issue by the time I was 6 years old, which also made my life difficult in many ways. I remember boys on my street chasing me around yelling that I was wearing a bra, right around the time I was starting kindergarden. I wasn't. I was just poor and had to wear clothes that were hand me downs from my brothers and were already too small for me. Shit fuck I'm glad I'm an adult now. If someone were to treat me like that now, I'd pepper spray them in the face and kick them in the nuts. 2:12 PM - Friday, Feb. 16, 2024 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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