Carousel: Bavarian Bombshells, Riot Girls & Mormon Housewife Blogs!

Curvy (which is awesome) interviewed Bei Badgirl (who I miss!).

Follow your heart’s desire- there is no time like the present so wrap that shit up with a big motherfucking bow on top.

As it was introduced to me, “anti radical self-love”: The Perfect Vagina, a documentary. Lisa Rogers investigates the rise of labiaplasty. (Radical self-love means loving ALL of you–or at least working to love all of you!)

I love what Leo wrote about life balance over at Zen Habits.

Hyperbole & A Half is one of the funniest blogs I’ve ever read. The illustrations just crack me up. I always know that reading her updates will make me laugh until I cry. So, I present to you, wolves.

Dead-End Jobs: Are You Suffering From Stockholm Syndrome? Scary!

Riot Girl: still relevant 20 years on. Two decades after the Riot Girl movement showed a generation of young women they could be masters of their own rock’n’roll destiny, its legacy lives on, says Jessica Hopper.

An amazing nonpareil left the following comment on her friend’s body-hating blog post… & I loved it! Getting over your own self-loathing can be a long, hard road, but with friends like these… !

Avoid places that make you feel bad about yourself, and start rocking stores that support a healthy body image! Stop reading fashion magazines. Stop reading celebrity gossip websites that speculate on who has an eating disorder this week, and take control! Reject the fashionable notion that because you are a girl you must hate yourself. Be a force for positivity in the world, you have the strength and the power and the intellect and the skill, and definitely the writing ability to get it down on paper (or on the web)… what are you waiting for? All Im trying to say is… love yourself. NOW. With those 12kg. Before it’s too late. Nobody is going to come along and give you permission to love yourself, you need to take that and own it, it’s yours if you do. Visit galadarling.com and look up her viewpoints on radical self love. The time is now.

Uschi Obermaier is rad!

Want to put your money towards a good cause? Help Dr Sketchy’s create a reverse mermaid costume sculpture!

Seasonal flu vaccine fairy tale rapidly collapsing as the truth comes out. I don’t really believe in vaccines! Stories like this are the reason why.

U.S. food companies caught faking blueberries with artificial colors and liquid sugars, reveals Health Ranger investigation. OH MY GOD. Are you kidding me? This shocks me, deeply, & disturbs me at the same time. Lesson learned: always read the ingredients listing!

The most useful grammar post ever from Sarah Wilson. Thanks, chum!

Why most natural disasters aren’t natural at all from Natural News.

Should I Work For Free? HA! Too true!

Things to do in 2011: work your way through this list of the best restaurants in NYC.

Ridiculously beautiful photos of New Zealand. Some of them are even in Wellington (where I grew up)! Holler!

Influencers In-Depth is a video featuring Steve Stoute, talking about the ways brands work with artists.

Infographic: laziness in the workplace.

Cataphiles are urban explorers who illegally tour the Paris “catacombs”, the term popularly used to describe a series of underground tunnels that were formerly a network of stone mines. So… check out mysteries of underground Paris. YES PLEASE! Here’s more, & more, et aussi.

To all the girls who envy my life. “As an escort, I often hear from young women who want the things I have. Here’s what they don’t understand.”

A young woman who is desirable is a young woman who wields power, and that power is often bestowed in the form of cold, hard cash. Which isn’t to say the women who e-mail me are power hungry. Rather, I think they are recognizing the ways their culture tells them to achieve. Girls aren’t bombarded with messages telling them that their mental power is urgently needed to address issues like global warming or infectious diseases, or that their athleticism could be parlayed into a life as a professional athlete or coach. Instead, we’re told over and over again that we earn a place at the table — any table — by being polished and well-dressed, with glossy hair and a slim figure. The girls who e-mail me are not lacking internal resources. They’re educated, sensitive, observant, and they have the complex sentences and insightful wording to prove it. But they are living in a world where a woman’s worth is constantly equated with her sex appeal. Is it any wonder that many women might find it compelling to take that equation to its logical end?

The sexual cost of female success. “Young women have excelled academically, leaving men in their dust, but experts say it’s at the expense of romance.” This makes me really, really sad. The comments are worth reading. “However, if a man is threatened or otherwise intimidated by a successful woman, isn’t that probably a sign that the man isn’t worth anything anyway?”

Why I can’t stop reading Mormon housewife blogs. “I’m a young, feminist atheist who can’t bake a cupcake. Why am I addicted to the shiny, happy lives of these women?” (Yes, I recently rediscovered Salon.com & what a joyful return it has been!)

Do something magnificent this weekend!