IEEEEEEE!!!
That anomaly is the Paraguayan pseudo-war cry. However, it's written phonetically in Spanish; to reproduce it in English you'd need to start with a slightly shrill "ee" and then follow it up with a squawky and *loud* “ehhhhh”. The actual Paraguayan instructions used the word “bloom” repeatedly, if that serves as further explanation.
Now the context is that the guys already came from Asunción (capital of Paraguay) yelling that, and their aim (which they fully achieved) was to make it the official scream of the whole challenge. By the end of the week, they were able to videotape all the organizers screaming “ieeeeeeee”, which was extremely funny to watch. And of course, when we got back to our country, we shouted the mandatory “ieeeee” at the airport. I think it’s safe to say that none of us was glad to be back home.
And, on that note, I come into the following topic, which is partially related: we didn’t want to come back because we were having so much fun as reigning queens of the hive. Seriously, we felt very much at the centre of the universe. Which is, of course, very pleasant; but it does raise some hairy (in a figurative sense ONLY) points regarding gender equality and respect, blah blah.
First of all, I think I should begin by saying that I do not consider myself a feminist. I simply believe strongly in equality across the board, and think that we should all strive to achieve that equality… No. Scratch that. You can do anything you like. I think that I should strive to achieve that equality inasmuch as I am able to.
But that’s flying off on a tangent (yet again). Going back to the trip, even though I had the time of my life, it was interesting to watch just how much everything revolved around us, and just how much that was directly correlated to our attributes as members of the “fairer sex” (PLEASE note the inverted commas). Even more annoying were the wink-wink nudge-nudge indulgent allusions made by some of the organizers (eg. At the awards ceremony, when I was about to speak: “and here comes a fraction of the loveliest part of the challenge!”). I’m not sure that I mentioned this before, but we lost. Therefore making the indulgent smiles all the wider and frankly disturbing, at least for me.
There is a deeper background here which I won’t get into, which has to do with a speech by one of the organizers in my country saying, amongst other lame-ass (yes, that is the only adjective for them) phrases: “I am perfectly comfortable with women doing the same things as men, in fact I think that women should do ANYthing, as long as they retain their feminine qualities. And which, you might ask, are those? Well, I think women become horrid he-things when they use swear words!! *laughs*”.
And, later on, “there is nothing uglier than a woman smoking in the street”. I don’t smoke, but I would seriously consider starting now! The saddest part of that anecdote is that the ONLY woman in the room at the time aside from us (who, OF COURSE, was in charge of pouring coffee), murmured “yes, I smoke, but I always hide away first so that no one will see me; women smoking in public… not nice” And she MEANT it!!!
Don’t get me started… this is depressing…
Tomorrow I'm going on a short vacation to the countryside, so I won't be coming back until Sunday, maybe Monday. Don't miss me! (too much, at least; I know I brighten your days immeasurably -- I came along, just like a song,// brightened your day// Who'd believe that I was part of a dream// Now it all seems light years away -- *hums horribly off-key*)
And since I'm feeling so musical today, I remembered (re: Sunday maybe Monday) something that I thought you might enjoy.
Check this out, it's in French but consists mostly of drawings, plus the song... I won't give it away. It's a VERY neat thingummy (just in case, you need to press on the arrow on the bottom-right corner of the screen for the 'pages' to turn):
http://desseins.fanzine.free.fr/article.php3?id_article=107&debut_image=0
(Patate Douce means "sweet potato")
Enjoy!
That anomaly is the Paraguayan pseudo-war cry. However, it's written phonetically in Spanish; to reproduce it in English you'd need to start with a slightly shrill "ee" and then follow it up with a squawky and *loud* “ehhhhh”. The actual Paraguayan instructions used the word “bloom” repeatedly, if that serves as further explanation.
Now the context is that the guys already came from Asunción (capital of Paraguay) yelling that, and their aim (which they fully achieved) was to make it the official scream of the whole challenge. By the end of the week, they were able to videotape all the organizers screaming “ieeeeeeee”, which was extremely funny to watch. And of course, when we got back to our country, we shouted the mandatory “ieeeee” at the airport. I think it’s safe to say that none of us was glad to be back home.
And, on that note, I come into the following topic, which is partially related: we didn’t want to come back because we were having so much fun as reigning queens of the hive. Seriously, we felt very much at the centre of the universe. Which is, of course, very pleasant; but it does raise some hairy (in a figurative sense ONLY) points regarding gender equality and respect, blah blah.
First of all, I think I should begin by saying that I do not consider myself a feminist. I simply believe strongly in equality across the board, and think that we should all strive to achieve that equality… No. Scratch that. You can do anything you like. I think that I should strive to achieve that equality inasmuch as I am able to.
But that’s flying off on a tangent (yet again). Going back to the trip, even though I had the time of my life, it was interesting to watch just how much everything revolved around us, and just how much that was directly correlated to our attributes as members of the “fairer sex” (PLEASE note the inverted commas). Even more annoying were the wink-wink nudge-nudge indulgent allusions made by some of the organizers (eg. At the awards ceremony, when I was about to speak: “and here comes a fraction of the loveliest part of the challenge!”). I’m not sure that I mentioned this before, but we lost. Therefore making the indulgent smiles all the wider and frankly disturbing, at least for me.
There is a deeper background here which I won’t get into, which has to do with a speech by one of the organizers in my country saying, amongst other lame-ass (yes, that is the only adjective for them) phrases: “I am perfectly comfortable with women doing the same things as men, in fact I think that women should do ANYthing, as long as they retain their feminine qualities. And which, you might ask, are those? Well, I think women become horrid he-things when they use swear words!! *laughs*”.
And, later on, “there is nothing uglier than a woman smoking in the street”. I don’t smoke, but I would seriously consider starting now! The saddest part of that anecdote is that the ONLY woman in the room at the time aside from us (who, OF COURSE, was in charge of pouring coffee), murmured “yes, I smoke, but I always hide away first so that no one will see me; women smoking in public… not nice” And she MEANT it!!!
Don’t get me started… this is depressing…
Tomorrow I'm going on a short vacation to the countryside, so I won't be coming back until Sunday, maybe Monday. Don't miss me! (too much, at least; I know I brighten your days immeasurably -- I came along, just like a song,// brightened your day// Who'd believe that I was part of a dream// Now it all seems light years away -- *hums horribly off-key*)
And since I'm feeling so musical today, I remembered (re: Sunday maybe Monday) something that I thought you might enjoy.
Check this out, it's in French but consists mostly of drawings, plus the song... I won't give it away. It's a VERY neat thingummy (just in case, you need to press on the arrow on the bottom-right corner of the screen for the 'pages' to turn):
http://desseins.fanzine.free.fr/article.php3?id_article=107&debut_image=0
(Patate Douce means "sweet potato")
Enjoy!
posted by jude at 6:50 pm
8 Comments:
Sadly, when a woman is looking for gender equality she is a feminist. Anyone who is willing to challenge the predominant patriarchy, is a feminist. You are a feminist just by saying that you are equal to men.
What country are you from? Just curious, because your English is better than mine.
Oooh! Oooh! Lemme guess! I am going to guess Uruguay!
Do I win! Do I win? Do I get a prize!
how can you NOT know what ribbon candy is, jude?!!!!!!!! have you really been THAT sheltered, you are scaring me here...
Finally, the war-cry post I've been so patiently waiting for!
Oh gender equality, why art thou so hard to attain?
I'm back! (had a great time, by the way)
SRH: unfortunately, as much as I would like to refute your statements, I'm afraid you're basically right. Too bad.
My English is most certainly NOT better than yours, I just write more formally than you do because I don't have much of a stock of casual, day-to-day slang. Besides, if you could hear me speak you would probably be hard-pressed to mistake me for anything but an earnest "sudaca" (derisive old-fashioned Spanish --as in from Spain-- adjective for South Americans) with a decent vocabulary and horrid pronounciation.
JEP: are you kidding me?? what gave me away?? And you DON'T get a prize until I know you guessed by fair play (ie. no weird software/hacking thingummies)
ANON: who are you? argh I guess that's a stupid question to ask on the World Wide Web of all places, but still...
Re:ribbon candy, bear in mind that I'm 19 and, as recently discovered by JEP, uruguayan, so my chances of knowing about ribbon candy are limited exclusively to books and eventually movies/TV. So yes, with no intent to frighten you, I must admit I AM that sheltered. Sorry!
DUSTIN: why indeed? but never fear: I shall conquer the world and vanquish it and all those who support it!
(Note from Editor: this is OBVIOUSLY a joke; I WILL conquer the world but in a much more hidden and stylish manner)
The thing is, the war-cry was in Brazil. The male-chauvinist, retrograde people who made those observations are here in Uruguay. They never heard the war-cry (yet).
I track hits to my blog via the sitemeter, and though all origins of your computer are blocked out, it noted that your language setting was Uruguayan Spanish.
I love a challenge.
you dog you!
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