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State of The Trout: “Not About Your Waist” edition

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HALLO there, all ye faithful and awesome citizens of Trout Nation! Hail and good morrow to thee. Or whatever.

Are you a United States citizen who is over 18 and legally registered to vote? Then you should go do that.

Why I haven’t blogged about a few things. I’ve received questions from people asking me if I was going to write about or what I thought about the recent stories about Jian Ghomeshi and Lena Dunham. For reasons relating to traumatic triggers and my mental health, I’m avoiding these topics.

Not about that bass? Did you love the catchy tune of Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass,” but felt alienated by the lyrics? You’re in luck! YouTuber Natty Valencia has rewritten the words to “All About That Bass” and turned it into an incredibly positive message:

Also, I think this is one of those, “Listen now so you can say you were before it was cool,” because this chick is going to be a superstar.

Important info on THE EX: I’m busy at work putting the finishing touches on The Ex, which releases on November 22nd. I would be remiss if I didn’t include a heads up about the content of the book. There will be a trigger warning in the back cover copy, as the plot centers heavily on frank discussions of rape, rape recovery, and substance abuse. To those readers who will be unable to enjoy the book because of this, I’m sorry to disappoint you. To those who want to read the book, but aren’t in a mentally healthy place to do so  at release time, I completely understand. And if you know someone who reads the series, please mention the trigger warning to them as well, if you deem it appropriate to do so.

What am I working on right now? Glad you asked! In addition to another project with The Story Foundation, I’m working hard on the sequel to Such Sweet Sorrow, as well as the next Buffy recap. Thank you all for being so patient about those recaps, by the way. For some reason, I find them more difficult than my other recaps. Not in an unpleasant way, just in a labor-intensive way. I can throw off an Apolonia recap in an hour or two, but I care about Buffy.

Last of all Thanks for all the nice things you’ve said about the Amanda Palmer post, and in general, for every very personal post I put up here.

 

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Here for the first time because you’re in quarantine and someone on Reddit recommended my Fifty Shades of Grey recaps? Welcome! Consider checking out my own take on the Billionaire BDSM genre, The Boss. Find it on AmazonB&NSmashwords, iBooks, and Radish!

16 Comments

  1. So I know I live in the Bible Belt because every radio station censors Rolling in the Deep. When she says, “I’ll lay your ship bare,” the beep out “ship.” (Yes, I know there are two versions.)

    So yesterday I heard All About that Bass on a local station and they totally changed the lyrics. It was, “Boys like the girls for the beauty they hold inside” and “I’m bringing beauty back.”

    And I just found this, which explains it better: http://mic.com/articles/100272/the-g-rated-version-of-all-about-that-bass-totally-misses-the-point.

    I don’t agree with the author on the original song, but the new one was just really weird. I actually laughed at it. And I wasn’t listening to Radio Disney.

    November 4, 2014
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  2. Meg
    Meg

    Natty Valencia link your post on “All About That Base” in the comments, just so you know! 🙂

    November 4, 2014
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    • Meg
      Meg

      *linked.

      I am in a constant battle with my keyboard.

      November 4, 2014
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  3. Rosa H
    Rosa H

    Thank you for introducing us to Natty Valencia! That cover/parody was brilliant and she seems like one to look out for.

    I’m also really excited about The Ex, and though I’ll definitely be reading the book, I must say I respect you so much for giving that trigger warning. You just ooze awesome from your pores, don’t you? ;D

    November 4, 2014
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  4. Heather
    Heather

    I am particularly excited to read the sequel to Such Sweet Sorrow. That book was fantastic. 🙂 I kept meaning to put it down and was like, “just another chapter…”

    Good luck to you on your projects and well, everything!

    November 4, 2014
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  5. ChloroformBug
    ChloroformBug

    Could anybody tell me what happened to Lena Dunham? I didnt hear anything new.

    November 5, 2014
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    • Petra47
      Petra47

      There seems to be some evidence (from Dunham’s own autobiography) that she sexually abused her sister.

      November 5, 2014
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      • Lisa
        Lisa

        From what I read she looked at her baby sister’s vagina when she was about 5 herself. That doesnt sound like sexual abuse to me, it sounds like kids checking out their bits. … but I have only read one opinion piece (I think in Jezebel) and not researched it deeply.

        November 6, 2014
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        • There’s a little more to it than that and her sister is six years younger. Dunham was at least 7 when that happened.

          The little I read that was actually in Dunham’s words (a small excerpt from the book) I’m not sure I think rises to the level of abuse, but I would need to look at more to say for sure. She would use candy and things like that to bribe her sister to do physical things that her sister didn’t want to do. But, yeah, Dunham was quite young herself so it may just be a little kid being curious.

          Personally, it’s hard for me to care too much. I don’t like Lena Dunham. Something about her has always kind of rubbed me wrong and the few episodes of Girls I watched made me very uncomfortable and left me feeling kind of empty and sad.

          November 6, 2014
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          • Elspeth Grey
            Elspeth Grey

            I think the Dunham case is more complicated than most people are making it seem. Knowing what I do know about childhood trauma, there is a chance that her behavior was damaging to her sister, and concern over that is legitimate. But remembering what I and my friends did when we were seven (“Let’s quickly show each other our butts because we’re not supposed to!”), the stuff Lena Dunham got up to seems completely in line with a kid trying to figure out these things they know are important but don’t really understand.

            So I think showing concern for Lena’s sister is valid, but it should lead to discussions about parenting and how we teach our children about their bodies and the bodies of others, not accusations that Lena Dunham was a sexual predator before the age of 10. I also can’t help but wonder how much of this is just because the idea of a girl having sexual curiosity is abhorrent to some people.

            (Dunham’s own comparison of herself to a predator, though, is disgusting and should have been stopped by herself or an editor before it ever got to press.)

            November 6, 2014
          • It’s very bizarre in the book, the way she describes it.

            November 6, 2014
  6. Lieke
    Lieke

    Aw, that is such a cute song with the new and improved lyrics! I love it.

    November 5, 2014
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  7. Jennifer
    Jennifer

    I also just saw a cracked article talking about Hale, since you had blogged about it. I do wonder how well the stopthegrbullies would be able to attack them given how big cracked is. I’m glad it is getting so much press and bringing attention to something you have already.

    November 5, 2014
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  8. Raging Brainer
    Raging Brainer

    I love the rewording of Natty’s version, although I hadn’t heard the song at all so I’m not sure if I could be objective about the original. Any version I heard was because I sought it out or ran across a remake or parody. I do like to beat, I just heard from many people about the skinny shaming in the original so I never listened to it.
    Another parody of All About That Base that is pretty cute is the Nerdist, All About That Base. As a fellow nerd I thought you might enjoy it.

    November 6, 2014
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  9. This body-issues topic just needs to go away. Nobody is completely happy about every aspect of their bodies but lots of people are truly issue-oriented.
    Also I wish people just generally stopped pointing fingers at everything and everybody else saying: “You are the reason I don’t feel good about myself.” I’m not an island either, It’s not always easy to be self-confident but some people aren’t trying at all.

    November 7, 2014
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