Monday, November 11, 2013

Its About 'Tard


I haven't posted anything in a while and that's why i couldn't be a blogger because i write personal thoughts in a "venting" tone in a public forum. I think of it as my form of therapy. Naturally this mean i need inspiration....and emotionally spark usually in the form of frustration. Bliss numbs my mind. Long story short....Here I am!! Back!...(for how long, I have no idea).

So what subject is bringing me back? Sephora, the international beauty and cosmetic retailer, has just had to put a Kat Von D lipstick called "Celebutard". The Lipstick is a blush tone seen on from classic weddings to many red carpet celebrities like Kim Kardashian. There was outpour of people calling the name "derogatory", "mocking", "insensitive" and "insulting" on the products review page, Twitter,and emails. Apparently several organizations representing Down Syndrome and other developmental disabilities jumped on this too. What is this about?

huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/07/celebutard-lipstick-sephora_n_4233966.html

First let me broaden the scope a little...
Some people went online or in store to:
- Buy $19 lipstick +
- In a color that's the natural color of your lips if you were dead in a morgue +
- created by a women whose legacy is being the mistress to a rock-a-billy man Sandra Bullock  
   mistakenly married +
- that probably includes colors tested on animals and additives that have some toxicity
 And its the name of the product they are concerned with!?!?!

Celebutard was a word co-inspired by Paris Hilton referring to celebrities whose fame was based on publicty stunts and no real talent. Go ahead...Google it. "Retard" is a French word meaning late/slow. It was us, humans, with our creative application of adjectives that turned it into a derogatory term...no different from gay or bitch or black. Celebutard if anything is a mocking of the reality stars who we, the audience, have help rise in stardom for nothing else but creating scripted drama. So whom are these people angry at? the celebutard that thought of naming this lipstick as such? Or us....YOU...for putting it on the news, playing victim, and giving something to "fight" since your own shameful decisions and poorly-developed prioritization skills led you to pick up lipstick from Kat Von D's line to begin with.

When are we going to stop letting words offend us? Why are we giving others so much power and influence over our feelings? Why are we soooo sensitive as a "modern" society about things like this...but Honey Boo Boo lack of age appropriate behavior, Jersey Shore Sexual and alcohol antics, Real Housewife's backstabbing, Bad Girl's fighting, and the Bachelor go on with no major ethics fight. This is not about a product name. This is not about disabilities. This is about how some people have allowed only 4 letters that make a sound that reminds them of pain, struggling, and disadvantage. I can think of other 4 letters ending a word that starts with Bull. I suggest sending letters about wasting money military contracts instead of more on education, small business loans or RESEARCH to aid people with disabilities. This is about priorities... 

Sidenote: I have a lipstick called Chunky Monkey. On behalf of the large women in my family and in the world...on behalf of monkeys that eat too many bananas I'm going to fight to remove it.

Pauldine