I love my boobs!

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Did you know that almost 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, and the disease takes the lives of over 40,000? Scary stuff. Awareness and funding for the disease are the keys to finding a cure, but the most important thing we can do - yes, even this young - is a monthly self-exam. So whip out that breast and check it out. And speaking of breasts...]

As a kid, there were a lot of things I was looking forward to having once I became a “grown-up” — a boyfriend, my period (I don’t know why I was looking forward to that, but I was), and getting my very own set of beautiful breasts. Not only would their arrival mean I was turning into a woman, but I felt like they would make clothes look that much better. And I guess being able to feed my future children from my body is pretty cool too.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited when the time came for my mom to buy me my very first training bra. You know the one – the sports bra looking thing that doesn’t actually do anything but make you feel older. It wasn’t until I started wearing said bra that I realized that maybe it wasn’t so much fun – and that was before there was anything to fill it out.

As puberty progressed, so did the size of my chest. I’m not saying I had the biggest bust around (just a comfortable C), but it wasn’t long before I developed a love/hate relationship with my mammaries. I started realizing the pros and cons of starting to look like a woman, including the classic “my eyes are up here.” But how do other women view their breasts? And what to men really think while they’re drooling? There’s really no other way of knowing than to straight up ask, so I questioned a few friends of mine on their favorite and least favorite thing about boobs. Read More »

I’ll admit it. I’m a huge wimp when it comes to scary movies. I get nightmares, have to sleep with the light on, run my foot underneath my bed just in case… all generally embarrassing stuff. I know my tolerance is lower than most people—this was proven when I was very young and my entire family watched E.T and loved it, while I sat on a rocking chair with a blanket over my head the entire time—and I fully accept my childish fear.

That being said, I have watched a few freaky films in my time and totally appreciate their craft and originality. Nightmare on Elm Street, Aliens, The Exorcist, Sixth Sense (come on, the first time you saw it…you were kinda scared), are some of my favorites, although I may still have to watch them from under a blanket.

But here’s the thing. I’ve been noticing a trend when it comes to horror movies these days. A trend that doesn’t make me want to watch from behind my hand, but turn the damn thing off all together. We’re not just making horror movies anymore, we’re churning out torture flicks.

Newsweek explains my argument in a much more eloquent way. According to them, since last fall, seven horror movies have topped the box office, the Saw franchise, Hostel, and The Hills Have Eyes leading the pack. And what do all these movies have in common? Blood. Gore. Tits. New York Magazine’s David Edelstein is even quoted as saying the trend verges on “torture porn”. Read More »