Dan and I are off on a mega UK Adventure! Blogging may be very sporadic until early October.
Thank you to all of my lovely readers who have been checking out my blog, leaving comments and have been very supportive. I appreciate you all and I'm still both amazed and humbled by my little blog getting so much attention. It's very exciting!
Please stick with me as my bags are packed and I will be returning with fresh travel experiences from all over the United Kingdom.
Next stop, London...
Discussing women's bodies is nothing new and the backlash against skinny women has been happening for quite awhile. Recently on Facebook, I had several male friends share a picture stating their love for curvy "real" women. These are good guys and I'm not trying to call them out, but I don't think that they really stopped to think about the negative aspects of the statement.
I cringe at the idea that only "real" women have curves. I cringe at the idea that a "real" woman fits into one particular body type.
Personally, I see through this anti-skinny woman movement. It's not really about promoting all body types, it's about insecurity. It's about putting down one thing, to make yourself feel better. A secure person would leave body type out of it and celebrate the other attributes that a woman brings to the table. Instead, our society is catty towards what it is not. Insecure people mock those who are different to make themselves feel better. At the moment, it seems somewhat acceptable to put down thin women, because there is a fat acceptance movement going on. I'm not saying that fat women are no longer picked on, only that there is a slight shift in what is acceptable.
Neither should be acceptable.
I'm neither skinny nor fat. I am quite average. That being said I think this might be a case where talking about the issue is making it an issue. Women go nuts discussing and focusing on their bodies, it doesn't matter if they're fat or skinny. By pitting body types against each other, we are only amplifying the issue.
I've observed one commonality, no matter what your body type is, only very insecure women are catty towards other women's bodies. Actually, scratch that...only insecure PEOPLE are catty towards other PEOPLE'S bodies. Men can be catty too.
So what really bothered me about the Facebook posts were that they seemed well intended, but were ultimately damaging. It's 100% okay to prefer curvy women to skinny women. Everyone has a type that they are attracted to. It's okay. However, it's not okay to place a certain body type over another beyond personal preference, like one in inheriently superior. There is enough insecurity regarding body type, that it doesn't need to be reinforced.
The worst of it is people are born with their body types. Sure, you could lose or gain weight through your actions, however there is only so much that you can do to change your shape. I know that no amount of dieting will ever take away my curves. I have friends who have thin with relatively flat bodies and it's not because they are starving themselves.
The focus should be on health and acceptance towards all shapes. Also, if a person happens to not be in the best health ( overeating/food disorders), then accept them too and be a positive voice, rather than a hateful one.
I hope that we have a societal shift and that future generations realize "real" women (and men) come in all shapes and sizes.
It's been several months since Dan began his lease on his all electric Smart car. We were already Smart Car drivers, so I was used to the polarizing effect that our cars seem to have on people. It seems like nobody is neutral. We either get smiles and compliments or hateful comments. I'm used to it and I brush it off, but it's still bizarre to me that anyone would bother being negative towards what someone else wants to drive.
The funny thing is, it doesn't seem to matter what brand of car you drive, some people absolutely hate electric or hybrid vehicles. Again, I have no idea why they are so bothered, however it seems like certain people go out of their way to be negative or to stereotype us.
This issue came up a lot of message boards and personal blogs when I began to research laws regarding electric vehicle charging stations. Some people really hate the charging stations and we learned this as soon as we tried to use them.
We primarily charge our EV at home. I've not noticed a big leap in our electric bill, so being able to skip the gas stations has definitely saved us money. Dan uses the EV for his short commute to work and even though they have recently put in EV charging stations at his office, he rarely uses them.
The first day that we had our new car, we decided to take it to the Americana in Glendale to try out their EV stations. The Americana has six chargers run by the company, Blink. The cost is about two dollars per hour, which is consistent with the price of their competitors.
The primary problem with the Americana EV stations is the lack of enforcement for non-EV's. We pulled up and managed to snag a spot, but all of the other spots were taken by non-EV's. We let the concierge know about the problem, but when we came back an hour later, the cars were still there and they had not been cited. The spots are very clearly labeled, but people still park there. We have been back to the Americana several times and the spots are nearly always filled with non-EV's.
It's frustrating.
We charged our car a few times in Downtown Burbank at a Charge Point station.
Burbank, Charge Point
The Burbank location has four spots for EV's. Burbank still has the problem of non-EV's parking in the spots, but it is much less of an issue. We used the Charge Point Station several weeks in a row to attend a weekly farmer's market and we noticed the same hybrid vehicle using the spots, but not charging. This is as bad as a non-EV parking in the spot.
The biggest thing that most people don't realize, is that these are not parking spaces. They are charging stations. After looking up the regulations online, the spaces are intended for vehicles only as long as they need to charge and then they are to be moved. It's like using public laundromats and needing to remove your clothes from the machine as soon as the machine finishes. Same concept.
As I explored the issue on the internet, I realized that this is where a lot of the EV hate stems from, the misunderstanding regarding the utilization of the spaces. Non-EV owners are upset because they think EV's are getting special parking spaces, akin to handicap parking. Fully EV owners are upset, because they think they should have priority over hybrid owners, who don't technically need to use the charging stations. EV and Hybrid owners are irritated when anyone parks there that isn't charging.
It's a mess!
To make matters more confusing, I take issue with something that I saw in the Venetian parking structure in Las Vegas. At the Venetian, tucked away on the upper levels of the parking structure are many spots reserved for "alternative fuel" vehicles. However, none of these spots have charging stations.
They are hardly prime parking spots ( another non-EV owner complaint), yet they still exist as being set aside for EV owners and don't actually provide a purpose. This just perpetuates the confusion and problems.
I wrote a letter to the Venetian over a month ago, but have not received a response. If they write back, I will update this post. I really wanted to know the purpose of the spaces, because as I see it, it only antagonizes the issue.
This is a hot button issue and as more EV's are on the road everyday, it needs to be cooled down and resolved.