Weddings and Homemade Spaghetti

The first is mentioned because it’s what I’ll be rambling about, the second is mentioned because it is part of the reason why I’m up at 6:35 AM writing a freaking blog because I can’t sleep. Yay having a sensitive stomach, eh?

So, here I am, on a highly uncomfortable couch in a friend’s apartment because I’m maid of honor in her wedding and we’re going to a wedding show today. This lovely friend lives with two other girls, another one that is getting married soon as well, and another that doesn’t believe in marriage. As she put it “I’m just going to have fuck buddies the rest of my life. *Shrug*”

Got me to thinking. What is all this hoopla surrounding marriage?

I mean, I get that for a lot of women it’s the one day that they get to flip shit and do whatever they want, and if that includes being brought in on a white sleigh with horses and snow in June, they will freaking do it, never mind how much debt it puts them in. There’s a fair lot of folk out there that say “I have the wedding planned, now I just need the groom” or, worse “I just want to have a wedding!” My friend isn’t like this, thank god, but does this depress anyone else?

I mean, I realize I have a unique perspective: Where I live, I’m not allowed to get married, because two sets of boobies in a relationship is just too much for the Midwest to handle. In my own personal journey of why I should give a fuck about being ABLE to marry my dear girl I’ve discovered a awful big pros to being able to:

1. If I’m knocked the fuck out on a hospital bed, my medical proxy defaults to her, not my parents. Big plus.
2. If either of us get a call of “OHFUCKSHITWENTBAD” and rush to the hospital, neither of us can be shut out under the “family only” bullshit. We’ve discussed this, being the morbid folk we are: If we’re dying, we want the other one there. Period. Sadly, without a(n) (honored) marriage certificate, if they really wanted to, they could shut me out. I can’t deal with that.
3. Suddenly, insurance becomes a lot easier. MANY things become a lot easier, actually.
4. It has the added societal bonus of “It doesn’t matter if you or your church recognize my commitment or who I am– the legal system does. Blow me.”

The first two are the main ones, but the third and forth are awful nice all on their own. Especially that last one.

Here’s what baffles me: A lot of straight folks seem to take this for granted. It’s all about the wedding. The marriage doesn’t factor in. For me, the wedding is just an excuse to have a huge-ass party with all my friends and get to wear over the top clothes I WISH I could wear on a day to day basis. It’s not the main event, and it’s CERTAINLY not worth getting my ass in debt for. I have school for that.

I’m not one of those girls that has been planning my wedding since I was three, and there’s only so much hemming and hawing over place settings I can take before I go “THEY’RE FUCKING NAPKINS, JUST PICK A FUCKING COLOR!”

In the process of helping my friend get ready for hers, I’m realizing just how much that above fact sets me apart from a lot of people. I originally was going to say “sets me apart from a lot of girls” but that implies I belong to that group in some way, which I really… don’t. I sure as hell don’t describe myself as transgender in the sense that I identify as the opposite gender from my sex, but I really don’t identify with that whole…. “girl” thing. Or that whole “boy” thing. Love of make-up and clothes keeps me from identifying as wholly masculine, and love of a being a force “as loud as God’s revolver and twice as shiny” and some of my distinct lackings in femininity keep me from identifying as feminine.

I never realized quite how much that matters until I was in the middle of a group of traditional *girls* that to my knowledge, have no gender conflicts, giggling and squealing over wedding things. There’s just something in the *way* they behave that is distinctly alien to me. I haven’t been that way since high school and… sometimes I miss it. I wish for it now so I could be squealing along with them the way normal girls seem to. I really, really don’t want to fail the wonderful woman that made me her maid of honor. I don’t want to make her feel like I don’t care. It’s just that honestly… something in my brain doesn’t understand how you can pour over things like dresses and colors for so long without a break. I know some of it is that it’s *your* wedding, not mine, but… the traditional floof and tittering is really just lost on my dumb ass that doesn’t understand when my girlfriend facepalms because I eat my ramen out of the pot I cook it in because in my heathen mind, bowls are unnecessary. I mean, the pot is a bowl. It’s even warm! And has a convenient carrying handle! How cool is that?!

BOY KISSES, SAVE US ALL.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/erin-brown/2010/11/10/media-apathetic-about-glee-s-gay-kiss

Oh gods, here we go again. Those damn gays are taking over entertainment! RUN! RUUUUN!

Where’d I find this absurdity? Doesn’t matter. Take that up with twitter. Here’s what does matter: why is it perfectly fine that Willow and Tara, 13 and her girlfriend for an episode, whatever, kiss but if two individuals with two peni between them do, the world will end?

Ohhh, wait. I forgot what is truly so threatening about “teh gay,” especially the boy variety: it undermines masculinity, which is so dreadfully important in this society.

Think about it. Who’s admired by men? Boys, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it the “stud,” the jock that can lift the most, or, among the nerds, someone with intellectual power like Stephan Hawking? Aren’t male oriented videogames games like Halo, Call of Duty, Metal Gear? Aren’t they military based? Aren’t soldiers supposed to be the perfect men?

Ah, shit, but I’m edging too close to the military, and that gets into my ranting about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. To nip that in the bud, I don’t think it matters whose butt you stare at, you wanna serve your country, you should be allowed to do it, the end. Back to the point at hand.

The view of relationships is that there are two roles: masculine and feminine. This is based upon the fact that society tends to cast relationships in male/female roles, understandably, because heterosexuality is the norm. Therefore, if you have a gay relationship, someone’s gotta be the girl. We can’t have that.

But why does it matter? Well, go back to my post on gender. If one man is allowed to kiss boys, to be what is perceived as “feminine,” then that means that… *gasp* … you don’t have to be “masculine” to be a man! OH GODS. It doesn’t matter if this perception is correct or not, some gay couples are very one is masculine, one feminine, but some aren’t. So are some heterosexual couples. But the point is, it pisses off men to have a man, ANY man, do something girly because it undermines what they view is important, which is being considered masculine. Again, go back to my gender post. It is really all explained in there.

However, two girls kiss, it’s like a double dose of feminine. Straight men tend to view it as “hot” because they don’t see a masculine and feminine there, from what folk have told me. They just see two girls kissing. It only matters when guys kiss because then, the couple thing kicks in and their brains start screaming that “THAT AIN’T RIGHT! COVER THE CHILDREN’S EYES! THEY MIGHT CATCH TEH GAY, WHICH WOULD MAKE IT OKAY FOR BOYS TO SEW AND SING SHOW TUNES!”

So, why is it a problem that boys kiss on tv? Those that hold up masculinity as important, as an ideal, are threatened by what is considered “abnormal” interrupting their main stream TV program, because that means that it is becoming more acceptable. Thus, they can’t beat up on the girly kid at school anymore and have everyone laugh with them. It means that the rest of the world doesn’t explicitly agree with their point of view that men have to be men or they are worthless.

Let’s face it, a male view still dominates in a lot of ways. I hate to admit it, but it does. Thus, this is a big fucking deal, because, frankly, they can’t fap to two men kissing. It makes them feel all bad inside, because if it’s acceptable, their grunting, neolithic mind state is wrong, or at the very least, not completely correct. This can upset some people’s entire LIVES, if they have been practicing to be “a real man!” their whole lives. It screws with their ENTIRE perception of reality. So what is their solution?

That’s easy. Beat it with a stick until it dies. That’s what “real men” would do, right?