Ethnic Hair Dye and Booty Dancing Seven Year Olds

Most people in my small group of friends know me as a person who is always willing to try something new. I'm also one of the few of my friends who goes out of her way to have some of the weirdest hair colors possible. I've had Challenger Orange, violet, and burgundy, yellow, among other colors. But, I wanted to try something a bit daring even for me: red. Not like Orphan Annie red--firetruck red. I'm kind of broke right now, so before going to a salon, or even Trend Setters, which is the cosmetology school in my area, I hit Wal-Mart. And, believe it or not, I found what I was looking for; what surprised me was the aisle I found it in. After giving up on the hair dye aisle--nothing was bright enough--I walked back to the pharmacy, and there was this glorious box of hair dye--> ! It was the perfect color! And the woman on the box is a total babe, too! I don't know about you, but I call that an epic win. Why wasn't she in the hair dye aisle, with all the other, not-as-red colors? Well, she's black. And the hair dye is Creme of Nature, a company that makes products specifically for black people. See, I'm not just writing this blog to tell you about my awesome dye job--though it is awesome, and I will put up pictures eventually. For the most part, I'm writing this because I don't think hair dyes should be segregated. Nor should books, for that matter. And yet, the library I used to work for separated all the Spanish-language books into one small, dark corner of the building, fiction and non-fiction, juvenile and adult. Maybe it makes lives of stockers and pages a little easier, but it has to feel the slightest bit embarrassing to be told that the book, hair dye, food, et cetera that you're looking for is in another aisle, simply because of the ethnicity of the product. Yes, there are entire salons devoted to the treatment of African-American hair. I used to pass one such salon every day after school. But as I stop to think about it, that store may have been opened because every other salon in the area caters to white people. I'm fairly sure that I could count on one hand the number of white hair techs in my area who can do a proper weave. [I apologize if I'm wrong, but from what I've experienced, it's very likely.]
Before I go off on a racially-charged, crazy-insane tirade, I'm going to move on to the other topic that I would like to tell you about: the booty dancing seven year olds. It's been brought to my attention [by Severe, who thought it would be a good blog entry] that a group of six to eight year old girls dancing to Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" has been pasted all over the internet and the news as of late. These aren't just little kids dressing up and playing around; they are trained dancers, working it in ways no small child should. Being not-quite-straight and all, I feel like a pedophile just for watching this! Here's some of the news coverage I mentioned earlier:

CBS News
CNN News
ABC News
FOX News

And, from the World of Dance site comes this group shot of the girls; seeing their young, tiny faces really drives the point home for me.
I hate to show my age, but I'm three times as old as the little girls [who happen to be the same age as my sisters], and I would never dance or dress like that, especially in front of a live television audience. And this is coming from someone who regularly dresses in ridiculous costumes at midnight movies and anime conventions. I'd like your opinions on the matter.
~Sushi
P.S. Personally, I blame The Chimpmunks...

Holy Swearing Cuss!

Many movies have their own vernacular. It's a way to set apart the world of that particular film from the plane of existence that the viewers inhabit. The movie adaptation of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox is no different, but the jargon of that particular movie might not sit well with some parents. The film is rated PG, interestingly enough, for "slang," a reasoning that I had never seen before, but makes perfect sense once you watch the film. There is absolutely no swearing, but "cuss"-ing abounds. In the world of Mr. Fox, there is one universal swear word, and that is the word "cuss." For example:

Badger: The cuss you are.
Mr. Fox: The cuss am I? Are you cussing with me?
Badger: No, you cussing with me?
Mr. Fox: Don't cussing point at me!
Badger: If you're gonna cuss with somebody, you're not gonna cuss with me, you little cuss!
Mr. Fox: You're not gonna cuss with me!

And also:

Ash: I'm not gonna eat mud!
Beaver's Son: Cuss yeah you are.

I don't know about you, but if I was a small, impressionable child, I would think that this is the best loophole ever for getting out of punishments for swearing. In our world, cuss is a verb, not a noun; it describes the action of saying a foul word, rather then being the ultimate embodiment of one. While it may not be best for children to start "cuss"-ing, I think it would be great for adults. Imagine how much cleaner shows like Jerry Springer would be if the many wild and colorfully-tongued guests "cuss"-ed instead of swearing up a storm. I could watch the show without my ears ringing for an hour afterward from all the mandatory censorship that must take place at present. Personally, I am completely against censorship. But, discretion and censorship are not the same. I think that the way swearing is handled in Fantastic Mr. Fox is honorable, and the movie practically deserves a G rating for being more sensible in the language department than most movies I have seen over the past decade. After all, Snow White is rated G, and a woman is thrown off a cliff at the end. Think about that.
~Sushi