New Look

Ok, THIS is definitely the last new look for awhile. Now, SophistiCat sent me this excellent picture that I wanted to set up as my look...however, I just don't have time to really get into making a great layout. Or even a decent one. However, the image is saved and put away for a future in which I have a few hours to myself and can actually complete a thought that isn't interrupted with MOMMA.

I've had Barely Dressed for a while. Several years. I even did a stint off of Blogger hosting it myself, and will one day hopefully return to that. In all those years, it's been difficult to find a layout already made that so fitted the title. And finding an image that didn't show someone's snatch so I could make my own layout...well, the title is BARELY dressed, not totally nude. Then there's finding something fitting with class. Most half dressed pictures are overly suggestive for what Barely Dressed means to me. Some scantily clad gal in bright red lipstick sucking a lollipop/banana/chocolate strawberry/etc was NOT the point I was trying to get across.

Barely Dressed is not a phrase of sexuality. It has nothing to do with sex, lasciviousness, or physical nudity. I wanted a barely dressed image that didn't offer sex, bare genitals, and titillation. I wanted a statement, of class, of being just within the realms of decent while maintaining some pride. No nasty poses. No suggestive sucklings on various fruits and foods. But it had to have just a hint of salaciousness. Just a hint, mind you, of "naughty". Why?

Barely Dressed is an attitude, a way of thinking, of being. It's honesty with a little blunt force trauma. It's saying that thing you aren't supposed to in "polite" company, even if you ARE in "polite" company. It's being "naughty" and stating the things that "shouldn't" be said, just nakedly saying it in such a way that people stop, listen, laugh, but understand. It IS about making people feel stupid and look stupid, if they are being stupid. It's about standing up and knocking people around a little (verbally) and doing so while breaking the barriers with pride. When people stand up in their underwear, they feel shame and under dressed. This is standing in your underwear, hands on hips, straight backed, and telling people "Look into my EYES. Look beyond and really see."

This is who I am. I get a lot of grief over this. From everyone around me. Tact and diplomacy are two words I've heard ALL MY LIFE. People wanting nice. People wanting a spoonful of sugar. Where the hell they got the idea I'm Mary Poppins I have no fuckin' clue. They want to change what I say, how I say it, so no one feels bad. However, if you've gotten to the point that I feel I have to say it, then you deserve to feel bad. I haven't learned tact and diplomacy, I've learned silence. They see stand offish, aloof, superior. I'm just keeping my mouth shut. I'm not out to offend the whole world. Most people's problems aren't worth remarking upon. I'm content to leave others their perceptions and delusions up to a point. Then when they drop a piece of massive stupidity or cross the line between opinions and being a jackass, then I feel obligated to step up and call them out. I do not put up with racism, intolerance, forcing opinions on others. If someone doesn't call them out, then this type of behavior persists and spreads. I am the one who stands in front of the mob with pitchforks and burning torches and says "ARE YOU FUCKIN' KIDDING ME???? What has he ever done to YOU????" You see that person on tv, in some movie and think "Way to go! Someone with some decency and sense." You talk to me and what I hear is "She's so mean. What an asshole." All I can think is you didn't see yourself as part of the mob until I said something. I guess I made you feel bad, get over it.

So, the new layout, there it is. Hands lightly on hips, standing at a cocky angle, relaxed, proud, in her underwear. Covered enough for society's standards, but in her underwear. Not her bathing suit, her underwear. Yeah, I know her hands are positioned as if she's going to drop the panties, but look closer. Are you sure? Are you sure she's not standing there saying, thumbs hooked on the edge of panties as if hooked over a pair of Levi's, saying "Yes, I'm in my underwear, and you are all hiding your mouths behind your hands, and I don't even notice. I'm too busy, too busy yanking down your stupid boundaries, your stupid misperceptions, preconceived notions, your ignorant prejudices. I am already in my underwear and I'm proud. What happens when I yank all your clothes away?"