Today I got asked my bra colour by a perverted male who shall remain unknown. I told him to f*** off. It’s none of his business, and for all he cares, I may not even be wearing one. The pervert in question then told me that all the girls were doing it on facebook to raise awareness for breast cancer. I am all for raising awareness for such a wonderful cause but I am very dismayed at the means by which women are reduced to doing this. I find it incredibly ironic that something that was once an appalling symbol of male oppression is now being used to spread awareness about an illness that is mostly prevalent in women.

Historically, the use of bras would change in response to the male attitude towards the female bosom at the time. So basically the bra was (and arguably still is) yet another means by which women find themselves at the mercy of the male’s fancy. Even though modern day bras cater more to the comfort and needs of women, they have no medically proven benefit.

More importantly, I fail to understand how indicating your bra colour raises awareness for breast cancer. Ladies, by letting men know your bra colour on facebook, you are just piquing their perverted male ego. They could not care less about the cause or breast cancer itself. If anything, you are diverting attention away from the cause and just encouraging the opposite sex to visit lingerie and pornography stores. So fellow sisters, I ask that you think before you so openly surrender your bra colour to the enemy. By letting them know, you are desecrating the very basis of feminine empowerment that every woman is entitled to.

There has been a lot of fearmongering going around about the evils of social media, especially Facebook and Twitter. I recently had a conversation with a friend where she brought up pretty much all of the usual objections, and we came up with some interesting conclusions as to why social media is… not evil.

Objection #1: Social media cheapens social interaction.

No, no it doesn’t. I’ve heard this one a lot, and it always makes my blood boil. Just because I tweet back and forth with someone I haven’t seen since high school does NOT mean that I put him on the same level as my best friend. Just because I like having people write on my wall does NOT mean that I am deluded into thinking that cyber-companionship is a substitute for the real deal.

Social interaction is just that, social. Letter-writing in 19th-century England did not help make upper-class society any less fake, and its absense today will not make ours any more fake. Social media helps us reconnect with people we haven’t seen in a long time, or find out more about people we know only casually, but there is no limit to how many people we can know or be in contact with at a given time; finding out more about one person does not magically cheapen our relationship with another.

Objection #2: Social media cheapens the value of communication.

Anyone who says this clearly hasn’t read Jane Austen. Writing a ten page letter does not make everything you write meaningful. This way, at least the nonesense people write is limited to 140 characters. Plus, it means that we don’t have to wait until we have 10-pages worth of information to share with our friends. We can give them real-time updates about the things we think are important, and they can respond, in real time. Social media also means that we can connect information in unheard-of ways. Instead of telling you that my friend’s sister’s husband’s daughter’s teacher thought Aroma was a good coffee shop, I can just link you to Lori’s review.

And, just like with relationships, updating Twitter won’t stop you from writing that Nobel-prize winning novel. (more…)

Just for fun, I started searching Twitter for Tweets written about U of T. I have been saving them as favorites over time. Here are some funny ones I have found:

• @shaelaska: “why doesn’t u of t have buffyology? http://bit.ly/fXmt3“
• @StephenAlain: “I hope it storms superhard and washes u of t away…”
• @Gregory188: “Campus is abuzz with fresh faces ready to have their dreams and GPAs crushed by U of T.”
• @paulmarai: “The purell to student ratio at u of t is astonishing.”
• @thegrubby1: “Latest report on uoft girls: so far, classics has the least hot girls per capita of any class, even Dostoevsky…”
• @Zadkiel: “shared a cab with a belly dancer and a uoft grad….interesting end to an evening.”
• @AakankshaT: “Overheard a bunch of froshies complaining about hard UofT is & how they hate first year..wanted to smack ‘em. It just gets worse so shut it.”
• @inesrosa: “‘As a man you spend all your time waiting on bitches’ – overheard while walking thru campus. Charming.”
• @arahslife “I will not be setting foot on the U of T campus for three weeks and that makes me feel so good inside. Soo GOOOODD”
• @meghansauve: “$7,439.04 tuition. The sum of outrageously expensive and 4 cents! U of T, you are completely mad.”
• @timylee: “@alextruong It happens. I once got an email from U of T congratulating me on my enrollment to their Dentistry program. Prob an email typo.”

Speaking of Twitter, blogUT is on there now. Follow us! And for more stuff overheard on campus, check out the Facebook group.