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do you think it's okay for models to be as skinny as in this ad?
an ad for Valentino, copyright 2000.
People often complain that skinny models have a negative effect on teen
girls' and women's body images. What do you think?
STUD
The female origins of "stud" may come as a surprise to all the men out
there who aspire to the term. While "studs" nowadays are virile and attractive in a masculine, athletic way, the word probably
comes from the German word for "mare"--and the Middle English "stod," basically a place for breeding mares.
Hundreds
of years later, the breeding definition still applies, but the gender has changed. Nowadays, a stud is a stallion, or a place
where stallions are kept. Retiring racehorses are put "at stud" to be bred post-career, for example. (Mares can be put at
stud, but they're never referred to as "studs.")
At some point in the early 20th century, "stud" was extended to male
humans as well--especially the desirable ones with lots of sexual partners, but not always. Sometimes the sexual references
were less overt, such as in the Beat lingo of 1950s, where a stud was just a "guy."
Just how sexual the term
is and whether or not a stud is a sex object or a sexual aggressor is far from settled. Websites and magazines advertise men
as studs to rent for money. But then there's the Michigan college student threatened with sexual harassment charges for using
the term in a paper.
DORK
"Dork" is something like "geek" and "nerd," but "dork" doesn't have the brainy connotation of the other two. "Dorks"
are considered socially awkward, uncool and often physically inept--but not necessarily supersmart.
Legend has it
that "dork" appeared in the slang of American teens in the early 1960s. Originally it meant penis--a combination of the word
"dick" and "dirk" (slang for a small knife). A decade later, "dork" had come to mean a clumsy, foolish person and it's used
in this sense most often today.
"Dork" is a playful word--and so is "dorky." Clothes, names, parents, younger siblings
or even friends can be dorky. Single-minded but harmless devotion can make you a dork; "band dorks," for example, spend all
their time practicing and hanging out with other musicians.
There's plenty of dork pride to be found on the web these
days. Just take a look at a site like Dork.com. There is a dorky comic book publisher (Dork Storm Press) and even a tongue-in-cheek quiz to determine your dorkiness.
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PREP
"Prep" is short for "preparatory." But unless you are doing "kitchen prep" before
making a meal or getting ready for a test, the word usually refers to people who look like they could belong to the elite
world of American preparatory schools.
The old-time New England prep schools--Andover, Phillips Exeter, Hotchkiss,
etc.-- modeled themselves on English "public" schools like Eton (where Prince William graduated and Prince Harry still studies).
The idea was to prepare the children of wealthy, WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) families for top colleges and life in
the upper crust of society.
At this point, you don't have to be a WASP or travel to New England to go to prep school,
and you certainly don't need to go to "prep" school to be labeled a "prep." Nowadays, it's more about how you look: understated
but classic, wearing khakis maybe, and always lots of cotton. "Preppy" fashion is famously low-key because it is inspired
by a class of people who don't care to flaunt their wealth. (Except for the not-so-subtle message of wearing clothes that
suggest constant skiing, tennis and sailing--and the occasional loud plaid or hot pink.)
When the term "preppy" developed
in the 1960s, it was with a mix of awe and annoyance. What was not to like about the clean-cut looks and the tastes of the
"old money" prep-school crowd? But they were so insular, so spoiled...
Preppy pride soared in the conservative '80s,
when Lisa Birnbach published "The Official Preppy Handbook," which extolled the joys of living among the best and brightest while dressed in
navy blue and kelly green. Birnbach was kind of kidding, but a backlash followed with books like "101 Uses for a Dead Preppie" and the "I Hate Preppies Handbook."
Preps and their trappings have made a lot of enemies along the way. "The Catcher in the Rye"'s Holden Caulfield railed against the "fakes" at his New England prep school and
ran away to the less stifling confines of New York City. Hip-hop's embrace of Tommy Hilfiger and other preppy brands has always
been part poking fun at the status quo, part appreciation of the quality.
Meanwhile, there always seems to be a preppy
fashion moment around the corner...
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DIG OR DIS!
Recently we took a poll to see how you felt about opinionated people...let's see how readers
felt!
DIS!
yahh...
i dunno, expressing ur opinions izz dandy and all its jsut those
ppl that feel there 2 cents is needed for every little thing that ppl say...yah that bugs me.
--Posted by whispirinpixie
01:52AM EST 08/05/04
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Granted
that opinions are very important, and that everyone on earth has them, but being over-opinionated is just plain unpleaseant.
Not everyone always needs to know how or what you feel about something or someone.
--Posted by devil_rebel_182
11:38PM EST 08/01/04
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Opinionated
people are too picky.Its ok to have some opinions but to have an oponion about everything is just asking for attention.
--Posted by xxbeba124xx
08:11PM EST 08/01/04
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:]
its cool sometimes...but overly opinionated people..suck
--Posted by emo_star
04:08PM EST 08/01/04
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...Sumtimes...
People say I'm very opinionated and outspoken, but that's just
the way I am. I like when people give there opinions also, I have no problem with that. But if the person continues and tries
to change my views and demands that she's right, then that can get really annoying. When it's insulting, it's wrong.
--Posted by sw3ety1023
10:05AM EST 07/30/04
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"Become the girl all the guys want and all the girls want to be"
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