Well, at least I'm back on an even keel after the depression-and-angsting I indulged in (and I apologize unreservedly to my friends list for inflicting all that on you) over the course of the last few days. I'm kind of getting my head round the idea now. I don't have the patience for a protracted wangst over something so stupid, anyway.

In all honesty, I now think this placement could be quite cool. I've liked the thought of ITU nursing for a long time, since way before I ever thought about working in an OR. My sudden downer on it probably came from the fact that last time I went into an ITU, it was accompanying a patient I knew very well and was extremely fond of, who had been on the ward I was on placement in for months and had suddenly gotten very, very sick. All of which meant I was rather too busy being shit scared he was about to die (he didn't, thankfully) to take in that much about my surroundings.

So yeah. laila is now resigned to her fate.

Fanfic go better. I don't have much on the much-delayed Part 22 yet, but what I do have actually has the feel I wanted. The characters are consenting to behave. Looks like I've just got to get some of the 'comfort' bit of the whole hurt/comfort thing I've got going on here out the way before I can concentrate on the plot. Yup, I've capitulated. I am officially writing angsty fluff. And I'm LOVING IT.

I had an idea featuring Youji, Ken and the old 'peeling labels off bottles means you're sexually frustrated' chestnut. Damn random ideas springing from random conversations. But I have no idea where I could put it as I'd need Ken largely untraumatized and reacting perfectly normally to Youji's not-so-subtle innuendos. I thought I could use it at the very beginning of my reverse!survivor!angsty!deathfic. I'd like to start that one off in a low-key kind of way. I'd like things to be normal for a short while before I start making with the angst again.

The only problem is, I'm still not sure who I should be killing off. Maybe I should flip a coin? I've only got two possibilities, after all...


I cannot believe how long I rambled on for behind that LJ-cut when I didn't really want to talk about any of that today. I wanted to talk about something else instead. Welcome to another LJ rant featuring another (stupid) issue Ripped From the Damned Headlines.

Why is this supposed to be such a surprise?

Why is it presumed that we the public are all going to be officially Shocked and Appalled by the thought that 'top model' Kate Moss - a woman famous mainly for being skinny, wearing a lot of stupid clothes and having a hopeless wreck of a junkie for a boyfriend - might have taken drugs herself? I have no idea. Where exactly is the story in this?

Model takes drugs. Well of course she bloody does. You don't think people stay that skinny through 'diet and exercise', do you? Of course they don't, no matter what they might tell the magazines (and no matter how said ridiculous claims might make average women who can't stay that skinny through diet and exercise). No. la Moss is thin because she takes a lot of drugs which suppress the appetite. The only reason she doesn't look like the crack addicts on sink estates is because she can afford to make sure she gets good drugs. Oh, and she also has a stylist. A lot of people devote their time to making her look pretty. End of story.

What's the deal here? That a thin, rich woman has been caught taking drugs? No, it's just that she was stupid enough to get caught taking them.

Model takes drugs. Yeah, they probably all do that. It's just not shocking to be told that celebrities are on drugs any more. What's next? Are we about to see an expose telling us that George Best sometimes drinks beer? Nobody with half a teaspoon of brain could possibly be surprised by this.

Never mind that she was probably captured on camera by a photographer who uses drugs, the story may well have been written up by a reporter who uses drugs, approved by an editor who uses drugs. All of which will then be published in a newspaper owned by a guy who's probably no stranger to - guess what? - drugs. What bothers me about this isn't that la Moss should be allowed to take all the drugs she wants with no comebacks, or that she's stupid. It's just that the idea of drug-addled journos writing sanctimonious pieces on the pernicious evil of this and that drug-addled celebrity really makes me feel a little antsy.

Color me naive, but I've never much liked hypocrisy. And this non-story reeks of it.

No, I'm not going to shed any tears over la Moss losing her job as the 'face' of Chanel or Rimmel or whatever (and who the fuck uses Rimmel cosmetics for any reason other than they're cheap?). Oh woe. Rich idiotic woman becomes slightly less rich. How devastating. All the same, it strikes me as weird that these fashion companies - a lot of whom will be run by executives who aren't exactly averse to the odd recreational pharmaceutical - are falling over themselves to disassociate themselves with a skinny woman who has been outed as a junkie simply to replace her with another skinny woman who's sensible enough not to get stoned out of her gourd in front of long-lens photographers. No, she'll be getting stoned out of her gourd in private!

Then again, if fashion houses, cosmetic companies and parfumiers will insist on using models who look like they're 24 hours away from having a nasogastric tube rammed down their throat simply to assure they're not about to die from malnutrition to sell their products, they shouldn't be surprised to find out some of them need a little help to stay that damned thin and yet still function. I once saw a supplement on how much models ate and nobody on 500 calories a day should still be upright. If it wasn't for stimulants (think coffee, cigarettes, cocaine...) those women would probably be unable to move. Besides, if I had that much money and wasn't allowed to eat (it's fattening) or drink alcohol (it's fattening), I'd have to find something else enjoyable to put in my body.

But no. We're supposed to be shocked. And we're supposed to think that, should these people just get shot of la Moss, the problem will be solved. How naive do the ubiquitous they think we are?

So yes, I think this is a ridiculous overreaction to being told that a model, shockingly, doesn't live as clean as she and her bosses would like us all to believe. Ditch la Moss, sure, but don't pretend that's the end of it. It's the look that's to blame. Any look which requires people to starve themselves to attain it and shove all manner of chemical shit into their body to sustain it should not be held up as attractive. If the fashion industry seriously objects to using junkie models then perhaps they should stop telling us girls who look like they should be attached to IVs in an eating disorder unit somewhere are the height of desirability. Or would that be too logical?