The main thing I realise as I grow older, is that time becomes very limited. After work, I generally only get to do one thing: I could socialise, I could play video games, I could do some of my own writing or I could do some reading, but I find that I would never be able to do all of these things in one day. It’s a shame because these are all things I’d like to do every day and it means that I can’t give full attention to all aspects of my life. Ultimately, I’ll always choose socialising when I can, because that’s the most important to me, but I wish I had more time to get through the video games I’m interested in and to read all the books I want to – not to mention write all the stories I want to! I don’t mean to complain as things were so much worse when I was unemployed, because I didn’t really have motivation for most things, but I certainly relate to those who say that there are not enough hours in the day!

Whenever the subject of breaking a nail comes up in a film, it’s usually done as a way to make a female character look weak or superficial or it’s done to make a male character look feminine in a derogatory way. “Oh, I broke a nail,” is basically the media’s catchphrase for a plethora of negative female stereotypes and stereotypes of feminine men. But what I don’t understand is… Why? I mean, all stereotypes are pretty worthless, but this one just seems weird to me since breaking a nail can actually be pretty painful and frustrating. I broke a nail almost a week ago and it keeps snagging on things and is very painful – to avoid pain I have to avoid using that finger, but avoiding the use of that finger is quite difficult and I have not liked it at all. Obviously all stereotypes annoy me, but one based around the extreme hassle and pain of breaking a nail (and, of course, we have nails for a reason, they aren’t just fashion accessories) seems absolutely absurd to me. “Oh no, I broke a nail,” should be something that evokes a lot of sympathy. “Oh no, you broke a nail,” should be something you say with the deepest sympathies. Breaking a nail sucks.

(Don’t miss today’s <a href="http://bit article source.ly/fps352″ target=”_blank”>Finger Puppet Show!)

Something that frustrates me a lot, is how asexual characters in the media all seem to fall into certain stereotypes – they’re usually very cold, logical and uncaring. Not only is this offensive in the same way that it is always offensive for a whole community of people to be grouped together in a certain way, but the implications are really quite distressing.

Any asexual character in a piece of fiction is generally going to be quite inhuman in some ways – why is this? I guess it’s because writers see sexuality as an integral part of the human experience and do not see asexuality as a valid identity. Because to be asexual, in the eyes of a lot of people, is to be inhuman. It’s not normal. It’s weird. That’s why you never ever have a regular person on a TV show or in a movie who is asexual.

So much of the way people view life and the world around them is in terms of sex and romantic relationships and very few stop to consider that these are not the goals and desires of everybody. People can’t understand that not everybody strives for that and what people can’t understand, they fear, which is why asexual characters are often portrayed as these negative stereotypes. And how does this make asexual people feel? Well, if the media depicts asexuality in a certain way, then people will expect it to be a certain way which will cause asexuals to feel like outcasts. People will become afraid of being open about their asexuality, for fear of being ostracised.

Even things like progressive websites which allow users to select their sexuality for profiles will very rarely offer an option for asexuality. You see people all over the internet complaining that it is a meaningless label used by “special snowflakes” who feel the need to be different, invalidating that identity even further. Meanwhile, the media continues to portray asexuals as uncaring and emotionless people – showing that the average person seems to have an unhealthy mental connections between emotions and affection with sexual desire (when really they can be entirely divorced.)

It’s just something which I find especially frustrating which I felt was worth writing about to help more people be conscious of. I’d also like to add that, while it does frustrate me to see these stereotypes used so regularly, I am still pleased that asexual characters are at least present.