frenchy mcfrencherson

Gah. I haven't updated in a while. *guilt*

Had my last day of work Friday, started my summer classes on Monday, roommate finally moved out Tuesday, BLOGGER WAS DOWN ON THURSDAY?! So yes, I've been slacking on the updates.

Busy, busy girl.

Oh, and in-between lots of graduation parties and accompanying binges. Thanks for getting your undergraduate degree and using it as an excuse to make me eat in public, drink sugary alcoholic drinks, and get fat. Much love!

But now that I'm back... I'll update the Progress page for the results from Week 3, which ended on Monday. I'll also finally be able to read your comments and blog posts! Excite.

The other night the boyfriend and I were lounging on the couch. It was 9:00 pm. I had my summer class in the morning at 7:30. We were browsing Netflix on my 360 and that's when we found it:

Mes chères études, or, if you don't parlez vous français, Student Services. Spoiler Alert: Don't click read more if you don't, in fact, want to read more...

It follows 18 year old Laura, a freshman at a French university, who is having trouble paying for school, rent, utilities, food, etc. because her parents work blue-collar jobs and her telecomm job doesn't pay enough to cover her expenses. She faints during one of her classes because she can't afford to eat, and when she talks to, presumably, a woman from Student Services, she's basically told to eat at soup kitchens or suck it up because c'mon Laura, it's not that expensive.

It's because my cheeks are fat, isn't it. I look too healthy to help. BITCH.

That's pretty much how it goes down.

Empty fridge, yo.

Laura, distraught, goes home to ask her dick-face boyfriend if she can have some of his food and, being the dick-head boyfriend that he is, he basically tells her to fuck off and stop eating his food. 

Oh, and could you pay half the rent as well? Even though I told you when you moved in that we would share utility expenses, not rent. In the meantime, while your starved body and bony ribs look sharp enough to cut through glass, stop thinking about what food I have in the fridge, what a total dick I am, and how you're going to afford to pay the university and my slacker ass and let's just fuck, mmmkay?

Commence fucking. Sort of. Lights go out and drama, Laura didn't pay the electric because she's destitute. Boyfriend continues dickery.

Obviously, when every vertebrae is poking out of your back and you're looking at failing all of your classes that you've worked so hard to pay for because you're passing out due to malnourishment - your only logical choice is to become a prostitute. Ahhhhh yeahhhhh.

Clickety clack - Laura's suddenly on Frenchy French Craigslist answering shady personal ads to "massage" old men. For money. Totally legit, not gonna get raped, obviously nothing sexual and perverse going on here.

Of course, things are not as sunshiney as Laura thinks.

Cue numerous, graphic sex scenes. For the rest of the movie. Sometimes with cool numbers and statistics overlaid on the sex. Y'know, to keep it educational.

As opposed to some other films that follow female leads who happen to be prostitutes, really, the only downfall that Laura suffers is.... uh, graduating college and getting awesome grades once she starts prostituting herself and can afford to eat.... erm, she got to buy designer jeans and handbags..... well, she did get raped a couple of times, but if it wasn't for the rape, she wouldn't have left dickhead boyfriend in the first place.... and she continued to prostitute herself even after she got ripped off a few times.

Yeah, this will end well.

Really, truly, the only big disadvantage that Laura faced due to her prostituting was finding a new boyfriend who was fairly attractive and then having a minor mental break and sucking his dick in an alley before being dumped.

But, when the end result is achieving your educational dreams which were largely unattainable before, writing a fucking book - which, through watching the film, we know you also got a sweet movie deal out of - and making (probably) numerous (at least one) radio and television appearances.... Yeah, your prostituting gig was really awful, wasn't it...

Incognito Interview Mode

In all seriousness, though, it was a very poignant film. Despite the graphic nature, which may offend some, I thought it had smart dialog, interesting camera shots, and overall was enjoyable and compelling.

And the moral of the story?

If you want to look like this....

...just hit rock bottom where your only choice is, literally, sell your body or don't eat.

Which brings me to the irony of this entire blog post.

Despite this being a review of a French film, this will most likely never be read by anyone in France because it's on a "pro-eating disorder blog/website". Which, apparently, are now banned in France because of their new agenda against the promotion of eating disorders. So... instead of putting their main focus on changing what advertisers are doing, promoting healthy lifestyles through education, or putting restrictions on the modeling industry, the French bill chooses to focus primarily on restricting French citizens' free access to other peoples' viewpoints and ideas.

While I think the French government has a right to protect its constituents, and doing so by promoting healthy lifestyles is perfectly within reason, I do, however, have a problem with countries limiting their citizens' access to information. Regardless of if the information is in favor of the government's ideals or not, I think that freedom to access information, other viewpoints, etc. is vital in keeping the government in check and allowing citizens to develop their own views and ideas.

It does, however, always make me laugh - at my own blog included - that so many pro-ana websites/blogs use French for their titles. We idolize those thin, glamorous French women and use French in an attempt to recapture some of that mysterious, European allure, yet our blogs will never even be read by any French women.

Le sigh.