The other day I watched the GLAAD awards while I folded my laundry. It was the first year that the GLAAD awards were televised and I certainly hope its not the last, because although there were the usual drawbacks of any awards show (long, boring), it also had a lot going for it.  The difference was that while most televised awards shows honor accomplishments in entertainment, or possibly sports which are cool and all but not especially dramatic or moving, the GLAAD awards honor "fair, accurate and inclusive representation" of the LGBT community and LGBT issues. Which is sort of fraught to watch, you know, especially if you're a homo and spent some sad high school days wondering what was *wrong* with you. Seriously, I was like, weeping at some of it, cause I'm a pussy, yeah, and i cry at Hallmark commercials, but also because there was something emotional behind the mission of the whole endeavor. And the people who got awards really seemed to enjoy it because the recognition wasn't just for being funny or being a good drama queen or doing some useful reporting, but it was for being a superior person in the service of gays. So they could feel really high and mighty about it.

Some people who should NOT feel high and might are the people who produce the shitrag that is Cosmo magazine. Someone left a copy in our building's lobby the other day and I thumbed through it, also while doing the laundry. There was a two page spread of a flowchart called "Why is my vagina itchy?" (ok, that's a paraphrase. But not far off). Reasons ranged from razor burn to horrible uncurable std and the whole thing was just so gross and misinformative. Not to mention that the rest of the magazine was basically a manual on how to revert to the fucking stone age. How to Keep a Man, How to Please a Man, How to Manipulate a Man, How to Hide Your True Feelings So as Not to Seem So Feminine and Unstable. You want to fuck a guy, fine, but there was just no place in that magazine for relationship equity or responsible, adult interaction. I know that the people who read Cosmo are usually not quite adults yet. High school girls, college chicks, really immature 20 somethings are the bulk of their audience. But what a horrible training ground to start on. Why even put that crap out there? Such a waste of space and paper and the energy of the people who made it. Or maybe I'm just bitter. I took the quiz and its said I was too clingy.