Friday, January 8, 2010

Colors in an unequal world

Friday, January the 8th 2010. The day shall go down in the annals of human history as a day when our fellow human inhabitants from across the gender divide asserted en-masse that they continue to remain capable of imbecilities well beyond human comprehension. I base my rather harsh stance on the unusual course of ethereal activity that I came to witness today evening. I am sure the reader of this post is well in the know of the mode of public expression associated with instant messaging client software: that which we call the Status Message and exploit as the medium of dissemination of our current indulgence to the world at large.

The Instant Messaging Software has been a popular mode of entertainment ever since it was popularized late in the last decade by the software firm Yahoo. It's use has largely been restricted to strictly formal requirements of everyday subsistence such as:
  • searching for prospective partners for engaging in sexual intercourse in the long run via the 'Chat Room' facility;
  • needlessly talking away all night in hope of wooing a long lost school friend;
  • spying;
  • other activities of equal if not more serious consequence

More recently, a new exploit has been discovered by the devoted clientelle of such software - the status message. It has been pressed into useful service in the most trying of circumstances, and has performed upto expectation in most cases and surpassing in the remaining few. Personally, the Status Message came to my rescue when I needed a calculator at an extremely short notice prior to an examination. The Status Message helped me locate accommodation for a 2 month stay in Bangalore sometime back. It came in particularly handy when I had to dutifully announce to the world that Debjeet Biswas used barrier contraceptive-gear each evening despite the lack of feminine companionship. My peers have been equally upright and prompt in their innovations with the Status Message too. I vaguely remember Robin frequently inviting accompaniment for that last remaining portion of liqueur.

And ofcourse, my favourite one -- although I do not remember who hosted it -- went something like this: "I want to have sex. Volunteers?" While the expression was a delight for direct and concise business-writing proponents, I doubt whether the owner ever got satiated.

Which brings us to today, and the motive behind drafting this exceedingly unreadable manuscript. This evening when I logged into my instant messaging service provider Google's client software, I was greeted by a rather odd phenomenon. To quote from Dasi's Status Message, "My Gtalk list looks like a Photoshop Color Pallette gone horribly wrong." After some investigation, it became apparent that it was solely women who were displaying colors as their Status Messages. Certain fruitless deliberations over instant messaging with several female associates remained fruitless. And then the almighty 800-pound search gorrilla (Google) answered. "What Color Is Your Bra? Facebook's Pointless Underwear Protest." is the title of an entry on the world-renowned weekly NewsWeek. Yes, several young women decided to let the world know what color brassiere they were wearing under their shirts.

There was Pink, Black, Pink!!, white, baby pink, pink and blue, carnation pink and several others -- all over Facebook and GoogleTalk. Yes, women chose to go berserk. Apparently it was for some sort of a noble cause centered around Cancer Awareness. What was more intriguing was the sheer promptness in their responses. Proud they were all, without exception. As an open question to all females who're so wasted as to stop by and read this blog, may I ask how divulging the color of your innerware shall make the world a better place? Let me be honest, I am not whining about the incredible happenings of the day. It is just that I am slightly purturbed at the sheer lack of intelligence that plagued half of humanity today. Let me close with a small quote I remembered (modified for current context): "Brassiere are like options and futures. They derive their value from underlying assets."

And of course, here's a good friend of mine who convincingly won an Extempore today evening; only to follow it up with this:


And the reason why this last image down here figures on my blog is simple: the two people, who apart from '6 others' who 'like' the declaration below in the status message are great friends who'd be extremely pleased to see this. :P

6 comments:

King Bong said...

The Dumbest thing in recorded human history ...

Unknown said...

If something like an innocuous status mgs about something as pointless can get someone to write one entire blog, then all i have to say is that "the ends justify the means" :-)

Observer said...

Mademoiselle, it ain't the colors of the rainbow or national flags that are flashed across status messages. There's enough information out their to warrant a blog entry :P

Ketan said...

I guess, the mechanism by which declaring the color of one's bra would have helped breast cancer patients is the same one by which AIDS patients are helped by people wearing red ribbons! :P

And your friend writing in some color shouldn't be considered funny 'cuz males can also suffer from breast cancer, but with 1/100th the frequency of females. ;)

Unknown said...

Oh my! That's a very strong reaction indeed. Never took you for a prude Mishra!

Ketan said...

@ Mansi:

What was the "end" of the entire exercise? Helping breast cancer patients, or to make a few bloggers take notice and write about it?

If you are to say, someone's blogging about females flashing the color of their bra as their status message is going to help breast cancer patients, kindly provide some logical mechanism by which this could have happened.

Rather, quite to the contrary, I feel breast cancer patients would be appaled to note that their medical condition, instead of inspiring sympathy, was used as a cheap social-networking gimmick.