Mind the Gap

Christmas Shopping December 18, 2005

By Siberian Falls

Well it’s that time of year again. With all my work wrapped up, and nothing to do until January I have turned my attention to more pressing matters. Like what in the world am I going to buy everyone for Christmas? Moreover, how can I avoid going into Cardiff on the weekend and getting trampled by the crowds and waiting twenty minutes for a free till in a shop playing ‘Panpipe Christmas Moods’ on repeat? I have a friend who actually takes a book with her to read in the queues, which isn’t an altogether bad idea, thinking about it.

My approach to avoinding the unpleasentness of the Christmas hordes is online shopping. I logged in to my Amazon account and on my welcome page I was greeted by this! ‘Soapbabes’ calander 2006. Oh, now my life truely is complete. What is a feminist to do when even custom made homepages think we want air brushed, fake tanned, poorly fed, soap ‘actresses’ to look at everyday. I’ve never been good at present buying before but Amazon isn’t helping! I was so annoyed I almost bought 8 copies of ‘The Whole Woman’ to distribute instead of shopping properly. But I think I did something similar last year. There must be a better way to buy presents. Oxfam have a wonderful range of fairtrade chocolate and coffee. Perhaps that’s the way forward. I think I might be safe from infuriating images there.

I hope everyone else’s Christmas shopping is going a little better than my own. To cheer myself up I might ask Winter and Naiades to join me in writing a ‘Best Feminist Music and Books of 2005’ post if it hasn’t been done already. Any suggestions for inclusion? Oh, and Merry Christmas!