I'm going to give you a quick run through of what the world would be like without feminism.*
*Yeah, yeah, I know, more of that boring equal rights stuff but hey, it's my blog so deal with it.
Without feminism, women wouldn't be allowed to play sports such as football or rugby.
Without feminism, rape within marriage would still be legal.
Without feminism women wouldn't be able to wear jeans.
Without feminism, women wouldn't even be given the choice as to whether to vote or not.
Without feminism, women wouldn't have any education other than learning to cook and sew.
Granted, there are still people, male and female, who are victims of this sort of injustice. Slavery and trafficking is still a very real threat for millions of people. And we can't forget about them. But, we can take small steps. Every single thing feminism achieves brings the human race a few steps forward in wiping out all forms of injustice, which is why we can't stop.
I've been reading Caitlin Moran's book 'How to Be a Woman' (well technically I read half of it then had to give it back in to the school library) and it got me thinking about when girls deny being feminists.
She said something about how she doesn't even argue with these women who say they're not feminist because by expressing that opinion, they are already contradicting themselves. Without feminism, these girls wouldn't be able to discuss the prospect of gender equality in public anyway.
I can guarantee every single woman who says she isn't a feminist has worn trousers once in her life. I can also guarantee that she has been offered to play football (or any sort of sport really) at least once in her life.
Basically, in a round-about way, I'm saying that most women who think they're not feminists actually are. And, unsurprisingly, most of them do not actually believe men are superior to them.
Please sign this petition standing up for girls who aren't offered an education because why wouldn't you?
https://www.upforschool.org/petitions/stand-upforschool-2?signature_token=f1eb05e1c3222527d9cbe8e46d306bfcfd7e2d72
Friday 6 March 2015
How to Win Every Argument.
One thing my Global Perspectives teacher said the other day really stuck with me. She said 'You can't have a fully formed opinion without a thorough understanding of both sides of the argument'.*
*Not verbatim.
This is one thing I've really had to work on these last few months or so. In Politics, we have to be able to debate both sides of an argument, regardless of your personal opinion. This is obviously beneficial because of like mark schemes and all that boring stuff but it also teaches you to be open to other opinions and really understand how someone could believe something different to you.*
*Most of the time it's not that deep. It's usually stuff like 'Should we have more referendums?' - gritty stuff, I know.
We had a debate in Biology last week about stem cell research and I had to argue on the against side. This was really hard for me because I am so passionate about new scientific discoveries and giving people the best possible chance of survival, but am also Christian so believe in preserving life. So, not only was this internal debate going off in my mind, I also had to piece together the couple of kinda lame ideas I'd had in preparation for the debate into a comprehensive argument.*
*I'm prone to headaches.
The outcome of the debate doesn't really matter (namely because it was a Biology lesson not the House of Commons) but what I took away from it was that I am finally starting to be able to clearly see two sides of a debate.
Writing that makes me realise how, to anyone else, this is like nothing. Being able to think is hardly an achievement. It reminds me of when your really fit, sporty friends are like 'Omg I got my PB in 100m backcrawl today' and you're like 'Please would you pass me the crisps'.
No-one cares.
This is just a bit of a heads up to people who strongly believe something. People won't take you seriously in an argument/debate if you don't consider their opinion.*
*This is coming from my experience of many, many hopeless arguments where I forgot that it is possible to not agree with my opinion. (Like, what?)
So be acceptant, open-minded and most importantly, kickass.
*Not verbatim.
This is one thing I've really had to work on these last few months or so. In Politics, we have to be able to debate both sides of an argument, regardless of your personal opinion. This is obviously beneficial because of like mark schemes and all that boring stuff but it also teaches you to be open to other opinions and really understand how someone could believe something different to you.*
*Most of the time it's not that deep. It's usually stuff like 'Should we have more referendums?' - gritty stuff, I know.
We had a debate in Biology last week about stem cell research and I had to argue on the against side. This was really hard for me because I am so passionate about new scientific discoveries and giving people the best possible chance of survival, but am also Christian so believe in preserving life. So, not only was this internal debate going off in my mind, I also had to piece together the couple of kinda lame ideas I'd had in preparation for the debate into a comprehensive argument.*
*I'm prone to headaches.
The outcome of the debate doesn't really matter (namely because it was a Biology lesson not the House of Commons) but what I took away from it was that I am finally starting to be able to clearly see two sides of a debate.
Writing that makes me realise how, to anyone else, this is like nothing. Being able to think is hardly an achievement. It reminds me of when your really fit, sporty friends are like 'Omg I got my PB in 100m backcrawl today' and you're like 'Please would you pass me the crisps'.
No-one cares.
This is just a bit of a heads up to people who strongly believe something. People won't take you seriously in an argument/debate if you don't consider their opinion.*
*This is coming from my experience of many, many hopeless arguments where I forgot that it is possible to not agree with my opinion. (Like, what?)
So be acceptant, open-minded and most importantly, kickass.
Thursday 5 March 2015
How Gone Girl Screwed With My Mind.
Who sees the real you?
Bit of a deep one for you today. I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm writing this in between watching Nashville (like when it's buffering) so it may be slightly bitty. Just so you don't feel left out of the video-watching club, here's a video by Soul Pancake (a Youtube channel).
As you can probably tell, this video is what prompted me to write this post.*
*I can't come up with deep subjects like this all on my own.
Anyway, it really got me thinking about who sees the real me (funnily enough) and I thought I'd just pour out all my thoughts into this blog in an attempt to see it more clearly. Does that make sense? I feel like this post is just going to drag me deeper into the void of self doubt. Ah well, as long as it isn't too long...
The first thing I thought when I watched this video was: What does see mean? It could mean understanding and really knowing a person, or it could be mean, like, literally seeing. I'm guessing the video is focusing on the former because it's deeper and easier to add emotive background music to.
In that sense, I don't think anyone sees 'The Real Me' because I'm not sure who that person is. Before you start to think I'm going to go off on some longggg tangent about finding myself and Jesus and self-acceptance and all that stuff, I'm not. Because I don't think I'm there yet. Or more accurately, I don't think this 'there', this final destination, is even on my map. I think we're all a lot of people. We're who the person you're interacting with needs, we're who a certain decision needs to be made, we're who we need to be to get through the day.*
*Can you tell I've read Gone Girl?
And that's fine. There's nothing wrong with being a different person with different people because everyone does it. Maybe it's not very noticeable in a lot of people, but sometimes it's just little things. For example, someone may react differently to a question depending on who's asking and what the consequence of their answer will be, or someone may laugh at a joke they would never find funny in a different situation.
I am a lot of people. I'm a typical, hard-working student in Biology, I'm an argumentative feminist in Politics, I'm a frustrated failure in Maths, I'm an annoying big sister with my brothers, I'm an ill patient at the doctors and an exhausted teenager in my room.
So no-one sees 'The Real Me' because I'm never all of those things at once and I'm never in a situation where I need to be.
Just writing this, I've come up with an idea. Whenever you feel yourself being one of your 'many selves', think to yourself 'Who/what am I being this person for?'. When the answer is 'Me', then you've found yourself.
Bit of a deep one for you today. I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm writing this in between watching Nashville (like when it's buffering) so it may be slightly bitty. Just so you don't feel left out of the video-watching club, here's a video by Soul Pancake (a Youtube channel).
As you can probably tell, this video is what prompted me to write this post.*
*I can't come up with deep subjects like this all on my own.
Anyway, it really got me thinking about who sees the real me (funnily enough) and I thought I'd just pour out all my thoughts into this blog in an attempt to see it more clearly. Does that make sense? I feel like this post is just going to drag me deeper into the void of self doubt. Ah well, as long as it isn't too long...
The first thing I thought when I watched this video was: What does see mean? It could mean understanding and really knowing a person, or it could be mean, like, literally seeing. I'm guessing the video is focusing on the former because it's deeper and easier to add emotive background music to.
In that sense, I don't think anyone sees 'The Real Me' because I'm not sure who that person is. Before you start to think I'm going to go off on some longggg tangent about finding myself and Jesus and self-acceptance and all that stuff, I'm not. Because I don't think I'm there yet. Or more accurately, I don't think this 'there', this final destination, is even on my map. I think we're all a lot of people. We're who the person you're interacting with needs, we're who a certain decision needs to be made, we're who we need to be to get through the day.*
*Can you tell I've read Gone Girl?
And that's fine. There's nothing wrong with being a different person with different people because everyone does it. Maybe it's not very noticeable in a lot of people, but sometimes it's just little things. For example, someone may react differently to a question depending on who's asking and what the consequence of their answer will be, or someone may laugh at a joke they would never find funny in a different situation.
I am a lot of people. I'm a typical, hard-working student in Biology, I'm an argumentative feminist in Politics, I'm a frustrated failure in Maths, I'm an annoying big sister with my brothers, I'm an ill patient at the doctors and an exhausted teenager in my room.
So no-one sees 'The Real Me' because I'm never all of those things at once and I'm never in a situation where I need to be.
Just writing this, I've come up with an idea. Whenever you feel yourself being one of your 'many selves', think to yourself 'Who/what am I being this person for?'. When the answer is 'Me', then you've found yourself.
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