Question #92: What do you think?
September 13, 2012
I saw the following segment when I was flicking channels. The sports part of the news came on and…well, you understand. Ellen was on and I saw Reece Witherspoon was coming up…and I like her and so I thought I’d stick around.
But it wasn’t an interview with Ellen, she was having ‘Tea with Sophia Grace and Rosie’.
I thought, on one level, it’s ‘cutish’ BUT for the most part I thought – This is sort of imagery and behaviour that is making our problem worse.
It’s cute, but ALL the compliments, from both the girls and (mainly) Reece, are about what they’re wearing and their attractiveness.
There is a moment where one of the girls breaks into singing a few lines of Adele’s song (Rolling in the Deep, I think it was)…and it’s wonderful. She’s amazing, actually.
So why the circus show?
Question #93: Why can’t we showcase every girl’s wonderfulness, without those narrow, fickle images where girls can only talk about how pretty they are?
I’d love you to watch it and tell me what you think…
So, what sort of ‘feminist’ am I?
February 24, 2012
Yes, there’s that word again.
I was extremely grateful for my first male comment – expressing an opinion about how off-putting the word ‘feminist’ can be – especially to male. I want to include males in the conversation (and encourage them to join). The comment got me thinking about how our perceptions influence everything we experience in life. After all, your perceptions and perspective become your reality.
So, what is feminism?
1. the doctrine advocating social, political and all other rights of women equal to those of men.
2. an organised movement for the attainment of such rights for women.
That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?
So why is there such a negative connection to this movement?
The more important question is:
Question #19: Why is there STILL a movement?
I digress.
Maybe the negativity towards feminism is due to that common stereotype of angry, male-hating, bra burning females with hairy armpits. As much as I kind of understand not having to wear a bra (wouldn’t that be nice? Without the ‘girls’ quickly heading south and resting on our stomachs?) or shaving one’s legs and armpits, I think the key word there is angry. That’s what turns people off, I suppose.
But why shouldn’t there be anger, when it’s a question of equal rights?
Equal…not be judged on how similar we are, or should be, to males – but equal.
Equally needed. Equally valued. The yin to the yang.
I am a warrior for BALANCE.
Yes, I’m a [recent] feminist – I started to see. What I see is a world in trouble; tipping badly out of balance.
Yes, I feel a sting of anger towards the unequal place that females hold in our world.
My goal is to use a steady, but strong voice, hoping females join me in exercising their intelligence, to start shifting the current paradigm. I want to use this blog to make females – and males – aware of the saturation of images and stereotypes (in our ‘developed’ world) as well as the horrors inflicted on females in other parts of the world – due solely on their (our) gender.
All adults need to truly teach their daughters and sons – our future – how to navigate through the objectification and violence against females.
We need to empower girls in a diversity of ways – looks and weight being the least important – her mind being the most important.
Our boys and young males are in real danger as well – following a more misogynistic view of women due to the same images and stereotypes splashed everywhere they look. And now, on average, boys are starting to watch violent porn at 11 years of age.
Boys need to be taught to see it as abhorrent to see and treat females in the way they are currently; as anything less than equal.
I do not fight for me. I fight for any human being that is suffering injustice – it just so happens that statistically females are the predominant victims worldwide.
As a female, are you equal in EVERY aspect in your life? If you are, can you say the same for others? How can those sisters be helped? What about the way in which females are being portrayed in popular culture?
Bitch – Nag – Dumb – Useless – Slut – Fickle – Vain – Objectified Sex Kittens.
It’s easy to make females feel down about themselves by labelling them and keeping them in their place.
Question #20: What place do you hold?
I DO NOT hate males. I believe they are important and pivotal in creating a shift of perspective and change in our world – but they are currently running the joint…their way.
One gender in control = inequality.
We need BALANCE to make things right and just. Females ‘ruling the world’ would pose an equally, problematic existence.
50/50 should be the equation of males to females in any room on this planet, making a decision for their people. Nothing more; nothing less.
It’s the only way.
So, that’s the type of feminist I am – a calm and steady warrior, using her voice to get some balance in this wonderful, but absurd world.
Deep Breath
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The Kardashians – a representation of what’s wrong today.
January 31, 2012
If there is a group of women who have been wrapped up in plastic packaging, sold to the world and subsequently gained unfathomable wealth – it’s the Kardashians.
I find it infuriating and a complete enigma, that these women are given a pedestal in our society for being ‘savvy business women’, but who are in fact being rewarded for their uselessness.
On a recent report, when Kim and one of the other coat-tail sisters came to Sydney, it claimed that the Kardashians made 70 million dollars the previous year. 70.million.dollars.
How is this possible? What is it they contribute to society to justify such wealth?
Let’s see…
# 1: Kim became ‘famous’ from a sex tape, which was conveniently leaked just before the start of their first season of ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians.’
#2: As the family demonstrate nothing but their insatiable appetite for money and fame – we respond by giving it to them.
#3: Now they slap a label on and sell everything, including themselves. The same report claimed Kim asks for $150,000 an hour to make an appearance at an event.
With all that money, they can only swim laps in their greed – a greed on such a grand scale, that we seem (as a society) to admire it and reward it.
Isn’t Greed one of the Seven Deadly Sins?
The worst part is that rather than have some substantially significant impact on the world with that wealth, they just spend it all on their gross vanity – clothes, cars, a nip and a tuck – only further pushing young girls to revere a falsehood.
Here’s a picture of Kim crying…
In my Drama class yesterday, we were talking about how hard it is to laugh and cry convincingly when acting. When we were dissecting what makes a good cry, we agreed that there’s one common denominator – you look ugly….really ugly. That’s what a cry is. The image above shows a frozen face. Cover the mouth – she could be expressing ANY other emotion – because that top part ain’t moving.
What are these women, predominantly Kim, teaching to our girls?
This is where I’m stumped.
When the two sisters came to Sydney, the news reports showed gaggles, flocks, SCORES of young women and girls, going to shriek greet them. It was like the Beatles were in town.
Seriously.
On two separate news reports, hysterical (I kid you not) girls were asked what they loved about Kim. They both responded with equally breathless, squeals of, “She’s…SO BEAUTIFUL!!” When asked what else they liked, the reporters should have run the audio of the crickets chirping in the background because they had no other answer. None. One girl kept looking around, trying to think of something inspirational to say – probably hoping someone would feed her the answer…any answer.
Zip.
So there you have it – she’s beautiful. Fake beautiful. 70 million dollars.
Now we can feel relieved to know that our girls will now know exactly what they need to do – what to aspire to – to make money. And it all starts with selling themselves; selling themselves short.
Forget educating our girls – giving them a mind to make change – it’s all for nothing if all that’s important (regardless of what she’s achieved) is how she looks; sexy, hot and fake.
And that’s the message saturating our children’s world.
Boys used to have to sneak a magazine (that would have possibly been a little difficult to get), to see a bit of boob – now both boys and girls can simply to go to the shops because now we’re selling jeans like this:
Thanks girls. You look hot. I hope you got the validation you were looking for.
Question #9: Have these sorts of women become our girls’ new role models?
Questions for Us 