Just a few things

This is just a couple of things I feel I should post;

g / gia - Never, and I mean never feel alone when it comes to your feminist ideals. Perhaps it's hardest for people our age because we're being brought up through our teen years with 'raunch culture' to a saturated extent and still the virgin/whore double standard is there. If you have any other issues you want to talk about, I really wouldn't mind chatting to you about it.

mark - If your reading this I'd really like to open a discussion with you privately since I don't want to use my comments page to air out my issues (not enough room, heh), hope you do agree.

Laura - I hope you have an enjoyable and rewarding experience in Chile and you are still one of my favorite, if not the favorite feminist blogger.


So, erm, yeah... really it was an urge to write these... sort of... notes, but I do feel better.

Another quote - why not?

"Every time someone says 'I'm not a feminist but...' a misogynist gets it's wings."

*Shrugs* Don't know where that one came from.

Well, it's been over a month since my last post, not much has happened... besides turning 18 yesterday!!! But that's no excuse for not posting (who am I talking to? Who reads this blog anyway?).

I want to get a few niggles and rants up by the end of this month but until then I will leave you with gem I found at Sparkle*Matrix,


http://www.petitions.pm.gov.uk/obscenitylaw/

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to steadfastly proceed with plans announced in the Queen's Speech to make possession of extreme pornography illegal and to include a much wider range of pornographic imagery, such as R18 material, within the scope of the Criminal Justice Bill.

*Update*

I get how there are people who are uncomfortable with this petition and so here is a link to 'I'm not a Feminist But...' to a different one.
http://notafeministbut.blogspot.com/2007/04/anti-porn-petition.html

All hail the great booze up (except the ladies)!

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a good time and in the wake of the baptism of booze we welcome the new year in with this, a new way to help keep women safe while drinking.

Young female drinkers can now take advantage of the latest fashion accessory - a trendy identity tag.

The tag, engraved with the contact details of the wearer's parent or a responsible friend, is worn on a bracelet decorated with silver beads and Swarovski crystals.

The tag can then be used by nightclub staff or emergency service workers if the wearer loses consciousness or is too drunk to remember her name.

The bracelets, which cost from £35 to £70, were designed by personal safety firm IdentifyMe, which began by making identity tags for young children who may wander away from parents.
Don Shenker, policy director of Alcohol Concern, said he feared the bracelets could lull young women into a false sense of security and send out the wrong message about binge drinking.
He said: "What concerns us is that young women may feel it is safe to drink alcohol to excess because they have their identity tag in case they lose consciousness or become incapable of speaking.

"We have heard anecdotal evidence, for example, of an aunt giving such a bracelet to her niece because the niece has a tendency to get drunk and lose consciousness. Giving a bracelet in those circumstances could be interpreted as an endorsement of that behaviour."

Nadine Lewis, Managing Director of IdentifyMe, denied encouraging binge drinking and said the bracelets could offer piece of mind to worried parents.

She said: "In no way are we encouraging young women to binge drink. However, we received a number of requests from customers for this type of product.

"It is a worrying sign that this sort of product is needed, but it seems that the trend for women to go out at the weekend and drink to excess is showing no sign of slowing down and we must do everything we can to keep them as safe as possible."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/31122006/344/identity-tag-binge-drinkers.html

Could you excuse me for a moment, *bangs head on brick wall*, thank you.
First I want to get slightly more shallow part over with, the bracelet is ugly. It's the sort of thing I'd see in Top Shop and dismiss because it's just unattractive, I'm not going to pay 35 to 70 pounds for it, if I'm not going to spend ten pounds in Top Shop I'm certainly not going to spend that much money for something where the purpose of it could be accomplished by writing your address or friend/family number on a piece of paper and putting into your jacket pocket. And while I'm on the subject, next month I turn 18 and I will be going out drinking with friends to celebrate and I simply don't have the money to spend on a little chain bracelet, I'm sure a lot of young female drinkers can't.

"It is a worrying sign that this sort of product is needed, but it seems that the trend for women to go out at the weekend and drink to excess is showing no sign of slowing down and we must do everything we can to keep them as safe as possible." Surely it's also needed for all the men who go out on the weekends and get completely legless? No? Just women then? I wonder why, oh ofcourse, it's to keep them safe. Two questions here, why don't drunk men have to be protected in this manner? and, keep them safe from what... exactly?

Binge drinking is nothing new in England, in keeping with the 'Othello' theme from the sub-heading, here is an extract of two characters discussing the English.

IAGO
I learned it in England, where, indeed, they are most potent in potting: your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander--Drink, ho!--are nothing to your English.

CASSIO
Is your Englishman so expert in his drinking?

IAGO
Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane deaddrunk; he sweats not to overthrow your Almain; he gives your Hollander a vomit, ere the next pottlecan be filled.


Othello was written some time in the late 1500's, England has always been a country of boozers, Shakespeare knew it 500 years ago.

Drinking only became unacceptable, un-couth when the girls started doing it.

Last post of 2006

When I first started this blog I knew for a fact it wouldn't become the next Den of the biting Beaver, it's just nice to know that if something upsets me so much I feel compelled to voice it or give it some sort of form I have a place to do that.

Well, I took a break to get Christmas over and done with (nice and quiet, best kind of x-mas') and now I think I'll finish off 2006 on a lighter note, frankly I think if my blog gets any lighter it'll float away.

Here is one of my favourite quotes I heard this year from one of my favourite comedians, Dylan Moran;
"It's amazing what men interpret as sexual, for instance, 'Did you see the way she looked at me, before she tolded me to fuck off'."

Happy New Year!

I want to be a Mantis!

Or a Blue Whale.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KYp_Xi4AtAQ

The funniest part are the comments, you can just tell that all the blokes (I assume their blokes) are really scared shitless at the very idea, so they have to lash out at females.

Meanwhile I'll enjoy the image of a male getting on with the job even without a head.

Free Hate Speech?

I think that everyone has a right to their opinion, opinions are great! They separate us and help define ourselves as individuals. When you have an opinion on something, no matter how trivial, it means you've at least applied a little thought on the matter and that you can have a friendly chat or deep discussion with another person on the subject where you can both express your ideas, agree, disagree or agree to disagree on it. Fantastic!

Free speech is even better, an expression of those thought out (or not) opinions that you are entitled to as a citizen of your country and, more so, as a human
being.

BUT I don't think anyone is entitled to Hate speech. Hate speech is not free speech. Free speech is an expression of your opinion, Hate speech is just that - speech (or even text) that incites or expresses hatred towards a person or group of people by degrading, dehumanizing, cheapening that person(s).

Two arguments I come across when I've tried defining Hate speech in this way:

1) But what if that is their opinion and they are just expressing it in an assertive way?

If you value your own opinion in such high esteem then surely it is worth the effort to communicate it to people in a way that is going to get through and they will actually be willing to listen to. If you believe in what your saying why make it so people will simply
dismiss it at first sight?

2) Wait for it... ... ... 'This is political correctness gone mad!'... there we go.

No it isn't (I wish I could leave it at that, but I can't). Treating others as human beings isn't PC or being hyper-sensitive, it's giving them the respect the deserve as people. You have to treat a person with respect to expect any back. I'm 17 and I've learnt that, how come Mr. God-bag from No.7 Privilege Road can't?

Let me finish with an example that I think will help summarise my stand on Free speech and Hate speech.

God Hates Fags . com
God Hates Homosexuals . com

See? Better, well not better, but consider this, which site are you less likely to dismiss?

*Note: As my ideas on this subject change and progress I want to come back to this post and add any new angles or perspectives on the matter.

Thank you Shakespeare

I just thought of this phrase today while leaving Eng Lit and I think it can be applied to any misogynistic man who tries to discredit a woman by using degrading names (e.g., bitch, slag, prossy, dyke etc.);

The gentleman doth project too much, methinks.

Only Rapists Can Prevent Rape

• If a woman is drunk, don't rape her.
• If a woman is walking alone at night, don't rape her.
• If a woman is drugged and unconscious, don't rape her.
• If a woman is wearing a short skirt, don't rape her.
• If a woman is jogging in a park at 5 am, don't rape her.
• If a woman looks like your ex-girlfriend you're still hung up on, don't rape her.
• If a woman is asleep in her bed, don't rape her.
• If a woman is asleep in your bed, don't rape her.
• If a woman is doing her laundry, don't rape her.
• If a woman is in a coma, don't rape her.
• If a woman changes her mind in the middle of or about a particular activity, don't rape her.
• If a woman has repeatedly refused a certain activity, don't rape her.
• If a woman is not yet a woman, but a child, don't rape her.
• If your girlfriend or wife is not in the mood, don't rape her.
• If your step-daughter is watching TV, don't rape her.
• If you break into a house and find a woman there, don't rape her.
• If your friend thinks it's okay to rape someone, tell him it's not, and that he's not your friend.
• If your "friend" tells you he raped someone, report him to the police.
• If your frat-brother or another guy at the party tells you there's an unconscious woman upstairs and it's your turn, don't rape her, call the police and tell the guy he's a rapist.
• Tell your sons, god-sons, nephews, grandsons, sons of friends it's not okay to rape someone.
• Don't tell your women friends how to be safe and avoid rape.
• Don't imply that she could have avoided it if she'd only done/not done x.
• Don't imply that it's in any way her fault.
• Don't let silence imply agreement when someone tells you he "got some" with the drunk girl.
• Don't perpetuate a culture that tells you that you have no control over or responsibility for your actions.

Retrieved from Modesty Rocks (From the f-word blog)

Agree? Re-post it then.

Don't mess at a Baptism!

Ow, ow, ow! My tongue still hurts from having to bite it all yesterday.

I had to go to my cousins Baptism on Sunday, thanks to an impressive guilt trip by my Dad, and anyone who knows me well enough will know that that isn't my 'thing' (what with me believing that Christianity in all it's forms is practically the main cause of all racism, sexism and homophobia in Western society - but that's not the point of this post).

So I'm sitting there, my bum going numb and getting crushed by the old 'rock and hard place' A.K.A 'a pew stand and my Gran' and it was time for my cousin to go up and receive the service of holy Baptism, we all smiled proudly while she lit the advent candle, I muttered out the communions part of the prayers (like everyone else does), the priest presented my cousin then asked her to make 'The Decision'. To anyone who has never been to a Christening/Baptism or hasn't been to one recently, usually people are christened when they are babies and so it's the God-parents who make the Decision for them during the service as representatives. However, my cousin is thirteen so she made the decision by her self and now we get to the point in the service where I had to bite extra hard on my tongue, this is what 'The Decision' involves (P = Priest, C = Cousin):

P: In baptism, God calls us out of darkness into his marvellous light.
To follow Christ means dying to sin and rising to new life with him. Therefore I ask:

Do you reject the devil and all rebellion against God?
C: I reject them.

P: Do you renounce the deceit and corruption of evil?
C: I renounce them.

P: Do you repent of the sins that seperate us from God and neighbour?
C: I repent of them.

P: Do you turn to Christ as Saviour?
C: I turn to Christ.

P: Do you submit to Christ as Lord?
C: I submit to Christ.

P: Do you come to Christ, the way, the truth and the life?
C: I come to Christ.

I nearly pierced my tongue trying to keep myself quiet, for the sake and love of my family and all I thought form that point on: 'These people do not mess.'

And you know what? I have to do it all again next month!