Gender unequals

You know what makes me mad? 

Sexism.  

The looks, the tone, the language 

Of sexism. 




And in case you didn't know what sexism looks like, let me show
you.  

Because oh shit there it is, right behind you!  

Sometimes it comes from between your lips.  

And whether you meant it as a joke or not,

The root of gender inequality lies between my hips. 




Movember- woo! Armpits for August - boo! 

Women aren't meant to have hair under their arms or stretched over their
calves, didn't you know? It doesn't grow because it's meant to be there... So
make it go.

"I don`t care how much money it raises, no woman should have hair below
their bottom set of eye lashe`s. Fact!" 

Thank you, Daily Mail Online commenter. I knew I could count on your
support. 




Wage gap, wage gap, gaps in pay. 

Not paid the same for being Rebecca and not Ray.  




Maternity pay - acceptable, conditionally. 

Paternity leave - inexcusable, start acting traditionally. 




The phrase "having it all" and hearing women can't, don't.

And knowing that men can, do. 




That bloody glass ceiling that still exists. 

We can see it because our nails, short and long, polished and plain,
scratch at it every day.  

We can see it because our hands, grubby with sweat from work, working
out, cleaning the house, cleaning up the kids, those grubby hands leave marks
there to stay. 

We can see our reflections in it. Our bruised and battered reflections
as we push and push and push and puuuuush.  




Gender inequality is hearing the phrases "don't be such a
girl", "man up", "grow some balls". 

Because god forbid you should in any way act like less than a man, like
a female. 

Wait, how does a female act anyway?




Do proper women cover up? 

Do real women have curves? 

Do all women have some deep down desire to fill their womb and go
through an average of 12 hours of pain to birth another human being? 




If you cover up - good for you! If you have curves - good for you! If
you have a child, or multiple children - I stand up and applaud you because I
think it's the stupidest yet bravest action a woman could do. 

Actually, bungee jumping also requires bravery. So does joining the
army. 

So does crossing the street in Thailand apparently. 

So giving birth is simply a fantastic thing to do, well done, but it's
not the BE ALL and END ALL of a woman's abilities.




Gender inequality is reading about a Texan hospital keeping a brain-dead
woman alive because she's pregnant and they won't turn off life support because
Texan law requires the doctors to save the baby. A brain-dead woman, who was
administered drugs and electric shocks to try and get her to live, who cannot
be an active part in the life of a baby who has probably suffered because of
the aforementioned medical practices used to try and save the mother, is still
hooked up to a machine DESPITE her family asking doctors to turn off life
support.







http://abcnews.go.com/Health/family-pregnant-texas-woman-sues-hospital-keeping-life/story?id=21531385
 







 A woman is a human being, not an incubator. Do you need proof?







Here is a picture of a woman.   




 










Here is a picture of an incubator.






 


  

  
borrowed from aboutraisingchickens101.com



 

  

  

Well, look at that. They're different. Who'd've thunk it...







Gender inequality is Marion Bertolli winning Wimbledon and being berated
for being "ugly". 

(Beauty, beholder, you fill on the words.) 

When does a woman's face stop her playing professional tennis to a
championship winning standard?

IT DOESN'T YOU MORONS. 




It's seeing the headline that 3 in 4 girls have low self-esteem, and 7
out of 10 over the age of 13 have suffered sexual harassment at school or
college.

 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/girlguiding-report-sexism-blamed-as-three-in-four-girls-report-low-selfesteem-8971885.html




It's a woman protesting to not have women wiped off the face of British
currency. And then succeeding. And THEN getting days, weeks, months of abuse
and hate online. It's other women sticking up for her and getting the same sort
of abuse. And bomb threats. Actual fucking bomb threats.




It's a man shouting boo at a woman at an ATM and then repeatedly trying
to hold her hand as she walks in the same direction at them, at the same pace.
And you laugh it off as them being friendly, if not slightly annoying. But my
hand. Why did he want to hold my hand? Why did he feel he could touch me at
all? 




It's a 17 year old boy shouting "slut" at you because you
don't fancy him. Does he even know the definition of "slut" according
to a dictionary? Because surely not fancying any random boy off the street
makes you the opposite of the definition of a slut. Surely a more accurate
thing he should have shouted was "well I don't fancy you
either." 




It's your hostel room mates asking if you want to see them naked. And
you laugh it off and say no thanks but then the next day when they wolf whistle
at you when you return to the room from a shower you tell them if they do that
again you'll take their testicles off. 

And it's them saying "it's just a joke. Don't take it like
that."




Why are woman always the butt of the joke? 

Why these three things in three days?




It's an old man touching you up in a Lidl's car park. 

It's a guy you thought was your friend, that you trusted, giving you a black eye and sexually assaulting you because he wants
you so bad and you don't want him back.

It's the destruction of your trust in men. You know not all men are like that, not all men would do that.
You know it somewhere.




It's hearing that all the stories on Everyday Sexism project couldn't
possibly all be true. Some of them must be made up. That one hurts much more
because you've contributed to it. Twice. And you have so many more stories that
could go on it.




It's reading Project Unbreakable. http://projectunbreakable.tumblr.com/ 




It's hearing that men can't be raped. 

That a woman was asking for it because of what she was wearing, or some
other bullshit excuse. How can we stop rape? Get women not to walk down dark
alleys at night. Get women to cover up, and not go out drinking. Get women to
carry mace or pepper spray, or even their house keys in their hand when they
walk home, walk anywhere, just in case.

No. We stop rape by teaching that rape is wrong. Rape is caused by
rapists. End of. So shut up.




It's getting this bullshit day in, day out, and feeling weary and worn
out from having to constantly defend yourself, justify yourself. It's all so
exhausting. 




And if you think I'm not acting very ladylike by being so, so, so beside
myself with anger, then ask yourself this: why are you forcing your ideals of
what a woman should be on me? Where did you get them from? Was it your parents?
Your friends? School? The media? 




All of the above.







Gender inequality is men and women being given ideals
of themselves in terms of appearance, personality traits, and skills. It's
being told there are roles for men and there are roles for women. 

Why are there not roles for people? 




I'm done with this shit. It has to end. 







Just because it's the status quo

Doesn't mean it should be so.

A Rant About Misogyny because I saw a Flo Rida video last night)

In a nightclub at my hostel last night, I noticed this video on the screens. And all I could see was ass. Ass, booty, the junk in this girls trunk.

What really shocked me was not that there were beautiful scantily-clad woman dancing in an RnB song. It was the complete disassociation of these butts from the women that own them. In the first three seconds, we see a reflection of a bottom in Flo Rida's shades. You can just about see that this bottom is attached to body. But then Flo Rida is standing astride a long line of oversized arses. Seriously. They are just everywhere.

At 20 seconds, the creepiest thing I think I have seen on a screen in a long time appears.

I'm not sure I should show you, but in the interest of research.this blog. I print screened it for you.

Why, in 2013, are female bodies still the main fucking attraction? (Damn I try hard not to swear on this blog but I'm a little bit angry right now).

These women, where are their faces? At 0:30 we get a fleeting glance of two women sitting n the front of Flo Rida's speedboat. It's so quick, and they are not even doing anything. Just sitting there, looking pretty. 

Oh wait, more faces! at 0:46, there's are two women whose faces we see as they...sit...there...looking pretty... (as mermaids?! Do mermaids even have asses???)

OOH! At 0:49 we get a face, as she does an awesome hair flick towards the camera. And then at 0:58 we see her face as she returns from bending over. 

My favourite bit (wait, can you tell that was sarcasm? It's hard to know sometimes when you're reading something so just to let you know, that was sarcasm) is at 1:01 Flo Rida is holding a booty-cone. Oh yes, this girl's booty is positioned like some fine piece of ice cream that Flo's just gonna get his tongue around. But wait! The booty-cone girl is holding a booty-cone of another girl, who is also holding a booty-cone and oh my I'm a bit dizzy.

(Also, it's just after this bit I started asking myself "what do crocodiles have to do with ass?" And I'm still not sure.)

Mermaid girls are back for a second's glance at 1:30. 

And at 1:46, did Pitbull just call women "monkeys"? Or just women's asses? Or just the asses of women of colour (this latter possibility is sort of nullified by the fact that Flo Rida just "can't believe it" that a white woman has a booty, and thus giving us the whole [terrible] premise for the song.) Maybe I misunderstood him. Maybe he just wanted to get a Michael Jackson reference in there. 

Wait! 5 seconds later I think I have made the connection! The chorus is "bubbleyumbum" or something like that. And Jacko's monkey was called Bubbles right? So it was just the reference he was going for then. Right?

I seriously hope so.

2:04. More creepy mirror images. At 2:12 you get a tiny glance a the girl with purple hair's face. It's so quick I thought it was Jessie J pre-head shave for a moment.

2:40 - :44. Mirror. Images. 

And then yeah. Last minute is just the same as everything before. Asses, booty, junk in their trunk. And you barely see the women attached to them.

Now, you could argue artistic whatsit. You could even use that age old argument that the women in the video have made a choice to be in the video. And you could say some women might enjoy Pitbull and Flo Rida drumming on their asses like fucking bongo drums.

But actually it's the bongo drumming hand gestures that really seal the deal for me. "Look at that ass! I want to drum it. Like a bongo drum. Like an actual fucking object. Because this isn't a woman, a human being with feelings, thoughts, ambitions, brains or brawn. It's a wonderland created to help me improve my drumming skills."

And the misogyny and sexism in popular culture doesn't just stay in popular culture. For a start, it's created by those that continue perpetuating misogynistic and sexist views. And it doesn't stay isolated, but not matter how much you say popular culture doesn't affect you, it does. Like the excellent "She Didn't Buy It" strips for Page 3, you don't have to buy into something to be affected by it. The people on the bus in Stirling didn't buy into the misogynistic lads culture of the hockey team. But they were on the same bus and had to be subjected to their pathetic chants. You don't have to like the song Blurred Lines, or you can see it as harmless fun, but juxtapose the lyrics against rapist's actual words, and maybe you'll think a little differently. 

Blurred Lines, and whatever this Flo Rida song is called, are just two in what seems like a bazillion gillion songs in mainstream music that makes objectifying women, telling women what they want, dominating women, etc etc, totally normal. Totally normal. 

But I am more than a piece of ass, or a great rack. But this is just so freaking normal now. The hostel I'm staying in, at the nightclub attached, had a pole dancing competition last night. Ladies only, of course. On Ladies Night, after the topless champagne waiters had packed away. And at the end, all the women lined up for 60 seconds more dancing and the MC kept saying stuff like "get naked, get dirty, get your lesbian on". 

And I'm not going judge the girls on the stage for what they did, as long as they didn't feel pressured into it and they enjoyed themselves, but what the MC was saying was pressure, and it was just typical misogyny - women, get your bits out for our enjoyment. And I felt guilty that I was watching it all. A passive bystander. But what could I have done, jumped on stage and tried to pull the plug? Am I going to stand by when there is jelly wrestling, wet t-shirt contests, and Gladiator fights where the female contestants are nicknamed "Love Black Cock"?

I'm not going to watch, or participate. But that doesn't mean I won't be affected.

And my room mate just came back from a bar where one guy harassed her, trying to get her to have a drink (she's not drinking tonight as she's diving tomorrow) and when she refused him politely he grabbed her arm. 

I am raging. And it's exhausting. Which is why this rant is probably incoherent and rambling.