International Women's Day: Do We Still Need Feminism?

I am a feminist. Taking the definition of feminism to be a belief that men and women should have equal rights, I think that probably most of the people I know are also feminists. However, few would identify themselves as feminists.

This is because the word 'feminism' conjures up images of crazy, men-hating women, who don't shave their legs and who believe in female supremacy rather than equality. Until recently, I also didn't want to identify as a feminist because of this.

 I also thought feminism was irrelevant, in this country at least, and belonged in my history lessons not in everyday life. Perhaps ironically, I think this is because I grew up as one of three sisters and went to an all-girls school. In my home and school, I saw that girls could do anything. Girls could do science; girls could lead; girls could be funny. I didn't realise that outside my little world, women were thought to be incapable of doing these things and a lot of their worth was measured by their bodies.

Of course feminism has come a long way, but there is still some way to go, both in the UK and worldwide. To mark women's day, here's a (by no means exhaustive) list of why we still need feminism:

• In the UK, the gender pay gap stands at 15% 

• Only 24% of senior management roles are filled by women, globally 

• Girls have to be taught how to not be raped

• The prevalence of rape culture, particularly on university campuses, and the practise of victim blaming, because she was wearing a short skirt/drunk/flirty/'asking for it' 

• The fact that a song like "Blurred lines" is so popular (btw Robin Thicke there are no blurred lines and if she doesn't say she wants it, she doesn't want it!) 

On that note: 

 all the men here are fully clothed (because they're worth more than their bodies) 

• Male Privilege (worded too perfectly by Charly Cox here) 

• Male politicians being able to decide in certain countries what a woman should or should not be allowed to do to her own body if she becomes pregnant. 

• Around 14 million girls, some as young as eight, will be forcibly married in 2014 

• In ten countries, women are legally bound to obey their husbands 

• Over 130 million women have undergone Female Genital Mutilation 

• About 44% of women in the UK have experienced either sexual or physical abuse since they were 15 

• Globally, one in three women will be raped or beaten during their lifetime 

So as you can see, we still have a while to go before total equality is achieved and I, for one, am a feminist and proud! Happy International Women's Day!! 

World Book Day

Happy World Book day everyone! I've been meaning to do a quick review of ' The Silver Linings Playbook' by Matthew Quick for a while and today seemed like the perfect opportunity. So here it goes…


I picked up this book, because I've heard of (but haven't seen) the movie, but I am very glad I did. It is the first book I have finished within 24 hours (well maybe 25) for a very long time. This book will make you laugh and cry out loud and as the internet says feel all the feels!

I think the reason it is so compelling is the characters are very real. Quick creates such a simple, yet endearing voice for Pat Peoples, the protagonist and narrator, that you can't help but fall in love with him and root for him throughout the novel.

Pat is not a hero though. He is pretty messed up. In fact, he's just come back home from a neural health facility, which he refers to as 'the bad place' and is now working hard on improving himself. Why?
Because Pat People's views his life as a movie, produced by God. If he improves enough, God will grant him his happy ending and 'apart time' with his wife will end and they will be reunited. As readers removed from the situation, we know, from other characters and clues, that 'apart time' is most definitely permanent; however as we are seeing the world through Pat's eyes, we are kept in the dark as to why.

Speaking of the other characters, they are also as fully formed, by Quick, as Pat. His parents, brother and friends are varied and flawed and mostly believable. And then of course there is Tiffany. Tiffany is equally as messed up as Pat and when she comes into his life, the two form a strange relationship. It is a relationship, which is a bit hard to understand, but this is probably because Pat doesn't understand it himself.

This book is as surprising as life itself, not as predictable as the movie Pat thinks he's living in, nor twisting and turning all the time. There are so many reasons I could give for liking this book, but this is already disgustingly long for a blog post so I'll keep it as brief as I can:

• It is very easy to relate to Pat's optimistic outlook and looking for the 'silver lining'. Although Pat's view is very exaggerated, most of us expect the future to be better. In fact humans may well be hardwired to be optimistic. Throughout the book, you're rooting for things to work out for Pat, even if not in the way he wants them to go, as so often is the case in life. 

• The music commentary is very fitting. Music is an important part of my life and I often have songs playing in the background of my life, as does the author (you can read his 'essay' about that    here) In this book, there is a lot of music mentioned, in particular the mysteriously 'evil' Kenny G who haunts Pat. I also challenge you not to play 'Gonna Fly Now' to read along to Pat's workout routine, when instructed to do so. 

• It tackles mental health in a pretty humorous and light hearted way, without dancing around the subject too much. You are seeing the story through a bipolar man, and yet the other 'sane' people around him have the capacity to act just as crazy. 

I found this book wonderful and to get sappy it does get you to look for the silver lining. I haven't seen the movie and apparently there are some significant changes, but if it's half as good as the book I'm sure I'll enjoy it. I would thoroughly recommend this book, but for now I'll leave you with this: 

(Gonna Fly Now) 

13 Things That Happened in 2013

So here's a quick rundown of the year. These are by no means the biggest or most important news stories of 2013; they are, as the title suggests, simply 13 things that happened:

1. Horse meat scandal 
2. Richard III's body found in a Leicester car park
3. A Papal transition 
4. Margaret Thatcher died 
5. Boston marathon bombings
6. NSA Edward Snowden leaks
7. Prince George was born
8. The rise of the bitcoin currency 
9. Higgs Boson confirmed 
10. Syrian chemical weapons investigations 
11. Typhoon Haiyan hits the Phillipines 
12. The world lost Nelson Mandela
13. Beyoncé dropped her secret album 

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2014. Happy New Year!!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas….

One of my favourite Christmas songs covered by one of my favourite bands:

(yes I like Coldplay…*insert Coldplay joke here*) 

Hope you all have a very merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year 

xxx 

Thoughts on Death

Not the most cheery of titles, particularly for this time of year, but here we go…

I've been thinking about death quite a bit recently. I realise how morbid that sounds, but so many public figures have died recently. Of course, as I blogged about last time, the world lost the legend that is Nelson Mandela not long ago. More recently the actor Peter O'Toole passed away and a couple of months ago so did Lou Reed.

In my personal life as well, the 12th December 2013 marked 10 years since I lost my uncle. My uncle was an amazing person. And his love of living made his death hit a lot harder; I'd also never known anybody to die before and, although it's not a first that is often talked about, a first death is a hard thing to come to terms with (as is any death of someone you love)

But this post is more about life than death.

I studied medieval and early modern English history at school for my A-levels.  At that time in history, death was very much central to the experience of life. This was due, mostly, to the Christian belief in the afterlife and the fate of the immortal soul and life on earth was seen just as a transitionary phase. Although, the reformation changed some beliefs (notably purgatory) about life after death, it still remained that death shaped life.

Although this may seem a depressing way to live, it doesn't have to be. Remembering that you will die can help you to gain perspective in a lot of things. Asking yourself will this matter when I die can make you care less about petty arguments and exam grades and focus more on relationships and experiences.
It is also something all living things have in common: we all will live, we all will die. (As Fight Club taught us: 'On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero')

I quote too much, but I will leave you with a quotation from Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech. Regardless of his personal life, it is pretty much agreed on that Jobs was successful during his life and his ideas on living are definitely worth considering. Just like my uncle, he seemed to love life and that is, at least by my standards, commendable:

“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.

Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. 

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. 

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it, and that is how it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”

(Steve Jobs)

So yeah, this post is basically saying YOLO, make the most of it.

Nelson Mandela

How to write a blogpost on Mandela? It feels as though everything that could be written or said about him has been done so since his death on December 5th 2013, but I thought, on the day of his funeral, I would add my own voice to the ongoing tributes.

There is a lot of different ways I could approach this and a lot of different things I could say, but I will try to keep it as brief as possible.

I wasn't alive during Mandela's struggle to end the apartheid; he became South Africa's first democratically elected black president in the same year I was born (1994), so the majority of his life and his legend is history to me. This history is definitely something I would like to explore in more detail, maybe in a future blogpost; however I do not think this is the time for an in-depth analysis.

What I will say is that, for me, as for so many others, Mandela is a huge inspiration. I know I will never achieve the impact he had on the world in my own life, but his compassion and charm, his determination and willpower as well as, for me most importantly, his humility are qualities I want to develop in myself.

Although at first I was extremely saddened by the news, I'm glad, as has been demonstrated by his memorial service, his incredible life is being celebrated.

R.I.P Madiba- gone, but never forgotten. The man who inspired the world.

18th July 1918- 5th December 2013

World AIDS Day (part 2): A little bit of fun

To follow on from my World AIDS Day post yesterday, here is The Killers' eight Christmas single: Christmas in L.A. 

All of the money from the single go to the RED campaign spearheaded by Bono.

Buy the song here

Find out more about RED here.