Mermaids Against Misogyny

If you haven't heard already, six women were murdered by 22 year old Elliott Rodger in Santa Barbara on Saturday after three of them refused to have sex with him. The three in question were consequently stabbed to death before Rodger went out on the streets and began to shoot at random passers-by. He left a YouTube video describing his humiliation, misogynistic values and (lack of a) sex life, which eventually led to many sympathising with him.

So, the girls seem to be at fault for their deaths, despite the fact that all they did was tell him no? So feminists are stereotyped as man-hating dykes when a misogynist, who kills six women, is labelled as 'mentally ill' and receives an overwhelming amount of sympathy?

As a response, something of a revolt seems to have been established on twitter under the hashtag "#YesAllWomen". On this tag, people (such as myself) have written ways in which they feel discriminated against due to sexism or as result of lack of gender equality. Reading through them, it shows we've still got a hell of a long way to go.... 

Are Men the secret to Equal Rights for Women?

Pre-post note:
One of the many perks of having a wonderful boyfriend, who identifies as a feminist, is that he writes bloody brilliant posts for me just like the one you are about to read. Thank you, Tom. Hopefully, this will be the first of many...

Post:

It is the Wednesday 28^th August 1963, 300,000-strong army of peaceful protesters descend on Washington like a pack of hungry wolves. Marching for jobs, freedom and equality; as well as to hear the tranquil words of the godfather of the Civil Rights movement in the United States, Martin Luther King Jr; among the crowds of expectant people, waiting with baited breath for the speech which would transform America forever. Not just black people who had suffered racism (who still had their shirt stained by the blood of oppression), African-American women and children who still had the scars to show and the nightmares to tell, but white people, who had no experience of racism but felt that it was right and moral to help the cause of black people in America because they saw the injustice of what was going on and decided to take a stand.

What I’m trying to get at is that when it comes to sexism - which I know is very different to that of the civil rights movement in American in the 1960s – feminists (in which I count myself as one despite being a bloke, with a penis, who does stereotypically manly things like watch football and drink Bovril) believe in equality of the sexes, and therefore I am totally unashamed of calling myself a feminist and it does not make me any less a man.

Anyway…back to my original point which I seemed to have deviated from somewhat… I think that in order to create a more equal society for women, what feminist groups need are men. We need more male feminists who firmly believe in the equality of the sexes and are very against the objectification of women, like the white people who supported the black struggle in 1963. I think that way, decision makers/dudes in power (who, because of sexism, are guys) are more likely to listen to blokes compared to female feminists, not because they are not any good but merely because of the sexist culture which society encourages.

Obviously, I could be talking out of my backside (which is a great possibility due to my big arse). I have never been part of a real, organised feminist organisation and I have never been on the receiving end of sexist abuse, if you exclude my father being a male nurse and some of the grief that he got when he first ventured into the nursing possession in the 1980s.

I know as a bloke that due to ‘laddism’ and other ideas which our internet-age culture clings to and watch expand into situations and notions which are clearly sexist. Although it might be a hard and thankless task trying to get testosterone-filled tykes to change their ways, I think it can be done and It would only take a few for a change on how women are viewed in British society.

In short, I’m calling to take the moral high ground and stand up for feminist causes! Ladies, nag your boyfriends to help, otherwise nothing can change…

I hope you have enjoyed reading this little and substandard post compared to the rest of the posts on this fantastic blog. 

THREE THOUSAND VIEWS

I have had this blog since the 15th April, which was just a little over a month ago, and have already received three thousand views - seven hundred of which were in the past forty eight hours. That's insane. 

I'd just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has tweeted me telling me how my blog affected you. Whether you have promoted it (thank you Maz, Eve, Millie and Tom) or even just clicked on a link or read a post. The numbers all add up. 

According to my blog stats, we have reached Australia, America, Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy, France and India amongst others. You have made me so bloody happy. 

Why we still need Feminism

Today, in a last-period cover lesson, our task was to research something we feel strongly about. It's probably not hard to guess what my best friend and I researched.... 

Typing the word "feminism" into the search bar, I had no idea what to expect. Perhaps they'd make feminism out to be a dirty word, perhaps I'd see evidence of the feminist movement being glorified or criticised, perhaps I'd find other amateur bloggers like myself who just need a bit of a rant from time to time. 

I am so relieved to say that the latter was, in fact, predominantly true. Three blogs similar to mine appeared on the first page of my google search, which makes me so imponderably happy! However, as much as I adore the idea of spending my last lesson of half-term reading through anecdotes, queries and complaints so similar to my own, they didn't do much in terms of statistical research. 

So we typed in "feminist facts and stats" (so 'down with the kids', I know) and then my blood really began to boil. 

"As of 2013, children as young as five months old are victims of FGM." 

FGM, the abbreviation for "Female Genital Mutilation" is still a popular practice amongst Jews and Sunni Muslims. The excruciatingly painful - and often deadly - procedure is often completed without aid of anaesthetic, and makes urinating awful and sex impossible. Whilst a lot of victims of FGM are married off prematurely, often between the ages of 9 and 15, "consummating the marriage" can lead to an early grave. 

"26% of people in the UK believe that if she is in public wearing sexy or revealing clothes, a rape victim has only themselves to blame" As I was reading this I screamed 'some people are so bloody stupid!!' I don't know how anyone can possibly say that anyone deserves to be sexually assaulted. Why don't we teach boys from an early age that rape is wrong, rather than teaching girls (and eventually, women) to dress a certain way to avoid being raped? According to a UK report, only one percent of rapes in Great Britain result in conviction; rapists are getting away with destroying the lives of other people, and nothing is being done about it. This has to change. 

"The number of Honour Killings per year is estimated to be over five thousand." 

If you've ever watched the news, read a newspaper or scrolled through any online news platform, you probably know exactly what is meant by the term 'honour killing.' However, if you don't already know, an honour killing is a murder usually conducted by the family of the victim, as a result of an action which could be deemed as dishonourable to their name. Honour killing is usually considered to be a solely Muslim issue, despite the fact that Sikhs, Hindus and Christian honour murders have also been recorded. The 'dishonourable' action in question is usually the over-statement of the century - seeing a boy alone, overusing make up and even swearing on social networking sites have all been supposed reasons for a murder, but the most commonly seen is refusing to elope with your appointed partner in an arranged marriage. Five thousand honour killings take place per year, but that's five thousand too many, 

I found out a lot of things I didn't previously know today, and I also came across a few things I did know, but each fact, figure or statistic I read angers and disappoints me as much as the others. People may believe that gender equality was achieved in 1918, with the end of the Women's Suffrage, but it's clear to see that there's still a long way to go, not just in the UK but across the world. 

L-A-D

Just when I thought I was running out of things to complain about (never gonna happen, kids), my lovely boyfriend reminded me of something that pisses a hell of a lot of people off.

"Laddism" 

The 'new lad' is described by Tim Edwards, a sociologist at the University of Leicester as a "reaction to second-wave feminism". Their general lack of respect towards others, particularly women, is often featured in newspapers and causes controversy amongst men and women alike. 

One writer described lad culture as a practice in which "lads took up an anti-intellectual position, scorning sensitivity and caring in favour of drinking, violence, and a pre-feminist and racist attitude to women as both sex objects and creatures from another species".

Although most men's magazines refer to typically 'manly' interests - cars, booze and women (Kira Cochran said that "it's a dark world that 'Loaded' and the lad culture has bequeathed us.) -when will boys stop being boys? When do naïve teenagers become pervy men, and what's the barrier between harmless Jack the Lad-style behaviour and taking it too far? 

Lad culture seems to dominate social media nowadays, with twitter pages like the LADbible, and copy cat pages, having up to 880,000 followers each. Tweets containing jokes about rape, derogatory terms for women and general narcissism appear on people's timelines everyday, and yes, they may be 'innocent jokes' but they are offensive more often than not. 

Of course, it's fine to have a joke, but sometimes jokes aren't funny. Stop saying "boys will be boys" and teach those boys to respect other people, and themselves. 

I have a feeling this post will be continued, but until then.... 

My eyes are up here

The sad, sad truth about today's society, is that some people seem to have an issue with the female anatomy. And the male anatomy. And the human anatomy in general. My school dress code reads "Skirts MUST NOT be worn any more than 5cm above the knee", and if a girl's shoulders are visible then she may as well be parading around the school grounds completely naked. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I didn't know that legs and shoulders were generally considered 'sexy'. After all, have you ever heard any teenage boys say "Wow, look at the shoulders on her"?

Oddly, the excuse many schools uses to support their 'no skin showing but hands and face' rule is the globally-known fact that every boy in the entire universe obviously gets so easily distracted the second they see a square inch of flesh. Sorry, but don't you think it's a bit unfair on the boys to label them all as savage beasts with a lack of self-control? And don't you think it's a bit unfair to punish the entire female population of schools across Britain because of a minority of perverts?

During the second half of my double history lesson this afternoon, my eyes began to wander round the classroom (as they generally do after an hour and a half of sitting in the same place). I spotted a boy across the other side of the room *staring* at my chest, and I mean staring. It may have been an innocent eyes-are-out-of-focus moment, but knowing the boy as well as I do, I doubt it. I was so infuriated, I felt like standing up in front of my entire history class, pointing at him and screaming "My eyes are up here!!", but of course, there's not much you can do in silence. Unfortunately, it's not the first time I've had to fake-cough to revert someone's attention to my face.

"Why are your shorts so short?"

Hm, let me think. Firstly, because they're SHORTS (the clue is kind of in the name), and secondly, I look fabulous. 

Why do the people of today feel the need to sexualise body parts which are not remotely sexual? 

Yet another friendly blog post seems to have turned into a rant. Sorry, but it needed to be said.

Just a clarification...

I know I haven't posted in a while but I need to clear something up... I just shaved my legs, and it was like a religious experience. I have the most overwhelming urge to run downstairs to my little sister and preach to her about how amazing my legs are. Yes, I shave, I wear make-up, and I wear skirts - shock, horror!! - as many females (feminist and otherwise) do. But you see, I have an issue, ladies. As much as it seems like I'm just blithering on aimlessly about my legs/makeup/whatever, it seems to be quite an touchy subject at the moment. 

Because women are often bought up with the notion that they should shave etc etc out of care for one's own "personal hygiene", whilst it is acceptable for men to parade around without a single inch of their body hairless, many feminists have decided to rebel against the norm and hold two fingers up to that idea. All I have to say about that is: "That's fantastic! I completely agree with you, down with the patriarchy!" etc etc.

But the thing is, not every female does so because they're told to do so. What if you want to shave and wear make up out of personal preference? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I thought feminism was all about acceptance and tolerance, not attacking anyone who doesn't want to join the revolt. 

This isn't a rant, it's just a clarification. I don't like waking up in the morning to be told I 'can't be a feminist' because I shave. That makes you as bad as the people who tell you that you need to. 

To cut a long story short, if you shave, that's great. If you don't, that's great, too. You wear make-up? Good for you. You don't? Fair enough. But none of this makes you any less of a feminist, am I right, ladies?