Thursday 27 March 2014

Sunday 23 March 2014

At The Dividing Line Between The East Of My Youth And The West Of My Future


I am sure I'm not alone in having a monumental debate surrounding the question of "Is university the right choice for me?". Just when I thought I had decided what I wanted to study, I am faced with the decision of "Is university what I really want?". I always thought higher education would be good for me as I have no set career path to hurl myself down but I am increasingly aware of my desire to travel and explore the world, the light of which will begin to fade as the tunnel of postgraduate jobs sucks me in.

I recently stumbled upon the instagram profile of a former student at my school filled with magnificent images of her travels across South America including Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. As I continued to scroll down, my travel senses were burning with the desire to do the exact same thing. Considering I want to study languages (and possibly international development) I see no better way to enhance my prospects than visiting and immersing myself in the countries in which they are spoken as opposed to a four-walled classroom.

Suppressing my appetite for exploration when the time for ucas application came along, I told myself that I could get an education and then visit all these wonderful places during the holidays or after my studies. However, after screwing a realistic head on, I am almost certain that this is highly unlikely; I'll be dealing with the burden of financial woes during and outside of term time and then once I'm out in the big bad world I will most likely be trying to carve out some sort of 'career' and mercilessly trying to avoid falling into part-time work and spending my life at a fast food chain.

But maybe I'm just thinking way too much.

Saturday 8 March 2014

International Women's Day


Here is an insightful timeline which reviews the global gender equality achievements in 2013. Those of you with vaginas, go forth and be a fabulous woman, and those of you who do not fall under this category, support the rights us gals deserve.

❝ I think the concept of virginity was created by men who thought their penises were so important it changes who a woman is ❞


❝ I interviewed a young anthropologist working with women in Mali, a country in Africa where women go around with bare breasts. They’re always feeding their babies. And when she told them that in our culture men are fascinated with breasts there was an instant of shock. The women burst out laughing. They laughed so hard, they fell on the floor. They said, “You mean, men act like babies?” ❞
- Carolyn Latteier, Breasts, the women’s perspective on an American obsession


❝ We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, “You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful otherwise you’ll threaten the man.” Because I am female I am expected to make my life choices keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support, but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same? We raise girls to see each other as competitors, not for jobs or accomplishments but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are. Feminist: The person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes. ❞ - Flawless, Beyonce