Celebrities

         Ah Celebrities. I must admit out of all the thoughts I have per day, the things I question and the conclusions I come to, until last night I had never properly pondered on this thing called "celebrity culture".
What happened last night you might ask? Well, I attended my first concert! Yay!!! And it was a Beyonce one which was great! The propaganda ( that's probably not the right word), lets say hype, which greeted us in the form of posters, t-shirts of the "Queen" smoking cigars (GANGSTER) and videos of her modelling for H&M and of her steaming ad for her perfume "Heat" were totally messing with our heads as thousands of us gaped at the stage in anticipation. As it would be my first sighting of a "celebrity" I was legitimately expecting God himself in all his stereotypes to emerge on stage, like literally, our creator. He didn't, I'm sorry to report, but the screams around me indicated otherwise. And it just hit me, why do we worship these fellow human beings? I mean that's what I saw, an extremely talented, beautiful and confident human being. Nothing more than that, and as I zoomed out, starstruck, I realised that it wasn't the person on stage that had paralysed me in admiration, it was the hype. It was the screaming faces and energy, it was the photo shopped pictures and essentially the screen through which I had come to know her over the years. Do you know what all of these things had led me to believe? That she was better than me, that she and all the other people who transition so strangely into the celebrity kingdom were better than all of the people standing alongside me.

                                                                              Why?

      Why would any one person be better than another? What makes someone better than the person next to them? A particular talent? An attitude? Wealth? These reasons are pathetic to me. It is my firm opinion that we are all equal in this world, yes all, and we all deserve rights and to not be treated or made feel like we are inferior to anybody even if they can sing, are pretty or work their ass off to get where they are. I believe that everybody has the right to have their voice heard and I think people as a whole need to have a lot more faith in themselves as more than just someone ordinary, not particularly special. However, what I've come to discover is that we love worshipping. It explains a lot of religions and of course celebrities. We love idolizing and we like to think that there's something or someone bigger than us. Maybe we just love the feeling of awe.
That makes sense, doesn't it? We become desperately excited by being whisked off in wonder from a world we've made dreary. We all want to see something perfect so we don't question when the media shows us something and tells us "this is perfection". We've had our confidence and self esteem knocked down so may times from a much too wide variety of sources that we never think that we could be as beautiful or as talented as those on the red carpet.

   Do I think only people who have something to say should be in the public eye? People like Bono or others who actually want to change the world and use the power of their voice for good? No. Who am I to say what's a correct opinion to put out there, everyone has a right to freedom of speech (or should have anyway). I just personally don't understand how someone could  have a shallow status where they're famous for having a talent (or don't, they're just able to live with a camera on them) and they don't try and change something wrong in the world with their connections. It astounds me.

    However that's just me. What goes beyond me though and becomes a worldwide issue is how these "celebrities'" choices and privileges are causing injustice. Tell me, why do these people earn millions upon millions? Why is it OK for them to wear shoes and coats made of animals, spending several thousand on numerous outfit changes per show? Why do they deserve all the unnecessary luxuries when there are millions of people living in poverty? Why? What makes them so special? Nothing. Nothing makes someone so important that they suddenly develop the rights to do that to animals and other human beings.

   You know me by now though, so you'll understand as I end this on an uplifting note where we try and grasp what must be going though these famous folks' heads.The mind is such a complex matter and who knows how we would act if we were thrown into this insane world. They feel fear, their hearts pounding inside their chests, they feel pressure and they are also swept up in an empty ideal of what fame will bring to their life. Don't always be fooled in thinking that they are happier then you could ever be. Constantly chased and criticised? Expected to look a certain way? Immersed in materialism? I mean think about it, how many celebs commit suicide or at least suffer depression? How many turn to drugs and alcohol, self harm and eating disorders? How many hide it? We need to think of the back story of all these fellow human beings and not forgot that they are just like you no matter what TV tells you. And there is always hope. Hope that more people will join the few well known individuals who donate greatly to charity, stay genuinely humble, make a change to injustice and therefore retain their happiness. For the need in all of us to worship something, (a) there are so many things to become truly fascinated by if we only looked at life differently to the way we've been trained to, we shouldn't worship the hype surrounding something or someone because its false! (b) Though lowering your self esteem seems simple for people and the media to do, I guess all I can say is that we need to find a way to worship ourselves in a sense, not in an egotistical fashion but in a loving and faithful manner. Believing in ourselves, connecting with our gut/soul/ whatever you want to call it and being the best person we can be, knowing that we're not better or worse than anyone else. Strip away our behavior, external circumstances, disabilities etc and we're all equal.
 
                                                               Love,
                                                                 Rachel! =)

Feminism

I am very aware of the stigma attached to feminism, I've heard it being referred to as the "f" word and many women and men don't wish to be associated with it or label themselves as feminists. Personally I think its because many assume it is a bra burning, men loathing group of people but its not, not in my eyes anyway. I had that attitude when I was like thirteen but my feminist values have very much changed since then. They are now more tame and broad. However, I still definitely regard myself as a feminist. I define it simply as an equality belief. I don't think we're better than men, I simply acknowledge that women have come along way in the beady eyes of a man's world and more importantly have a bit to go before we can live in harmony.

“When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch.” 

I actually possess a great deal of knowledge on this topic, which is unlike me as I generally prefer writing from internal feelings and experiences. Regardless I've read books and articles on Feminism and Women's rights so I actually have evidence to back me up:O One was an angsty book, which would depress you more and more after each sentence. It talked a lot about how its difficult for women in the workplace because many meetings or conferences take place in gentle men's clubs (which I'm assuming is a classy way of saying strip club??) and heterosexual women naturally find this uncomfortable. I'm also fully aware of the immense difference in gender equality between third world countries and the first world. Women are complete second class citizens which is sad to think of isn't it? We might feel like there's no need for feminism because we feel its some women overreacting or being hormonal bitches. But its not, there's a much bigger picture.

“A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.” 

And even aside from the obvious, basic human right depriving ways of some cultures which are forced on their women, we here in developed countries still need feminism. Yes maybe its subtle and kind of hard to put your finger on or justify but sexism is still out there! What I want to address is this whole sex  object phenomenon which women have sunk into! I haven't forgotten that I wrote a blog post about the terms "sluts" and "whores" where I defended women who have casual sex and wear little clothing. I stand by that! A woman should be allowed to treat her body and her sexual instinct the way she wants to. That's equality. What's not equality is women being sex trafficked, drugged and thrown into brothels to be raped over and over and over again. Even on a lesser scale this pressure to wear half nothing or else you can't get a man's attention, the fact that a woman's body is constantly talked about by men as if she has no brain or feelings or that she isn't even a human being. The fact that a lot of men subconsciously put women they see in magazines and porn into the same box as the cars they see on the next page. Where's the feminism in that? How is that equal? Once again I wish to reiterate that women taking pride in their bodies and wishing to reveal their bodies and dress femininely is fantastic, a huge step but us becoming sex objects? That's just a leap backwards...

“A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual.” 
― Gloria Steinem

Stereotypes is another huge problem I guess everyone faces really. The reality that in advertisements and such where women are always calling for "Mr. Muscle" and always the voice behind the washing up liquid. We're always in the kitchen basically. We're never the superheroes and we're never the builders (unless they're super hot sweaty builders with little clothing) and so I guess the stereotypical placing annoys me. Because we have so much more rights now the law is on our side but until attitudes change we cannot be equal. Emerging from the telly though, Its true that house husbands/ stay at home dads are not as common or as accepted in society as stay at home mothers and wives. Men are still the more common bread winners of the family and until 50% of stay at home parents are men then 50% of the workforce will not be women. And its shocking how few women work in the senior jobs or in politics and a huge chunk of that problem is confidence. That will be a topic I will discuss in another blog! Prepare for a long 'un.

“Women make up one half of society. Our society will remain backward and in chains unless its women are liberated, enlightened and educated.” 
― Saddam Hussein, The Revolution and Woman in Iraq

This is only touching on why feminism is so required in all our lives and there's much more to say but they're just my main reasons that I'm grateful for its existence. The reason I'm writing this post is because its International Women's Day! Woohoo! I was lucky enough to attend a talk on women and their role in the workforce and politics today in the city hall in my city. There were three great female speakers with our lord mayor chairing and it just spurred me on to give my views on the misunderstood "f" word. I'm so proud to be a girl and I hope all of my peers and women in my life feel the same. Lets all try and help the women who haven't the same rights as we have and work on closing the final gap between men and women's equality. On this very special day I want to thank all the inspiring women who have aided the amazing progress of women's rights and all the sufficiently secure and mature men who see the importance of equality for women and have pushed the progress forward also! We're all human at the end of the day and we're not that different if you think about it. The essence of living is in all of us. Both genders can love, laugh, smile, learn, cry, feel, fear and do everything else us weird humans do. The rest is only details.

    So boys/girls and others. What's your view on Feminism?
                                                          
                                                              Love,
                                                                  Rachel!=)