Changing the World one status at a time.

Lately, I've been wasting my time on Facebook.

Now, before you start going, oh my gosh Hannah, seriously, I hope your grades are okay. I've actually been using Facebook to point out sexist, racists, heterosexists, ageists, -ist remarks.

I'm sure my sister and her friends are rolling their eyes at me right now because it definitely occurs more on their pages than anywhere else. I've been correcting peoples language, their analogies and attempting to point out oppressive sayings and practices. I think the most common correction I make is using the words "retarded and gay", and analogies that show woman as an object.

So, here's the deal: If I ever post something on here(or my Facebook) that is any -ist, you can call me out on it. Not only will I remove the status, I will apologize in public for it.

I don't care who you are, I don't care about your experiences, if you are going to put ignorant thoughts on Facebook, I am going to tell you just how wrong you truly are for doing that. I'm not sorry I'm annoying, it's not wrong of me, just delete my comment or remove me as a friend if you think it is NOT WORTH YOUR TIME. (Eventually, if one repeatedly posts a ton of ignorant statuses or links, I 'block' them from showing up on my News Feed, you can only comment with the same person for so long.)

I don't know when this started, but lately, I've been using Facebook as a starting point to critically think about things. If Facebook is used right, we will be able to slowly change the world and end these -isms.

So the next time you see something sexists or racists remarks, call those people out. Tell them that you are offended. There's usually one of two reactions: 1. roll their eyes, and 2. delete their posts out of embarrassment.

Let's use Facebook to end oppression of all.

Don't forget the Boys...?

http://www.achilleseffect.com/

I found this great site, that I think really helps support the issues feminists are trying to change.

A lot of people believe that feminism is for women only and for women issues, but I have found in my studies so far that it does not encompasses just 'women' issues.

Feminism is about:

1. changing the society so that it does not oppress women.

2. tackling the practices that make women oppressed.

Let's look at the first statement, changing society. Does society just affect women? No. It affects everyone in it. So obviously the same society is going to affect the men too. That is why this site is so cool. It shows that feminists can not just look at the women's issues and expect everything to be changed! Feminist also have to change the issues that affect men! Gender stereotypes do not just oppress girls and women, they also hinder men! (Notice, I use hinder and not oppress, men can not be oppressed!)

Let's look at the second statement, tackle the practices that oppress women. I think that is pretty straight forward, women are oppressed, therefore lets stop the practices and other issues that oppress women. First, let's recognize these practices. Second, let's see the context of these practices, let's fully understand. Third, feminists ask "do we have any say to change these practices, how can we do it?"

The common misconception is that feminism is all about women. But it's not all about women, because these issues do affect all. "The Archilles Effect" looks at this and tackles the issues that affect men. Taken from the about section, "The pop culture environment that surrounds boys introduces them to a world where traditionally masculine traits—like toughness, aggression, and stoicism—are highly esteemed and where female influence is all but absent."

It's definitely an interesting site and it is worth a look! And the nice thing is, even though it focuses on masculinities, it looks at gender as a whole too!

(Note: There are several views of feminism. I am looking at the general definition.)

Relationship Advice for BOTH genders

My ex put this "funny" list on his personal Facebook page. Please take a moment or two to skim it before reading my list.

1. First off, women should not conform to your standards to date you. Also not all women date men. If you keep this up, women are going to end up being "better" than you and making more than you, and only use you in the form as a sperm bank. Do you really want that?

2. These are petty, petty issues, that really shouldn't matter to you or her or the happiness of your relationship.

3. I will cut my hair if I damn please. You are not a stylist/fashion police, you even say so in this list. If you don't like our hair short, deal with it. This shouldn't be an argument of why guys don't like to get married. Again, see 2.

4. We're not here to be your calendar. I don't want to remind you time and time again, year after year that my birthday is on December 20th. That's one date you should never forget. Period. We don't expect you to know every date, but we do expect you to know your own. I'm not your secretary, if you have something due for work or school, don't expect me to remind you. (Goes both ways!) Ladies who expect men to remember dates, see #2.

5. That's sad if you can't sympathize with anyone. Are you that cold? No, you have emotions. I know you do. Society has taught you to repress them, and can I say something? If your girlfriend/wife/significant other really loves you, you can cry in front of her and she won't care.

6. We can't trust you to hold your word for more than seven days, alright and you wonder why we 'nag' about you checking out other girls? What doesn't connect in that brain of yours?

7. OOGLING IS NOT GENETIC; IT'S DISRESPECTFUL AND DISGUSTING.

8.Christopher Columbus did need directions. He thought America was India...

9. If our relationship isn't going to be the same as the first two months, expect #3. Refer to #2 for any other issues about this.

10. We will follow these rules, if you do. Most of these go both ways.

Some of the list is funny, but some of it is offensive. Gender roles are not genetic, they are learned. Society teaches women to act a certain way and society teaches men to act a certain way. I perfectly understand a few of these 'rules', so I do follow them. Don't bug a guy during a sports game, ask for what you want, deal with the toilet seat, understanding no one is a mind reader, etc.

Can I point out an obvious flaw in this whole argument? The fact that these guys can not just tell these girls what bugs them, they have to put it online! Every relationship needs communication and it needs to be open and honest on both sides. okay? That isn't a feminist view, that's a human view. And until you learn how to share your feelings, your girlfriend is not going to know what is wrong with it, we're not mind readers either!

And hello??? If you are relying on your girlfriends to be the only one to deal with problems, then you are going to have these petty problems and complaints from them. SUCK IT UP AND WORK FOR THE RELATIONSHIP. If we are dating you, we don't care if you have 'feminine' traits. ha. feminine.

This goes for any relationship, if you aren't willing to talk about the problems, then you aren't ready for the relationship.

It's not that different...

There is too much hate in this world, already, to begin to hate people who just love others.

I started today working on homework for my German Class. For some reason, I started thinking about gay rights. *Gay rights is more than just marriage, but because it seems like people focus only on that, I choose to do so here too. Please remember that gay rights is also the fight to end discrimination of homosexuals in the work place, end hate crimes of homosexuals around the world, and so much more than just marriage rights. *

I find that gay rights really align paralleled to any historical 'equal rights' battle across this nation. Women have not even had the right to vote for 100 years now, it was only 43 years ago yesterday that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated for his participation in Civil rights. If you believe women voting is a good thing and if you believe that Civil Rights is also a good thing, then what makes gay marriage so different?

Marriage is a personal act. A personal act between two people. Everyone is entitled to their feelings on homosexuality, but when it comes to marriage, I believe no one is entitled to say who marries whom. No one except for the people getting married, now they are really entitled to say something.

Now, I understand the whole religious perspective, I do. But religion and government should not play a role in each other. End of story. Yet- I know that is impossible, since peoples morals and ideals are part of their thinking process. And those morals and ideals usually stem from religious backgrounds. I'm asking people to take a step back, would their God hate people for loving people?

The last thing I ever want anyone to do is to hate others just because of whom they love. If Jane loves Jenny, then who am I to say no? If Bob loves Jim, then what is the matter? As long as both of them are respectful and kind to each other, then it is not a problem to me. It just seems so silly of me to hate someone because of love. It's ironic. And backwards.

Feminism and women's rights advocates fight for gay rights. And should fight for gay rights, not only because some women are lesbians, but because the women's fight has been in the same situation in maybe a different medium, time and time before. We can help their movement, and with that, create our movement, where our people are free to do what they please and where love is treated as such, and not hated.

"You know, we're not so different, you and I. "

Leaving Women's Health up to the Woman.

I was unsure of what to call this post at first. It was at first going to be: why all feminists should be pro-choice. Then I considered: why all women should be pro-choice. Then I even thought to consider: Why EVERYONE should be pro-choice.

Then I thought, it shouldn't be anyone's choice but the woman who makes it. Of course, with any medical procedure, her doctor should have a say, too. And with any decision, a woman may choose to involve the people she loves. But overall, a woman's choice is that. A WOMAN CHOICE.

I don't hate babies. I don't hate kids. There is no 'buts' to those sentences. I love both those things, even babies when they look like blue little aliens. (Side note: If my children don't look like blue little aliens when they are born, I am going to be very disappointed!)

Abortions are a necessary evil. Especially when birth control is costing more than Viagra is. (Look it up, most birth control options are more expensive!) If we had more affordable birth control, or even more accessible education, abortion would not be an option for most people.

That last paragraph is one of my main points through out the abortion debate!! I almost always bring it up!

Moving on, speaking of necessary evils. Sex is also a necessary evil. With out sex, how could one reproduce? I'm a little sarcastic on that one, but I will be the first and the last one to say: that sex with a consensual partner is damn goooooood.

So we can't stop people from having sex. We shouldn't stop women from having abortion. Logical? Right?

Wrong.

Can I get radical feminist here? Men want to control women. They benefit by controlling women. Having a child puts a damper on your education, your career, your finances? Therefore, men can get paid more, men can get a 'better' education and men can be in control. They benefit.

But let's be real, sometimes that is not why people are pro-life. They want to save a human life.

A human life. Frankly, I'm not going in to that whole argument about what is life. I'm not. It's just too complicated and I do not know a lot about biology to fight that.

So we are going to move on...so anyway, I came across this image on my tumblr. It said, "are you pro-choice, then google abortion and click images, are you still anti-life?"

Now there is a few things wrong with that in the first place...I wouldn't trust the images in Google a 100% of the time and I wouldn't want to see what remains from an abortion anyway. I know what happens, I know what goes down there, I can imagine what it looks like, Thank you. An image is worth 1000 words until you learn the context, then it is worth like 100? Critical reasoning....who took the picture? when did they take it? is this actually from an abortion?

What was under the picture was more informing, it talked about the women who made the choice to have an illegal abortion. In other words, the women who lived in the times where Roe v. Wade wasn't around.

They talked about one story in particular. A 28-year-old's woman who choose to have an abortion because she feared for the safety of her life from her husband. Her name was Gerri Santoro. She and her boyfriend attempted an 'at home' abortion because this was before the time of Roe v. Wade

She died and the picture of her death has been floating around supporting the pro-choice movement ever since. I debated whether to put the link of the picture on here, but for respect of her family, I choose not to. I'm sure my readers can do a simple "gerri santoro" search and come up with enough pictures to satisfy their curiosity. (Warning: it's not pretty.)

This is only one story of one woman who choose to do this terrible act out of desperation. I do not want to hear of more in this time and age.

Let's support life. But let's start trusting the life we already have.

Women As Leaders

What I love about being a woman is that I can care.

A lot of people all over the world say that women can not be a excellent leader because women care too much.

I'm sorry if you think I can not be a leader because I care about the people I lead...Wait, what? I can't comprehend why you think me caring is a bad thing?

I don't know about you, but I want to be working for a leader that has my back. That truly cares about my life.

In politics, I am not going to vote for an individual who does not care about the population of people she is going to represent. Even after I changed the pronoun 'he' to a 'she' in the sentence all I could see was a male figure.

The gender of a person does not matter to me in leaders. As long as she has the people she is representing in mind of that time, that's what matters to me. Those people is what should come first to an individual as a leader. Whether those people be employees, populations, students, residents, clients, whatever it doesn't matter.

What I am trying to say is that leaders need to be more like women. They need to care, they need to have emotions and they need to clean up after themselves and others.

If men started being more caring about others and having more emotions, (and yes, the cleaning does help, too) then our world would be a much better place.

There is a reason why feminism has evolved to be inclusive of so many different issues that may or may not relate to women. It's not because we are women trying to find a cause to fight for, it's because we truly care about people. This is cultural feminism at it's finest. This is what makes feminism so alluring to me, because I'm not just fighting for the rights of women, but I am trying to make every individual's world better.

The thing that is just so ironic about this: Women were born to be caring, they learned it. What is more controversial is that some people who state these views are women as well.

But that's a different post.

Miss Representation

This is what I have been thinking about lately. The fact that women can not be intellectual and be famous. Think of Jersey Shore (though I can argue that neither gender is portrayed as smart in that) and the views of Sarah Palin and other political leaders.

I don't want to dumb myself down in order to be heard. That's just stupid. I'm really excited to see this documentary. I can't wait to tell my own story!

Women can be smart and be famous. Women can do what they want to do. Reach for the moon, ladies. It starts with us.

P.S. At 2 minutes I had to stop. That was not a funny joke!