Thank you!

I'm nearly at 50 followers. The big 5-0. Half of 100. So I'm pretty chuffed with myself because when I started this I had no idea anyone would ever read this. As a gift to you guys, here is the article I wrote for my  college magazine. You guys gave some really good ideas and this is what I came up with.
I hope you like it! Tell me your opinion in the comments.

Gender or Genre?

If you’ve been living under a rock recently, or just have no care for any of today’s popular music, then you won’t know about the whole deal with Miley Cyrus. We once knew her as Miley Stewart, the normal girl by day and by night the rockstar, Hannah Montana, living the ‘best of both worlds‘. But now that’s all changed. She is no longer a Disney princess but is now a twerk maniac who smokes some weed on the side. But is it true what Sinead O’Connor said, is Miley being ‘pimped’ by the music industry? And is it the same for other female artists? These are questions with no easy answers. 

Throughout the years, there have been countless times that women have used their sex appeal to sell a record. Madonna’s 1992 music video for ‘Justify My Love’ had images of bondage and voyeurism and was ultimately banned by MTV. This just led to even more interest and the single is still making money 20 years after it’s release. Rihanna’s ‘Pour It Up’ music video (which was released on the 2nd October of this year) featured near naked pole dancers and a lot of twerking but was not scrutinised as much as Miley Cyrus’ music video for ‘Wrecking Ball’ or her video for ‘We Can’t Stop’. Is it because of how much Cyrus has changed over the years or is Rihanna seen as a more respectful artist? One thing’s for sure, after the release of ‘Wrecking Ball’, I have seen far more music videos on YouTube with the word ‘Explicit’ after it - maybe it’s because it has over 280 million views?

Whether they like it or not, females in the music industry are role models. Miley’s confidence is something that should be spoken about more. Everyone knows who she is and she gives off this persona that she doesn’t care what people think about her. She’s on top of the music industry at the moment, which is usually a male haven. But, Sinead O’Connor puts it better than I do, “the message [Miley] keeps sending is that its somehow cool to be prostituted…it’s dangerous. Women are to be valued for so much more than their sexuality. We aren’t merely objects of desire.” While it’s great that Miley and many other female singers are comfortable in their skin, but, due to how society works, the naked body is overtly sexualised and they start to become “objects of desire” without one even realising it. Charlotte Church, in an hour long lecture for Radio 6, added that “the culture of demeaning women in pop music is so ingrained as to have become a routine.” Unfortunately, this is true in other forms of entertainment and society in general. 

But because of people focusing on this argument, we forget about the commercially successful pop women who avoid the controversy around them, for example, Emeli Sande and Taylor Swift have both outsold Rihanna this year. But another female has been talked about a lot recently as well as Miley Cyrus and that’s Lorde. Not because of anything controversial but because of her music. Her current single ‘Royals’ has been number one in America for three weeks now and her new album ‘Pure Heroine’ is currently the ‘album you should listen to this week’ according to The Guardian. There’s also M.I.A who is controversial but in the political sense, showing that women can and do have a say in what goes on around them and we shouldn’t be afraid of voicing our opinions. So while everyone else talks about the day to day life of Miley Cyrus and what she‘ll do next, why not think about other women musicians who are trying to be heard in a man’s world? 

It’s never easy to answer the question, are you doing it for yourself or for others? And that’s one of the reasons why this debate about Miley Cyrus has been so huge. After all this, maybe, just maybe, she is ‘just being Miley’. 



Pictures are from Tumblr

How do I think up these things?

I can't stop thinking about the world. It seems so small compared to everything else. I sometimes forget that people on the other side of the world are still on the earth. It feels as if they should be on another planet because it's just not big enough. It also makes me wonder if we're wasting what we have. There are very few 'influential' people compared to the seven billion people on this world. We spend most of our time drinking coke, watching television, eating food. Doesn't that feel like a waste? Problem is we're all scared (I am anyway). I can't talk. Whenever someone asks me a question my mind goes blank. I know what I should say after. I can write things down but can never say them. It's like my mouth wants to say something completely different to what my brain says and I sound so stupid. 

My brother told me about Jean-Jacques Rousseau today who's a Genevan philosopher. He said that he felt civilization has ruined us and we should go back to cavemen times (or as he calls is "savages").  

"...This state is the veritable youth of the world; and that all the subsequent progress has been in appearance so many steps toward the perfection of the individual, and in fact toward the decay of the species."

Maybe if we never became the "civil man" we would have no war, no racism, no sexism, no prejudice. Maybe it was our happiest state. Then again, wouldn't it be wasting our art and literature that has come from the human race? If the world were to end right now, what would be the thing you would be most pleased with? Mine would be the art and literature created which would have been wasted if we went with Rousseau's theory. However, with great art comes great unhappiness. You see the world in a different way. It's a mould. Would it be better to just be happy? Gahh these things really make my brain hurt.

I have currently been watching the second series of Girls. Everyone had told me it's much darker than the last series and yes, it is different. We see more of Hannah's boobs. Marnie and Shoshanna have more of a character. And Jessa is married to Chris O'Dowd (which I can't get over). But today I watched one that stuck in my mind. Hannah was just about to have sex when the man tells her she's beautiful. By which she replies, "I know I'm beautiful but it's never normally a comment I get." I loved that bit. It made me (and hopefully others) realise that it's not strange to think yourself as beautiful it's actually a good thing. 

I do, however, feel it's really hard to believe that in yourself - which I blame on society. I was reading Marie Claire today (which, ironically, had Lena Dunham on the front cover) and it made me feel like crap. It was filled with super thin, super tall models with perfectly structured faces which is not a good image for young females to see on a daily basis. It makes it seem like the norm when really, everyone is beautiful because we're all different. We should embrace our differences instead of feeling as if we're 'wrong' because we don't look like Karlie Kloss or Kate Moss (I didn't mean for that to rhyme). 

I wish I was one of the 'lucky ones' that sees themselves as beautiful because we all are. Beauty isn't just looks, it's personality also.. 

Anyway, I realise I haven't posted in a while. I've actually been at Shambala festival which was amaaaazzzzinnnngggg. Pictures and a longer post will be up soon. Right now it's going to be a pretentious post about the world and female beauty.

I looked up beauty on the Tumblr tag and this came up.

Riot Grrrl

From looking on Rookie, I know what the Riot Grrrl movement is. I've always felt empowered by the way they talk about, however, I've never felt strong enough to stand up for it. Recently I heard a radio programme which made me realise - it needs to come back. 

I could never do it justice with my writing so if you would like to hear it (PLEASE DO) then click here.  

Riot Grrrl changed a generation. It made women realise that we're not in competition with each other, we've just been told that subconsciously through our childhood. Females should stick together and fight for one another's rights! By doing so we must RIOT! (not diet).  

I'm planning on getting some Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear etc albums to really spur me on. Right now, I've changed my blog title to Grrrl Afraid as two things: 

• a homage to The Smiths.
•  But also, because I feel I am a 'Riot Grrrl' at heart, I just need that final push to make me less afraid of speaking what I feel and standing up for what is right!

"That girl thinks she's the queen of the neighbourhood - I got news for you, she is!"

If you want to learn more, literally type Riot Grrrl into Google Images. The pictures are really inspiring and have urged me to get angry!

LET'S SMASH PATRIARCHY TOGETHER!

I have too many feelings

People depress me. I've just about had enough of all the crazy things that people are saying. 

First of all, we have people defending page three (If you aren't from the UK: Page Three is in The Sun where they show a picture of a topless woman as to sexualise their bodies.) They claim that it's "the female's choice to be in the newspaper, therefore, they're doing it to themselves." What a load of bullshit. These women are being objectified by men. Their bodies are only made to 'please' the opposite sex. Which is obviously degrading. Women should be praised on their intelligence etc, not for the size of their breasts. It's dehumanising. It's also affecting each generation. Boys grow up thinking women are just a piece of meat and girls grow up constantly thinking they're not good enough because of these images. It's ruining our society, however, people now class it as a norm - which is disgusting. 

Then we have the new twitter account 'Feminist Taylor Swift'. Which I do really enjoy, however, people are taking it way out of control stating things like "this is funny because Taylor Swift is not a feminist because she writes songs about love and boys and love." Hold up. Since when was writing songs about love and boys not being a feminist? Zooey Deschanel describes it perfectly: 

"We can’t be feminine and be feminists and be successful? I want to be a f--king feminist and wear a f--king Peter Pan collar. So f--king what?" 

Feminism is having a choice. One can choose to write about love and still be a feminist. Just because something doesn't conform to a branch of feminism does not mean they're not a feminist. Believing in equality is feminism. Taylor Swift has never stated that she's a feminist but the fact that she's a successful woman in this business practically shows she's a feminist icon. Just because she doesn't conform to people's ideas of feminism does not mean she "can't be a feminist." This also makes those people so hypocritical by judging people on what they do, wear, say etc. Therefore, they're completely missing the point of what feminism actually is. 

Finally, the YouTuber Alex Day (Who I have subscribed to for a number of years) has just (like this second) put up a video about people not wearing clothes that are correct for their size. Click here for the video. PEOPLE CAN WEAR WHAT EVER THEY WANT TO WEAR. Why can't people get that into their brains?! We are so judgmental it makes me sick. People don't "need to lose weight." Just because you don't conform to the way society wants you to look does not mean you can't wear what you want. Regardless to whether he was being funny, this video was still offensive and rude. I love that new thing that's going around: Want a bikini body? Buy a bikini and wear it! It's as simple as that. As long as you feel amazing in your clothes then that's all that matters.

I could probably go on for longer but it's late and my brain is tired.

(Ignore spelling/grammar mistakes - I can't be bothered to read through it again)

Body Issues

You may have noticed from my past few blog posts that I haven't been having the best few months and that can also be shown on the scales. This month I've gained half a stone and, to be honest, I'm actually freaking out by it and I hate that I'm thinking like that. If I know that everyone is beautiful no matter what shape or size, why don't I think that about myself? 

This week I saw an article about Frankie Sandford from The Saturdays about how she's put on weight from a size 8 to a size 10. This article was extremely negative about this weight gain, saying things like "apparently she's happy about the weight she's gained." Well, if she's happy, then why should we care? And why is it that a female's weight is part of the news?! The article ended with a slide show filled with celebrities that had lost weight and were obviously very unhealthy, however, they were saying how amazing they looked. Really we should be encouraging people to be a healthy weight. Being 'skinny' does not mean they are fit or healthy. That's what people need to realise. 

It depresses me that because these females are in the limelight they feel that they must lose weight. Everyone is different. We are encouraged at a young age to think differently, have our own ideas about things, however, why when we grow up is it not the same? Society has forced us into thinking one way is the best way and sadly weight is one of the major factors. Designer 
Caroline Castigliano has been working in fashion for two decades and in her London Fashion Week show, of this year, she couldn't find 8 models that were of a healthy weight. Most designers don't even care about this, so when girls of my age or younger see these images, we think it is the norm. 

In a Sociology lesson that I had the other week we looked through a number of magazines all for different ages. For every single female magazine it mentioned something about dieting, even the children's magazines. This made me realise how much of a problem this is and it wasn't until recently that I realised that it was also a problem for me. I can admit that I am overweight, I know my BMI, however, if I do lose weight, it's for myself. It's to get healthy. It's not for anyone else. Which is why I appreciated Frankie Sandford for telling everyone she gained weight for herself and because she wanted to be healthy. Girls need good role models in their lives and we need to stick together to make a difference because recently, I have felt that feminism has been going backwards.

Actions speak louder then words. Which is why I know writing a blog post about this won't do much, however, every little bit counts. Read some magazines and get noticing these things. Send complaints to editors or tv programme studios and let's start making a difference! You never know, you could be the next Gloria Steinem.

 

This is an image of the model Karlie Kloss that was published

in a Japanese magazine. 

Dove did a campaign to make people aware of the power of photoshop.

 

However, it is not just women who have body issues.