#DontBombSyria

#DontBombSyria

I think we are all aware of what happened at the Syrian air strikes vote. David Cameron, somehow, managed to win a majority, and so already, and within just hours of the vote, four British Tornados hit seven targets in Eastern Syrian oilfields, with more to come very shortly.

My thoughts? Disgusting. I'm with Corbyn on this one, and quite frankly I am very disappointed in Mr Cameron. How, in God's name, can we stop bombing by bombing? As the well known campaign slogan goes, "Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity." It just won't work. As a young girl I was always taught that "you can't fight fire with fire", but here are our MP's, people we are trusting to represent our views, deciding to go against the majority of the public, and agreeing to kill thousands of innocent Syrian men, women and children, as well as potentially getting us involved in WW3.

We were all devastated over the atrocities that happened in France, both last month and in the Charlie Hebdo attack of last year, and it is greatly understandable that everyone wants to shut ISIS down, however killing innocent people who are already suffering so much is not the answer. Unfortunately, however, I don't quite know what the answer is, nobody seems to. I was very moved by the support for Paris after the attacks, "when the city of lights went dark, everywhere else lit up for it" by lighting major landmarks with the colours of the French flag, and by the support posted on social media with hashtags such as #PrayForParis and #PrayForPeace- I was one of those people who showed support in that way, however I think that now our support should turn to Syria.

#PrayForSyria #PrayForPeace #PrayForTheWorld but #DontBombSyria

Thank you for reading!

Lots of love

xoxo

slashing senseless stereotypes

Stereotypes. We all hear them. We all (be it purposefully or accidentally) use them. But, if I'm honest, the majority of them are ridiculous. Now, being a white, female, blonde teenager living in the UK, I am subject to plenty of absurd stereotypes. The most common,

1. "All blondes are dumb!"

This is the most common stereotype that I am subject to. Yes I'm blonde. Yes I am a bit dim and ditzy on occasions, but that has nothing to do with my hair colour. I just have limited common sense. Actually, according to another common stereotype, those who have limited common sense are actually more academically intelligent. It has actually gotten to the point that people are surprised at how academic I am, just because of the colour of my hair. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a rocket scientist, but I get by. I passed all of my GCSEs with good grades, and 3 out of 4 AS levels. I'm predicted As and Bs at the end of next year and I want to go to University and study either English Literature or History, or combined.  I hope to become a journalist, or failing that, a secondary school teacher. I'm not the most intelligent girl in the world, but I'm certainly not a "dumb blonde".

Unfortunately, the media doesn't help stop this assumption. I get it, it's funny to laugh at the stupid blonde girl in movies (Karen in Mean Girls springs to mind) and the blonde jokes can be funny, but trust me, us blondes have heard them ALL before.

And no, I don't dye my hair to stop myself being a victim of this stereotype. I ombre my hair because I get bored of hairstyles very quickly and it's less drastic than cutting it all off. I ombre my hair because I like it, not because I think people will believe I'm better educated due to the fact I have slightly less blonde in my hair.

I'm blonde. I'm a ditz. But I'm not a ditz BECAUSE I'm blonde. I just happen to be both!

2. "Wait what? You can't cook?! But you're a GIRL!"

Thank you for clarifying that I am, in fact, a female. But yes, shock horror- I can't cook! I mean, I know the basics. I can make an omelette and spag bol, but that's pretty much it. So no, I don't "belong in the kitchen" and actually, if we're being honest here, most world-class chefs are men! So the next time you boys ask a woman to "go make a sandwich" be prepared to get your stupid ass kicked, because not only is it incredibly sexist, it's also, theoretically, not correct.

3. "So you want a career BEFORE you get married?"

Luckily, this stereotype is fading out because more and more women get jobs and careers before (or instead of) getting married and having children. People are finally starting to realise, thank God, that it is not all women's main priority in life to get married and have children.

 


I do want to get married and have children, but there is no way I am going to depend on a man to get me by in life. I want my own career, my own money so that I can do what I want to with it, save some of it towards a wedding and children and bills... oh God the bills, but splurge out on that handbag or those pair of shoes I want to, without feeling guilty that I am spending someone else's money.

4. "So you don't live in London and you don't all drink tea and eat fish and chips constantly and speak like the Queen?"

This one will only apply to those of you living outside the UK, stereotypically American's.



Unfortunately, there are other places in Britain besides London, and I am not lucky/unlucky (depends on your opinions of London) enough to live there. I live in a small town about 2 hours away from London.

Unfortunately again, I don't have enough money to constantly eat fish and chips, and neither do most other Brits. I have it occasionally, but it's rather expensive, and nothing beats my mum's home made food.

I do, however, drink copious amounts of tea. That is the one stereotypically British thing that I do. I usually drink at least one cup of tea a day. And writing about tea is making me crave a cup of tea. I will have to go and make one.

Those words you think are funny, "splendid" and "cheerio" and the like, most of us Brits also think are funny, because, contrary to popular belief, we don't all use them. Not everyone in England is 'posh'. Not everyone in London is 'posh'! Watch My Fair Lady and you'll understand.

Of course there are thousands more stereotypes out there, but these are the ones that I get on a fairly regular basis.

Are any of you prone to hearing these silly stereotypes? Please mention some other stereotypes you hear regularly in the comments!

Thank you for reading!

Lots of love,

xoxo









body positivity!

I wrote this post a while ago, but never got round to posting it, so here it is!
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Nobody is entirely confident with their body, right? With thanks to the media, everyone is so conscious about how they look,especially teenagers and young adults who are scarred from scrolling down endless tweets and Instagram posts of beautiful thin girls with big boobs and a big bum, captioned '#thinspiration'.

Throughout most of my life, I have been fairly indifferent about my body. I mean, as a child the only labels were 'fat' and 'skinny'. Was that right? No. Becoming a teenager and growing through my teenage years has made me come to understand that there isn't just 'fat' and 'skinny', and that although labelling people by the way they look is horribly mean and unjust, everybody does it and will it stop? No.

I've never been particularly big, although I did pile on the puberty pounds at around age 11, however, in my early years of secondary school, I was hit with the other end of the spectrum. "Oh my God you're so skinny, do you even eat?!" "You can't complain about your body,y ou're thin!" Wrong. The word 'skinny' is a horrible description of a slender body, and just because I may have been 'skinny' doesn't mean I couldn't have insecurities about my body.

Then, around age 14,boys began to be an important part of my life, why?-I don't know. I was and still am constantly criticised for my lack of curves, and I have often been described as having "the figure of a 10 year old boy" and being "as straight as a ruler." But of course, these things couldn't bother me because I was 'skinny'.

I'm still not entirely happy with my body, and I would like to possibly shed a few pounds and tone up, but that is for my own benefit, not anyone else's. I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that I will probably never have big boobs and a big bum, and I will never have a gap between my thighs because my hips just aren't wide enough. But none of that matters because I'm me and I am healthy and I am happy with my life and my look (kind of).

I think what helped me the most was my family and friends supporting me through my life and cursing at anyone that insulted my lack of curves. Recently there has been a lot of blog posts about body positivity and loving the skin that you are in, which I have found really helpful and interesting to read! 

There will never be 100% body positivity and you will always be judged by someone, but the world is beginning to realise that serious mental illnesses such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa often come about due to body negativity. It is 2015, we need to make a STAND. It happened for feminism in 2014, this year is our year! 

This photo was taken around a year ago on a geography trip. I love it because I am embracing my lack of curves and loving it (hence the laugh). #lovingtherulerlife 

I hope my story has helped inspire those who perhaps aren't as body confident! Embrace your curves or lack of them. Embrace your stretch marks or scars because they are proof that you have lived! 

Thank you for reading!

Lots of love,

CHLOE

xoxo

The F Word

The F Word

High on the 'Words to not say aloud' list, beating hundreds of foul words to the top spot, scaring thousands of vulnerable men, women and children is the 'f word'. Yes- 'feminism'. Of course, it doesn't have to be like this. Why is 'feminism' such a vulgar word? Why is 'feminist' used as an insult? Society is becoming closer and closer to gender equality, and although we have come a long way since women first won the vote, there are still people out there who down-right refuse to admit to being a feminist. Why? 

The Oxford dictionary definition for the term 'feminism' is:

The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.

However, the uneducated people amongst us still believe that feminism is the movement of 'man-hating'. Wrong. Why should women be treated as the weaker sex? Why do women get paid less than men for the same role in every profession except porn? This is disgusting, degrading and, to be perfectly honest, wrong. Both men and women are human, therefore we should be equal. Come on, it's not rocket-science now is it?

Men and women both bring exceptional roles to the world. However, stereotyping certain jobs or positions in society to one sex or the other is just as wrong. Men should be able to, and be encouraged to, participate in ballet lessons and cookery classes, and women should be able to, and be encouraged to, play with toy cars and become an engineer if they want to. Angelina Jolie is the perfect advocate for equality and the end to stereotyping. She allows her daughter to dress in 'boys clothes' have her hair cut short and be called 'John' because that is what she wants. This is a sign of good parenting and Angelina Jolie certainly should not be receiving criticism for it.

In 2014, Emma Watson, the UN's ambassador for women, declared the beginning of the #heforshe campaign, declaring that men, as well as women, can be feminists. The campaign is an example of how social media such as twitter can be a good thing, as it spread the message to twitter users all over the world in such a small amount of time. Emma Watson is another example of a brilliant advocate for feminism and equal rights.


I saw a Tumblr post a few weeks ago, where an anonymous person had asked a rather popular user- 'thenightvalepost', "what are your thoughts on feminism?", and the reply was "Exactly the same as my views on toilet paper. It's extremely necessary and anyone who disagrees is probably disgusting." What a brilliant way of looking at it! So if you believe in equal rights, however constantly use the phrase "I'm not a feminist, but..." I sincerely hope that this post has made you realise that your belief in equal rights does make you a feminist and you should be proud of it. And if you openly admit to not being a feminist due to your ridiculous beliefs that men and women are not equal then I suggest you leave and not return because I don't want your negativity on my blog.

Luckily, feminism is becoming less and less of a taboo subject, and an increasing amount of people are supporting the movement, but us feminists still have a long way to go. Let's stop this ridiculous confusion that all feminists are 'man-haters' who burn their bras and campaign against men, and let's remember that women and men are beautiful, spell-bounding creatures who need to live equally and happily on the planet. Let us all, men and women, shout "I am a feminist and I am proud!" Let us remove the 'F word' label and return that to its rightful owner, the swear. 

I am a feminist and I am proud!

Thank you for reading,

Chloe

xoxo