You want to know what makes me mad?

Like, really mad? Well, okay, a lot of things make me mad. But right now, what's making me really mad is all the anti-feminist, and anti-woman, stuff that is out there.

People, mostly men, say that women have equal rights. That all the gender inequality is in the past. Well, even by this culture's standards of so-called "equality", that's bullshit. Women still earn less on average then men, and men still fill the vast majority of positions of power. And beyond those very narrow views of what constitutes "equality" (money and power, as most people in this culture mean when they say that), from a basic human rights perspective women are not well treated. According to RAINN, in the United States of America one in 6 woman will be raped, and I've seen statistics that put the rate even higher, at one in 4 women. Is that what woman's rights look like? Or what about the advertising we see all around us, every day. Barely clothed supermodel beautiful women gyrating enticingly to men on beer commercials, while airbrushed models on billboards tout the benefits of wrinkle fighting facial cream. These things say that looks (with a very twisted, very narrow view of just what an attractive women is) are of utmost importance, and the only thing that matters is how others, especially men, see you. And the worst thing is, the barrage of advertising and pop-culture stuff attacking and objectifying women is well known. It's in the public eye and even discussed fairly frequently (as an interesting side note, you know Dove's big thing about using "real" models and promoting good body images? Well, Dove is owned by the same company that owns Axe, one of the worst companies for objectifying women. Yeah, like Dove's supposed concern for women is anything but a (sadly pretty successful) marketing scheme...). So knowing this, as pretty much everyone does, how can people continue to claim we live in a post sexist society?

Another thing that really, really bothers me are sexist jokes. And the worst thing is that I even have friends who make sexist jokes, and can't seem to grasp, whether I explain respectfully or let my anger show, that they're simply not funny, and are instead harmful, disrespectful, and hurtful.

And that's not even really getting into gender roles and what's expected behaviour from a member of the female sex.

This is just a scratching of the surface both for this subject as a whole and my own thoughts on it. There were so many thoughts rattling around in my head earlier, yet as I wrote, many of them just disappeared... I'm tired, which could have something to do with that. So for now, I'll stop here, leaving you with a few scattered and fragmented thoughts on something that I have so much to say about, and something that I firmly believe should be examined and talked about much more often...

When writing this, I thought of a Crimethinc. poster that I really like, and wanted to share.

You can be sure I'll be revisiting this topic at some point...

Peace,
Idzie