I don't know where it has come from but I have just had a feminist rant and felt the need the write it down and air my views. "Oh god another bra burning dyke" I hear some of you men say. Well enough already! Let me tell it like it is bitch!

[before I start may I clarfiy that I do not by any means mean all men or all women when I write men or women, it just saves time :) ]

I have had enough of being surrounded by arrogant, biggoted, 2 dimentional block heads of men that seem to exist for no other reason than to annoy the hell out of me. Everywhere I go, I am reminded of these idiots presence. I can literally no longer walk to school without getting beeped at by men who then turn and leer at me from their car windows thinking they are flattering me by giving me their attention and trying to look hard in front of their loser mates. I go to work and have to put up with saddos who pull up through the drive through thinking they are some baddass rapper in their battered old fiestas with neon lighting and a "phat" bumper taped to the front. You can almost script what they are gonna say : "ooh who is she can I have your number?" or worse think they are being clever by "flattering" you by saying your gorgeous when you have half a bucket of milkshake on your shoes and hair that looks like it has been deep fried. "Aww your gorgeous!" then sniggering to their friends assuming that you take it literally and are quietly blushing under your hat. WELL I AINT FUCKING BLUSHING SUNSHINE. Instead I am quietly boiling over, insulted that you think you are gods gift to women cos you are listening to some "frantic" dance and wearing a rockport cap and that you can make any girl swoon because they are naive to enough to think that your lame ass comments are sincere.

I so want to say something back but can't. I hold it in as there is a big sign behind me saying "Do not match wits with the customer" and refuse to let some smart arse dropout with more watts than brain cells jepordise my job. I can tell that one day I will snap and give them a piece of my mind....

These people think that real women are bimbos pumped with silicone and makeup that are there to put out and clean the house. You wanna know what a real woman is hombre? Somebody that you cant handle. Somebody who has a real figure that don't go pop when you touch it. Somebody who could out think you in their sleep. Somebody who is strong enough to tell you to do your own damn washing. Most of all, somebody who deosn't need losers like you to give themselves worth by listening to your bullshit and know that they are worth something as a human being and not as an object. Bitch.

Right. Thats the overt sexists dealt with, onto society..... :)

Ok. Here comes the bit where you all groan (yes even the women!)

I am a feminist.

Allow me to clarify. I do not hate men. Most men are decent people, as many women as men are good or bad people. I have a great many male friends. I love my brothers and my Dad. I am not a feminist who believes in gender segregation or deaths to men or any of that crap. There are many kinds of feminism and that is known as 'radical' feminism.
I have never burned a bra (do you know how much they cost?!).
I am not a lesbian.

Ok. Glad that one is cleared up :)

Along with 'the list' mentioned before, i do not blame men personally for the inequalities of society. It is something that has simply evolved and needs rectifying with education for both women and men.

What problems? I hear you ask. "Women aren't allowed to be discriminated against these days! You have the vote, jobs what more do you want?" Oh hoho.... Where do I begin?....

Yes, women do have the vote. Very happy I am about that too :). Long live the suffaragettes!....
Women are however massively underrepresented in all tiers of government. Did you know that just 5% of conservative MPs are women? 5%! and around 25% of MPs on the whole are women. Excuse me, arent 50% of the poplulation women? Should we not have equal representation when it comes to the running of our state affairs? "Well we aren't stopping them, they must not want to do the job." Aha. Well that is where things get interesting.... I shall explain in due course....

Jobs! Ah this is a complex one... Like politics women are massively underepresented in high powered jobs. "Maybe they are not suited to that stuff.." Well, this is proved untrue in an inverse unequity, girls consistently perform better at school in every single level and subject. This is not because girls are anymore clever than boys but because of a number of social reasons that would take too long to list. Suffice to say that boys in this case may need a helping hand to reach equality but, women are definantly just as intelligent as men. Similarly, in ancient stoneage times it was the women that were "in charge" of the tribes and so it does not seem that they are any less well suited to men at being in a position of power. The reason for this then?

Well as with politics, many of the gender inequalities exist because of one reason.

Children.

"Oh that old line...." I hear you say. Well, just hear me out.

The thing that makes women massively unequal in society is the fact that they have what is known as a "triple burden". Sure they may have careers which is great but a frighteningly large amount of husbands also allow domestic tasks - the cleaning etc. to still be handled by the women. And this is despite the fact that both the man and woman work full time. Then. On top of that, women are usually expected to do all of the childcare as well as have their job and do the housework. I cannot of course say that this happens in every home but it is a pattern that is there in concrete. Studies are done, the census is done and the figures speak for themselves.

Many women do not in fact have the freedom expected from having a job, they simply have a job on top of all the things they used to be expected to do. Think about the people you know. Who does the housework? Who look safter the kids? Who works? I don't know about you but a lot of the nuclear families I can think of leave most of this stuff to the women with the men "giving them a hand" every now and again like they are doing them a favour.

Now, that answer I promised? Why don't women hold positions of power? Quite simply because unlike men, women have to make a decision. Do you want kids or a career? Society dictates that it is acceptable, nay, the done thing for men to keep on working and be the bread winner. Women on the other hand can either not have a child and have a career, take maternity leave to have a child, hope that their career recovers, hire a very expensive childminder and be lambasted for not being a proper mother, give up their career and be a full time mother or by some mircale have a partner that agrees to cut down hours so that childcare can be shared between the two of them.

More often than not it is assumed that when women are pregnant they will automatically give up their jobs and be mothers. This is all just fine for those that want to be full time mothers, but what if you have other plans?

"Women are better than men at this stuff, it is their natural role."

Shit.

What do women possess that men do not when it comes to childcare? When women have first have children they know exactly as much as the men do on how to take care of their child.

"Empathy and a special bond between the mother and child." Well, why is that special bond there? Because the woman spends the most time with the child, because she is assumed to take on the role of full time parent. As for empathy, this is partly true but women only tend to be more empathetic and the differences between the two sexes are small enough not to matter?

What else is there that could possibly matter besides the fact that men tend to earn more money because they hav higher powered jobs because of this problem in the first place? Tell me if you know!

The majority of these breadwinner/nurturer roles are just constructions of society. Leftovers from an ancient and outdated form of society. Lets get with the times and realise that these identities we are forced to assume for both men and women are fabrications of a society still living by the rules of tudor christianity. Let us find our senses.

I do not suggest that all women should carry on working with children or that all men should give up their jobs, I am simply stating that we must overcome these archaic social constraints that are stopping women from having the freedom of men and depriving men of the satisfaction of taking care of their children.

So.

Are you a feminist yet? Yeah, you men too!

"Why should I be a feminist?" I hear you men ask. Well, don't you have mothers, sisters, friends, wives.... you wouldnt stand for them being discriminated against for being a certain ethnicity or disabled would you? Why let them be discrimintated against because of an extra leg on a chromosone?

And while your at it men, why not address your own discrimination problems? Break down this macho front that other men force upon you in order to be considered a man and have a sense of identity. You wanna cry at a movie? Have a manicure? Be able to talk about your emotions? Become a ballerina? Do it already and get your own equality!

Wooo!

Thats my rant over for today. Very fulfiling it was too although it has caused me to go to bed late again... oh well, worth it :) byeee