Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft, by John Opie

Mary Wollstonecraft
Wrote 'A Vindication on the Rights of Woman'
In 1792
And stated that
That the low status of women
And the way in which
Society, and women themselves,
Perceived women
As individuals, and as a sex,
As weak and inferior
Would be done away with
If women received a decent
Education

But today we find
In 2013
That even educated women
Are still relegated secondary status
Are still perceived as weak and inferior
Because the society in which we live
Says that women
Are mere sex objects
And things for looking upon

We live in a time where educated women
Choose
To be viewed and judged
By their looks and sexiness
Appear spread eagled and naked in magazines and videos and online
Use sex
As a way to pay for their education

We live in a time
Where even if you have a college degree
You have to stand up and say
No.
My body is my own
And not yours to oggle and coddle
Please listen to what I have to say
Not how I look as I say it

Where does this leave
A Vindication on the Rights of Woman?
Yes, we must educate girls and women
We must learn maths and science
And drama and music
And history and English
And languages and sport
We must be equipped with knowledge and skills
We must go out into the world

But we also must educate boys and men
To treat women with respect
To not fear women with power
To learn how to speak with women
(And about women)
With terminology that doesn't involve sex or beauty or derogatory statements

Women are still weak and inferior
Because the misogynistic system
That has been in place
For millenia
Has not yet been replaced
With a system
Of education
That teaches compassion, and respect, and humanity
Above looks and impressions and sex

So yes
Teach girls and women to be strong
But teach boys and men
To be okay with the shift
That says women are no longer inferior
But equal
That is the vindication I seek.

The end.

Liza with a Me

At work

An actress whom I daily admire

Said to me

“Every time I see you, I think of a young Liza”

And it thrilled me 

Because to be told you look like one of your heroes 

Is

Well, thrilling

Now I know 

That just looking like one of your heroes 

Doesn’t make you like

One of your heroes

Looks do not give you 

A phenomenal belt

Or amazing dance skills

Or a guaranteed career

But it does

Boost one’s confidence

And tells you to keep going

When I cut off all my hair

“Pixie” cut

I never intended to look like Liza

I cut it off

Because I wanted to

And, honestly,

It was one of the most liberating days of my life 

I’m keeping my hair short 

Because it’s me

And that’s the person

Who I most want to be 

When I grow up

The end. 

Story of Change

A little while ago
Gandhi said
Be the change
More recently
Annie Leonard said
We are living in an economy
That is toxic at every level
And she actively worked to make change 
And made a movie called
The Story of Stuff
And uploaded it to YouTube
And it was very inspiring
And immensely popular
But she, and her team, didn't stop there
They kept investigating

"How do we make this place better?"

And now, in her new movie
The Story of Change
Annie Leonard talks about how to make the world less toxic
It's not just about changing our shopping habits
That's a start, yes. But action needs to be bigger.
It's about
An Idea + We + Action = Change
It's about
We Can Make a Difference
We Can Make the World More Livable

At the end of the film there is a quiz
What kind of Changemaker are you?
And I took the quiz
And it said,
I am a Resister
Which ironically, I resisted.
I'm not a resister...
I do want the world to be a better place
I want to live in a world that is not toxic
I want to be part of an economy that is not destructive
But aside from my own personal habits
Recycling, eating organic produce where possible, using natural products where possible,
I haven't spoken to any corporations
I haven't protested out loud
I haven't named names
I haven't stood in front of a CEO and said
Please stop what you're doing.

But perhaps now is the time for me to change
So that I may be the change
I want to see

The end. Or not.

Getting to Know You

It's a very ancient saying
But a true and honest thought
That if you become a teacher
By your pupils you'll be taught 

I've learnt that in spades these past few weeks
Every moment of jaw tension
Every freak out at "not being able to"
Every moment of self-imposed fear
I see myself in my students
Understand what they're going through
It's exciting to watch them make progress
It's frustrating when they repeat the same mistakes over and over
It's wonderful when they have their own "ah ha!" moments
They lead me to my own

Getting to know you
I'm learning Me
Realizing everything my own teachers were drilling into me over the past year
The only thing holding me back is myself
How many times do I have to discover that?!
Again, and again, and again it seems

The strange relief of it.
It's not something I'm not getting
It's not something impossible and out of my reach
It's the voice in my own head that keeps saying
You can't, you can't, you can't because.
Because of X. Because of Y. Because of Z.
It's all the same.

Tell the voice it's not serving you right now.
Focus on the work.
Do the exercises.
And trust, trust, trust that you'll get there
Eventually.

The end.