I came across this YouTube video this evening on Facebook. It was posted by the Fiji Women's Rights Movement via The F-Word who are a "contemporary women's rights movement".
It brought a tear to my eye.
I need not tell people how to feel about many of the issues that are referred to in this video, but I do encourage you to watch it without the need to walk away and call this woman, or these people, crazy feminists. This woman has a point, and a it is a point that I would like to share.
This morning my alarm chimed (beeped, blaired, wailed...) at six am. By ten past six I was out of bed and by six-thirty I was at my personal training session. At seven-thirty I left with my arms shaking and my legs fatigued. I bought my coffee, went home, made vegemite on toast and sat out on the deck with my dog and watched the rest of the sun come up. By the time I arrived at university today I had already accomplished more than some people do in a day.
So why did I feel the need to search the Internet for some inspiration to keep me going? If I read what I had done this morning in someone else's diary I would assume that motivation was innate within them and that at no point would they be required to dig deep in order to get on with their day. I am learning that such an assumption would be wrong.
We all can do with some inspiration in our lives that helps keep us motivated. I know that If I have people within the community that I look up to and can be inspired by, then I feel motivated by the knowledge that I can achieve my goals if I work hard. And that all our hard work, will not be wasted.
One thing I keep playing over in my head recently as I concentrate on university, work and a plethora of other extra curricular activities is this - "you get out what you put in". It reminds me why I bother, why I should work harder, why I should continue to be open to new opportunities and why I should get out of bed every day.
In my quest for motivational videos I found this one. It is an advertisement for a gym but it is worth looking beyond that at the message. It's key message is this -
"Pain is temporary, but quitting will last forever."
Sometimes I find the most powerful pieces of inspiration come from people's stories and I will post more of these stories on this blog. I hope you enjoy and get as much out of them as I do x
I was listening to Triple J Hack today and just to clarify early in the piece, this is not my main source of news as it is to some young people. While I think Hack does an amazing job at bringing information to what is now an increasingly commercial audience (saved purely based on the fact they don't have pay-for-advertising...) it also fundamentally pisses me off the second Tom Tilley opens his trap. He never lets other people finish what they're saying before butting in and cutting off prominent guests on his show...
Rant over.
Hack's show on Friday evening is called The Shake Up and this evening's topic of conversation was Kony 2012. In case you have been living under a rock for the last 24 hours (or are a victim of the digital divide, which doesn't explain how you are reading this...) then you would know about this social media phenomenon called Kony 2012. If you haven't heard of it, I suggest you watch the film which I have posted here for your convenience.
I think what annoyed me the most about callers who phoned in to Hack today was that they said they got to go to bed at night (or some thing to that effect) feeling good about themselves because they bought the Action Kit available from Invisible Children.
Something I notice all too often with people who want to volunteer overseas, or contribute to a project in a developing country is that the reason they are doing so is for short term self gratification and not for a long term contribution. Similarly with the Kony 2012 campaign, there are many people who went to bed last night thinking that they had in some way contributed to "fixing" another country's problem and that they where genuinely making a difference. Enter clever post I found on Facebook this afternoon.....
To piece this piece of writing together I would like to introduce a woman who was a guest on Hack today and argued that the Kony campaign while doing good in terms of raising awareness, it has done not much more than that. Jeanette Francis believes that the campaign lacks substance and aims to solve a problem that for starters, we don't even know if the Ugandan's want solved. You can read more about her perspective HERE. But I tend to agree with her. While 65 million people have seen this campaign and each and every one of them has been touched in some way by this film it really feels as though it is merely feeding the need for self efficacy of those in developed nations....
In 2008 I attended a Sociology lecture that was about social movements in an e-society. It was a powerful lecture by a PhD Candidate , Rheya Linden*. Rheya spoke about how the internet was used as a vehicle for social movements to drive their campaigns and how the internet has changed the way social movements operate by comparison to when the Internet was not readily available. At the time, Rheya described how people use the internet to par-take in so called activism and while they may "like" a Facebook page, or "join" a mailing list they are only doing just that. In other words, slacktivists. An old school friend of mine actually just updated her Facebook page and has coined the term Hacktivists! Pure brilliance in light of my previous mention of Triple J's current affairs project, Hack.
Keeping all the aforementioned in mind, I would like to conclude by saying that I wonder if this video is truly a medium to bring about change or merely a phenomenon that will be spoken about in lecture halls as the video that changed social media, and not the world. This is what frustrates me about the developed world's ignorance and I hope that if anything Kony 2012 has enlightened people to seek out information about the atrocities that occur every single day on our planet because after all, awareness is the beginning.
* On a side note, Rheya's lecture's content about animal rights movements was so powerful that I have not eaten red or white meat since that lecture 3 years ago....
Despite the short nature of this post, it is by no means a reflection on the size of the issue that I am about to talk about. In Saudi Arabia it is illegal for women to drive. Over the last 12 months the awareness of women's illegality to drive in the Kingdom has become a matter of heightened awareness in the western world and it has regularly received media attention.
It may seem obvious that with some enlightenment the King could simply make it legal for women to drive however the way in which Saudi society is constructed prevents this. Why? For exmaple, let's say a woman has a car accident and requires medical attention, the paramedic that arrives at the scene is not allowed to touch the woman. This is made even more problematic because of the lack of access to education for woman preventing women from becoming paramedic's themselves and able to attend to female drivers. So while it may seem simple on the outside, it is far more complex and unless systemic oppression of women is removed from Saudi society, it will continue to function this way.
There is an amazing Saudi Arabian woman who has been tirelessly campaigning for women's rights in the Kingdom. Her name is Samar Badawi and she received an International Woman of Courage Award on International Women's Day for efforts in a country where tolerance for questioning your human rights is limited. Samar is the type of woman who will change the experiences of this world for an entire society, for the better.
Unfortunately I can't locate the YouTube video of Samar receiving her award, however HERE is the link to the video. You can also see the Facebook group for "Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself" HERE so you can follow this campaign.
* I would like to give special thanks to my friend Donna who lives in the United Arab Emirates and enlightened me about the complexity of simply allowing women to drive in Saudi Arabia. ** I just realised that this wasn't short as I expected in the beginning but I did write it quickly, so my apologies for any grammatical errors!
Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend (for free, yay!) the International Women's Day Luncheon at Monash University Clayton.
At the luncheon Dr Cordelia Fine gave a keynote address in which she talked about her recent research that examined how gender stereotypes pervade neuroscience research. As such, her most recent book, Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex has gone straight to the top of my Amazon wish list. Cordelia's background is impressive. Alumni of Cambridge University, Oxford University and University College of London, you can only begin to imagine the achievements section on her CV. Cordelia is the kind of women that young women need to be able to see in the media as per my previous post about the documentary, Miss Representation. With role models like Cordelia visible in every day media, would women change the way they think about themselves, their abilities and perhaps begin to challenge gender stereotypes that have been entrenched within our society for so long?
This YouTube video was presented by Cordelia and received a huge laugh at the luncheon yesterday. After considering this for some time I can't help but wonder if as women we are required to be more masculine in order to begin to break down gender stereotypes? Do we need to lose femininity in order to prove our worth?
This photo was taken while we were on our way up Poon Hill near Ghorepani in the Nepal Himalayas. We had to wake early that morning, long before light to take the hour trek up the hill. The night before the climb the weather had cleared for the first time since we arrived in Kathmandu about five or so days before. We were out on this particular trek as we had not been able to fly out to Lukla to do the Mt Everest Base Camp trek as we had planned. I imagine I would have had many moments like this one on the other trek but I am not to know. As I looked over my left shoulder and took my eyes off the trail I saw Machapuchare (Fishtail Mountain), the first of any Himalayan mountain we had seen and it was against the backdrop of first light. I think may face says it all, I was in awe. This is a moment in my life that genuinely took my breath away. While I could not control the weather that prevented me from going to Nepal to do what I had originally plan, as the Nepali Buddhists would say "everything happens for a reason". For me, this was it.
First sight of Machapuchare (6993m)
On the top of Poon Hill with the Annapurna Ranges in the distance
I vaguely recall the first time I saw this video. It was a while ago now, however, I don't think this video ever loses its power no matter how many times I see it.
There have been so many situations in my life where by simply switching the way that I think has rescued me from either failure or misery, or both.
Take what you want from it and make what you want from it. As I continue to search for inspiration so I can continue to succeed I will often return to this video. Enjoy.
About a month ago my mother sent me a YouTube clip of this movie "Miss Representation". Set in an American context it highlights the lack of positive female role models that are represented within the media as a consequence the patriarchal media industry.
Watching the film's trailer alone is enough to get you thinking about the last time you saw a positive portrayal of a woman in the media who was being celebrated for something that goes beyond their physical appearance. The only images I see are Kim Kardashian and the verbal bashing of intelligent women such as Julia Gillard who I believe needs to work twice as hard as any man in order to prove her worth as Australia's Prime Minister.
It was around the time of Britney Spears going "crazy" in the public view that I vowed to never buy another gossip magazine again. I imagine it was a combination of seeing such horrible images of someones suffering being plastered across the news and that I had started studying sociology that made me realise that I didn't want to be a part of that problem. I am guilty of picking up the latest gossip magazine in the doctors surgery, or while waiting in line at Coles but I won't buy them.
The free agents that we are in Australia, I challenge people to encourage themselves and those around them to demand positive images of women in the media. To look beyond what the mainstream media tells us and what advertising tells us. To question everything that you see and hear. I believe this is a far more fulfilling way to live life.
Please watch the Miss Representation trailer, it is in an American context however there are lessons to be learned. I would be interested to see the data from Australia however the infiltration of Australia's media with American content renders this close to the truth.
