Vivat Libertas

Here is something which might shock you: I am a woman who is capable of thinking for herself. I'll wait for you to fall off your chair or spill your drink or have a heart attack or something (not that I want you to do any of these things). Go on, go on and be shocked. What? You're not even surprised? Not even startled? Of course women are capable of thinking for themselves, you say, congratulating yourself for supporting the liberation and emancipation of women everywhere. I for one judge people by their deeds and attitudes, not by their words, and what I see is the very same people who claim to think that women can be independent-minded are also the ones who think that because I'm a woman, and quite a young one at that, anything that they don't like about me is because I've been corrupted by books and men (which probably says something about the kyriarchy wanting to keep women stupid, since then they can't rebel, and under control - sexually and otherwise...

I do love Twitter...sadly, some of the Top Tweets are complete shit, like #UglyGirlsAreNotAllowed . Why is this trend shit? I shouldn't really have to explain - it should be incredibly obvious. Apparently, however, people missed the memo so...it's pretty much the height of stupidity to focus on looks alone when brains and personality get you further, for a start. I have known many people who didn't quite understand this and haven't done particularly well for themselves as a result. It's also psychologically damaging to people's minds to be told that they must  be beautiful or they're worthless - as in, my-self-esteem-is-totally-fucked-up-and-I'm-going-to-kill-myself damaging in the very worst cases. If you still  don't understand, suicide isn't funny. It is not funny when someone tries to wipe themselves from existence because it just hurts too much to keep on existing. It is not funny to push someone into that. It is not funny when your frie...

I don't really talk about this much. I probably should do, since it's quite interesting. I came across this tweet from Alom Shaha , talking about how having female role models doesn't make a difference to girls' appreciation of physics. Now, this is a massive problem - the ratio of men to women in physics is still quite skewed, but I'm getting off topic. He asked for thoughts, and since I have a big mouth and fairly good typing skills here's what I came up with . It sparked off a little bit of commenting, particularly when I mentioned the role of the media in telling girls to "shut up & look nice" . Two women, @RedRubia and @Queen_Claire , told me that nobody had ever told them they couldn't do maths and that they were very proud of being presentable lady geeks who had never thought that they should shut up, in which case, more power to them. @Original_Cindy  then claimed I was wrong (but hasn't actually put any evidence forth for th...

Fuck the kyriarchy . That's all I can say. I'm shocked and outraged and I can barely talk. Maybe I shouldn't be this way. Maybe I should have expected something like this. But no matter how rampant it is, no matter how widespread the attitudes are, I get angry. I'm not particularly easy on the eyes and I'm probably slightly overweight. Fine. I do the best I can with what I have and these days I try to keep reasonably fit. Going to the gym (instead of being forced to participate in sports I despise) probably helps. Two stunningly beautiful girls in my year, one of whom models, want plastic surgery for...well...basically everything. A nose job, a boob job, a tummy tuck here and a facelift there. Now, these girls can do whatever they want. Their private lives aren't my business. If they want to spend money on permanently changing their appearance, that's their decision and not mine. What is  my business, however, and what disgusts me, is the attitude whic...

Ah, Facebook. I won't call it the most pointless site on earth, because that would actually be a compliment. Instead, I'll try and describe it as it really is: a place where people baww about their lives, post crappy song lyrics, tell you pointless shit that nobody needs to know, make up passive-aggressive statuses to get desperately needed attention, and indulge themselves in clichés that were already pretty tired about 65 million years ago. It's also incredibly addictive and actually has useful shit mixed in with all the crap, which is what makes it so frustrating. I've just been on it and, as you can see, it's caused a severe drop in my IQ and a bad mood to match - hence the profanity. This was only caused by ONE thing (if it had been caused by more, I think my head would have exploded out of sheer rage - is that a good or a bad thing? Take my speculation as you will). I shall now analyse this one thing in detail and, hopefully, come up with an awesome rebu...