Feminism. From the perspective of a 16 year old idiot.

Yesterday I finished my exams. That was good. Today I woke up and realised I didn't know what to do with myself. So I read a book, as well as watching 3 episodes of Hi-De-Hi, painting my nails purple and eating cake, but the reading was the main thing. The book I chose to read was How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran, last week I discovered it in my mother's 'things to go to the charity shop' pile in the dining room and I saved it. I'm glad I did, it was pretty good. It was amusing and interesting and made me think quite a lot about these things:
1) Feminism
2) Abortions
3) Pickled eggs

First off, I am going to explain number 3, so that when I continue and talk about the other two, you will be able to put what I'm saying into some sort of perspective - ie. I am an idiot who struggles with even the most basic concepts.

So, at one point, near the end of the book, pickled eggs are mentioned, I don't remember why but I remember thinking "Picked eggs are interesting, I mean... how do they work?" Because pickled eggs don't have shells, otherwise they wouldn't be pickled but they remain egg-shaped. If you break an un-pickled egg into a jar of vinegar in order to pickle it, how does it stay looking all egg-shaped and not all splatted about like a fried egg or a poached one. Yeah. (don't worry, I've got it now, you don't need to explain)

Now, Abortions. Less cheerful, I know. Sorry. I read the chapter about abortions and realised, with some surprise, that I didn't have much of an opinion on this subject. Which is pretty unusual, I'm rather an opinionated sort of lass.

But I stopped reading for a minute to think. This: I think life is very special, I think having children is awesome and I don't think I could ever have an abortion. But what on earth am I basing that on? As a 16 year old who has never even been kissed, my knowledge of... anything in that area is incredibly limited. In school they made us watch a film of abortions taking place, I cried. It's silly, I know, but I found it more distressing than I probably should have and kept thinking about it and feeling a confused sort of unhappiness for WEEKS after.

But I do think it's fantastic that people in this country can choose to have an abortion, if that's what they think is the right thing, because in the end, it's down to the person with an unborn child inside them. Some people say that it's no different from murder. But it is, it's completely different to murder. If you kill a living, grown-up person, you're removing their life and everything that is 'them' from the world, causing untold amounts of grief and pain to everyone who is left behind to deal with the resultant mess. Aborting a baby, however a difficult decision it might be, is down to its parents - although I believe that it's still a person, it's not a person that has anything to do with other people, it's a little, unknown being in its own tiny world with the potential to be anything. And one of the many 'potentials' is to not be anything at all.

People who campaign against abortions being legal seem to be missing the point a little. Just because it isn't something YOU'D ever do, you have no right to be throwing around your opinions about it as if they were The Truth, in fact, because of your complete refusal to have anything to do with the subject, you have less right than anyone else to claim to know The Truth. It's all about CHOICE, it's legal in this country so that people are free to make a choice. Nobody is going to force you to have an abortion in the same way that if same sex marriage becomes legal, nobody is going to force you into that either. That's plain silly. So go away and try to find something else that has absolutely nothing to do to cause a fuss about. Preferably something that isn't going target people at potentially the most vulnerable and emotional point in their lives.

RIGHT, I'm feeling quite ranty now.

Feminism. It's not something that I entirely 'get' and although I've started to understand it a bit more today, I'm still not entirely sure. Maybe it's just a combination of way that feminism is presented in the media (the general 'feminists are mentals who hate men' perspective) and the few 'feminists' that I know - but here is the thing: I don't want to be part of a group of people who are just so ANGRY all the time. Angry about everything, about the world, hating what they were born into and therefore in a weird self-righteous sort of way, hating themselves.

There's no denying it's good, bloody brilliant in fact,  that women can vote, and be doctors and engineers, wear trousers and write books and not legally be raped by their husbands and be in charge of a country. And I know it's not so great that they don't get paid as well as men and get harassed in the street and often judged entirely on how they look. But generally, i really like being a girl. I like wearing pretty dresses and heels with flowers on and glittery nail varnish, the idea of one day getting married and having babies and a dog and baking carrot cakes for them all fills me with joy IN A BIG WAY. Also, I spend enough time with boys (20 minutes on the bus to school every morning) to know that they mostly talk about sport and their willies and I don't have much to say on either of those topics so don't want to be that much like them, at all, really.

My favourite thing Caitlin Moran wrote was this:

"Seeing the whole world as 'The Guys' is important. The idea that we're all, at the end of the day, just a bunch of well-meaning schlumps, trying to get along, is the basic alpha and omega of my world view. I'm neither 'pro-women' nor 'anti-men'. I'm just 'Thumbs up for the six billion'"  

Because this addresses my main issue with feminism: women want to be seen as equal, equal to what? Men, sure, that would change some stuff but it wouldn't actually fix the problem would it? Equality is this MASSIVE issue that is to do with more than just sex. It's about skin colour and religion and class and sexuality and whether you have a speech impediment or not. From what I can see, feminism, although saying that men and women are equally important, is actually saying that women are more important than, say, a gay man in an ethnic minority with a lisp. And that's not right is it? That's not what equality is at all, it should be about individuals - individuals going through their life being judged only on what they as a human actually do and say without any preconceptions being made about them.

Yep. That's what I think.
It's not much, but what can you expect, I've taken 21 exams in the past month, I'm exhausted.