“He For She” and EQUALITY

An article on TheAtlantic.com (The Unsafety Net: How Social Media Turned Against Women) says:

“A 2013 report from the World Health Organization called violence against women “a global health problem of epidemic proportion,” from domestic abuse, stocking, and street harassment to sex trafficking, rape, and murder.

Last Saturday, October 11th, was The International Day of the Girl. The United Nations declared it thus back in 2011 and this year this day just so happened to follow the announcement that was years in the making.

After all she went through at such a young age, all for the basic right to get an education, Malala Yousafzai was awarded as the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. with her advocacy and bravery when speaking up for girls and their right, everywhere around the world, to receive the same educational opportunities as boys, this equality is key for a bright future for both sexes and I have found it a hopeful sign.

I recently found myself growing more and more interested in speaking on gender equality. I often feel like I have a double burden placed upon my back, being both a woman and with a disability.

I guess I used to feel like I couldn’t say anything about my thoughts and feelings on the subject, for fear of sounding like a whining, complaining victim. Oh poor me! Poor her…the poor blind woman!

I feel I am not that far off from being born in a time or a part of the world where I would be less lucky than I currently am and this thought gives me chills. Where would that leave me then? What would my life be like if I had not been alive and brought up at this time in history, in Canada? A blind girl wouldn’t historically or culturally be given all that many opportunities or rights.

I guess it’s only been a coming together of very recent events, first the speech Emma Watson gave at the UN with her “He For She” campaign. And then with Malala’s award. These two aren’t keeping quiet and neither am I for that matter.

Check out the Atlantic article,

Here.

***

I found myself in a fast-food restaurant today with my two-year-old nephew and sister. As my sister got up to dispose of our tray, I remained by the table with my nephew. I held my white cane and he examined it with great interest. He needed to be reminded not to pick it up and let it fly in the air, risking bodily harm to other customers, but then he grabbed my hand and led me carefully out of the restaurant.

Any aggressive little boy behaviours such as playing with a long white stick indoors were instantly switched up for a more intuitive, thoughtful, and sensitive act like helping me out of the restaurant. Just these very gender specific behaviours are valid ones and we can teach both young boys and young girls to be whatever they want to be. That is what we should truly be fighting for, both men and women of the world.

It was the second time he has done this and as I cautiously walked with him to the door, through the entrance, and out and safely crossing the street to the car I felt again a growing awareness in him. Perhaps I am imagining this because I know how smart he is, but he seems to be developing an understanding beyond his years, a thoughtfulness he shows in wanting to help his auntie. This is what I hope, that he receives something many other children don’t, that I can give him an outlook on life through my relationship with him. I will always just have been his aunt first, but his blind aunt with the white cane too.

It’s not about him having to drag me along with him, relieving me of any responsibility for myself as the adult, but that he knows what a white cane is and what it means to hold out a hand and help someone. I see, in him, a growing empathy and kindness that more of the world could stand to learn for themselves, boys and girls from a young age and into adulthood.

I am a big fan of symmetry, more it seems, as I get older. I found this mid-week, Wednesday, Mid-month, October 15th to be highly satisfying. Speaking of equality, for disability, October 15th is International White Cane Safety Day. I want to be taken seriously as a woman with something to offer and as a person, who just so happens to carry a white cane. I hope that campaigns such as Ammas’ and awards such as the one given to Malala and the occasions such as todays’ will make our world a more tolerant place, full of opportunities for us all equally.

***

And finally…

For Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities. Today I remember my memories staying as a patient with my family and, years later, giving back as a volunteer. I celebrate the house that welcomes sick children and their families with open arms, during some of the more difficult moments in life.

I continue to hope for a “Day of Change” all around.

Up We Go

The other day I wrote a post, an interview actually, with a feminist blogger from TheFBomb.org. This name is like a word you’re not supposed to utter, like something shameful or bad. Really it is a place for women to say what they want, or in some cases, need to say.

She’s The Bomb!

This week has been quite an awesome one for some pretty great women in media: Lights, Emma Watson, and Lena Dunham.

It has been a great week, full of the things that I love and which bring me true happiness: music, female empowerment, and books. Here are just three strong females who have made something or done something I wanted to highlight here, to bring to attention and bookmark, in a way, on this place that is my own.

Up We Go.

The above video is from her latest album, Little Machines, which came out last Tuesday, September 23rd.

Lights is the sort of indie electro-synth pop music that I love. She is breathy and a breath of fresh air. The first time I heard her single Up We Go I instantly felt better and more energetic about my own life. That’s what good music does for me.

He For She.

I don’t know if you’ve heard Emma Watson’s now famous UN speech yet, but it has been shared around the world for its truth, power, and hope.

The campaign is called “He For She” and it aims to bring both the sexes together to fight all forms of the inequality problem: from the imbalance in wages to the stereotypically assigned roles of each gender. It’s a move attempting to try for a de-stigmatizing of the terms we use, that the word “feminist” doesn’t automatically equal man hater.

Ask Lena.

Above is a short video, made by Girls writer, director, and star) Lena Dunham as a promotion for her memoir, which came out today and of which I am, as we speak, sailing through.

I chose the above video out of the twelve she made, all advice to people who wrote in, because it is one she gives to an insecure, young, female writer. I relate and imagine I am that young writer, even though I am two years older than her. I imagine that we are just two friends, out to lunch and discussing writing because I wish I had someone like that in my life.

These videos, up on YouTube, are smart and snappy and the perfect lead-up to today’s release of Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned”.

For the next three weeks I will be posting a feature on one of these three amazing women. I will write one review or article a week on these kick-ass females. They are just what motivates me to believe I too could make something just as beautiful, just as powerful, or just as real. I just wanted to round them up here because they all came together over the last week with the best message for any woman: that anything is possible.