This is a (Wo)man's World: International Women's Day

In light of International Women's Day which has just passed (March 8th), I wanted to shed some light on the ways in which women worldwide have been oppressed by the internet, how we should all seriously consider adopting an egalitarian viewpoint on society and of course, the world's second favourite "F" word; Feminism.

Anyone with a knowledge for computers will be able to recognise and confirm that the internet is potentially the most destructive, dangerous and demeaning entity to date; yet we can never get enough of it. Thanks to its incredible ease of access (shout out to the great Tim Berners-Lee), we're only ever a short click away from the good, the bad and the ugly. Scary, right?

And it's one of those short clicks that will instantaneously reinforce the inequality of gender that is still present on the internet today. For example, if we take a stroll on over to [Google] and in the search box we type either "women should" or "women can't" the auto-complete feature that Google so very handily has installed to make searches easier and more efficient, actually shows us exactly the kind of oppression women all over the world are facing daily. And we haven't even stepped out of our front door yet. 

Seen above is a campaign that [UN Women] launched in order to reveal the widespread prevalence of sexism and discrimination against women. The scariest part? These are genuine Google searches that date back to as recently as March 9th 2013. Women have only very recently started being recognised and labelled as equals to their male counterparts, however there is still a painfully long way to go. Women's suffrage was the first movement towards campaigning for equal rights for women in the United Kingdom. This was the right of women to vote and stand for electoral office which fortunately became a national movement in 1872. It wasn't for another 46 years later (1918) that women were enfranchised (granted the right to vote). However, this would only apply to women over the age of 30 up until 1928 where Conservative government passed the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act, allowing all women over the age of 21 to vote.

This weird and wonderful rock that we live on has been in existence for roughly 4.5 billion years. The emergence of modern humans, i.e you and I, happened approximately 200,000 years ago. Taking that into consideration, from the first emergence of modern humans, women were subordinates to men all the way up until 1928. Now that we can put it into some kind of perspective, can you see the severity of the situation? 

A lot of people don't even realise how often women and young girls fall victim to the oppression of the patriarchy. We may be working harder than ever before to tackle it here in Europe and over the Atlantic in the United States but there are still many countries where inferiority of women is still as prevalent as it was one hundred and forty three years ago when women's suffrage first became a national movement.

This is where the feminist movement comes in. Contrary to popular belief due to the constant changing in society, feminists believe in the advocacy of equal rights for women on a political, economic, cultural, social and personal level. Including establishment of equal opportunities for women in employment and education. 

Unfortunately though, due to different waves of the feminist movement a minority group that I like to call "third-wave feminists" have tarnished the original concept and goals of modern feminism and the topic seems to be more controversial than ever. A kind of taboo, if you will. However, I only wanted to touch briefly on this and it's is a topic I have saved for a later date so we'll cut ties with feminism for now and move onto another subject which I think is utterly relevant to this post.

[HeForShe] is an organisation which recognises that gender equality is not solely a woman's issue but a human right's issue. Their goal is to make men aware that the fight for gender equality is their fight too and to engage them as agents of change.

The organisation formed on the 20th of September, 2014 with a kick-starter event held at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York. This event was hosted by a woman that all women worldwide should look up to as a role model, Emma Watson. Watson is a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador who delivered a speech informing of her hardships with sexism and discrimination, how she found feminism and how men and boys should play a big role on the road to gender equality. Her [speech] (which, may I add, was absolutely incredible), circulated widely on social media, receiving incredible support. If you are yet to see the speech I am talking about, please take the time to follow the link which I provided above because it really does open your mind up to the severity of gender inequality. 

Within just three days of the launch of the HeForShe campaign, 100,000 men and boys had signed up to pledge their support in the fight against inequality. As you are reading this that number has raised to 244,284. These numbers are incredible and girls, doesn't it feel amazing to know that so many males are taking a stand for gender equality? However, there is still such a long way to go. To put it into proportion, 244,284 does not even cover the population of Cardiff, Wales. So guys, if you're reading this why not take a stand for gender equality and pledge your role in the fight?

When I was younger, I was widely considered a "tomboy". A word I now cringe at and in some respects, grown to dislike. By definition, a tomboy is "a girl who enjoys rough, noisy activities traditionally associated with boys". The one word that really rattles my cage with that statement is "traditionally". There is nothing traditional about it, just incredibly stereotypical. 

I like to consider myself as one of those kids from the awesome generation. You know, the ones that actually went out to play with their friends. We didn't have mobile phones, iPads or computers of our own so the only real means of communication with our friends would be to go and call for them. We'd actually see the outside world, something I now see very rarely. How cliché, right?

As a kid, I loved everything that wasn't pink. Not because I wanted to dissociate from my gender but because funnily enough, there were other things that were a lot more appealing to me as a kid. I was extremely athletic, playing football, rugby, netball and cricket. I've never been good at throwing and people who saw me throw would always pull out the "you throw like a girl" card. I loved roller-blading but was seen as a wannabe boy because the blades I owned were professional and not purple groovy chick's with plastic wheels that threw you to the ground every time a stone got stuck in them. I wore England shorts under my summer dress because I didn't want the boys to see my pants and I wore Nike Total 90 trainers. The red and white ones, just to clarify. I was extremely friendly with boys as I had more in common with them. But when it boiled down to it, I was just a "tomboy". I liked things I "wasn't supposed" to like. "Shouldn't you be playing with Barbie dolls?" well... shouldn't you stop being such a stereotypical prick and let me like what I want?

I used to have a BMX bike and for the period that I had it, it was my pride and joy. I used to play wrestling on the Playstation 2 which soon amounted to playing fake royal rumbles, TLC and ladder matches with figurines until trampolines became all the rage and we could pretend to have a cage match on there. But of course, that's something only boys should be interested in when they're young.

I was introduced to gaming at a really young age, I played Super Mario on the Super Nintendo, Top Gear and Goldeneye 007 on the N64. Then I got a PS1 and I played Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and Tomb Raider. By the time I got a PS2 for Christmas, I was playing PES and on the PS3 I was playing Fifa 08. Then I got a Nintendo Wii with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and eventually became a huge fan of the Call of Duty franchise. Unfortunately, it was on this game that I first experienced discrimination from people who didn't even know me. People that couldn't even see me made preconceptions about me on an online game because I was female. I'd receive remarks such as "she must be fat because she plays video games," and "you're not a girl you're just a whiny 13 year old." I've had people tell me I sound "sexy" and fairly recently when I finished top of my team, I got abuse thrown at me because apparently girls can't be good at male dominated games? I had no idea. 

It's funny isn't it, how badly we're judged for things that we take an interest in? 

When I left primary school and moved up to secondary school I was teased for being abnormally tall. Okay, I get it. Girls aren't supposed to be taller than boys, right? The people I considered close friends of mine (boys, may I add), poked fun at me for liking football and showing my support for my team through social media. I started wearing make up when I was 12 because I thought maybe if I started looking a bit more like a girl, people wouldn't tease me and call me a "man". 

Between the ages of 14 and 18 I really wanted to join the Army. At a careers fair held at my school, I went to speak to The Rifles (the largest modern infantry regiment within the British Army). As a female, of course, I couldn't serve on the front line but I wanted to know what army life was like for these men. The conversation I had with the soldiers there ended with me being told to "become a secretary or something." Obviously I was put out by this because my dream was to become an Apache helicopter pilot. However, because I am a woman this was obviously far more than what I was capable of achieving.

Now that I've grown up and realised that people's opinions of you don't matter, I couldn't care less what people think of me. I still love football, I still play video games and I even drink lager *gasp*. The fact of the matter is, The things that I like make me no less of a woman and they certainly don't make me any less of a person. So why am I treated differently because of my anatomy? 

I believe that the reason women are deemed to be subordinate to men is because of the false stereotypes that surround the concept of masculinity. Men believe that if they aren't masculine, then they're not manly. This is not the case. I have male friends that will label another guy as "gay" because he's not afraid to show his emotions. Why should we ridicule men for being sensitive when that's what makes us human? We all have feelings and emotions, why is it seen as acceptable for only half of us to show our sensitive side? What exactly is so "gay" about a man that wishes to wear pink? Having a muscular physique and a beard does not make you automatically more manly than a guy that doesn't work out. I don't understand why it's okay for us to make assumptions and judgements of people based on the way the look. Society tells us to be ourselves and to be unique but how can we achieve this when society has also taught us to oppress anything that goes against social norms?

You don't realise how often you've been ridiculed for your gender until you actually stop and think about it. The whole reason we are in this war with gender inequality is because of stereotypes and prejudice being thrown upon us, forcing us to believe that certain attributes and qualities make us subordinate as a human being. I throw like a girl because I am a girl and that's something I'll always be proud of. Doing something "like a girl" is not an insult. At the end of the day, we all shit out the same hole.