Break out the Nostalgia May 1, 2008

As I’m writing this blog, among the many many arbitrary thoughts running through my brain, is The Beatles‘ song The Long and Winding Road. Why? Because it hit me right between the eyes earlier that tomorrow is potentially my last college lecture…ever! Thanks to my lack of computer skills and my general incompetence I spent most of my second last day and night in a freezing computer lab wishing I could turn back time and pick an elective I wasn’t terrible at. Now in fairness I’m usually okay at computer stuff but I’m not the most organised person in the world which I learned today is a major part of web design. Who knew? There’s nothing like going from out of control maniacal laughter to floods of tears in under ten minutes, all in all it was a proud day for strong women everywhere.

I just realised in the last week that assignments and exams aside, college is a test of endurance. I’ve had subjects in that past I didn’t like (ahem, radio) or were really challenging (*cough* media law *cough*), but part of the experience is learning that you can’ always just do the subjects you want or are good at. In many professions like journalism you will more than likely down the line end up doing a job you hate and college. In this way college prepares you for the real world in ways you don’t even know. 

Where have all the real women gone? February 14, 2008

Looking through a copy of any womens magazine you can’t help but wonder who decided that it was attractive or even normal for a grown woman to have the body of a 12 year old. It’s unhealthy, it’s perverse and it’s just wrong!

Women must compete to be accepted in society as being equally intelleigent and strong as their male counterparts. It is unfair that success is somehow not acceptable unless a woman allows herself to be defined by physical appearance. This has always been the case but recently it seems that the attitde to the female form is the slimmer the better.

I have made a conscious decision not to allow myself to be dictated to, especially when it comes to the way I look. Women look the way we do for a reason. We are born with 10% more body fat than men so for a woman to have a square formless figure is fighting nature. Curves are natural.

There’s plenty of celebrities who are happy with their curves but because the skinniest gt the column inches I can’t help but feel the average woman is really getting a raw deal from the magazines who claim to be n her side. No one wants to look at Natasha Beddingfields chest bones so please stop showing us. These magazines also have a fairly warped idea of what curvy really is. I once saw Meb B described as a curvy size 10. Having enormous fake boobs does not mean that a woman is curvy. It means she has…well…enormous fake boobs with very little to hold them on.

Valentine’s Day January 15, 2008

As yet another Valentine’s Day rolls around I can’t help but find myself a little bit torn. On one hand I can finally understand it for what it’s meant to be, a celebration of love in all its glory. On the other hand the past 20 Valentine’s Days spent alone have left the remnants of a bitter after taste about the day. Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against relationships. How could I? I’m head over heels for my boyfriend and I’ve never been happier, it’s just something about Valentine’s Days that I’m having mixed emotions about. I can’t wait to spend the day with Gavin who I plan on moaning to about consumerism before asking for my present. I can’t decide if I’m a cynic, a realist or a hypocrite.

It took me some time to decipher the mixed messages I was sending myself and in the end I reached a fantastically anticlimactic conclusion. I am a hopeless romantic. I love love and everything about it. I love the chocolates, the flowers, the teddies, and the clichés. I even don’t mind that I’ve spent the past two February 14ths working, helping smug couples to find their cinema seats because they were too busy staring at each other. I don’t like how it’s pushed onto people though. Not everyone who is single is unhappy about it. For many it’s a choice and a perfectly valid one at that. It puts huge amounts of pressure onto people by forcing the idea that if they’re not in a relationship there must be something physically, emotionally or mentally wrong with them. It would be like telling everyone to be Catholic at Christmas just so they don’t miss out.

Why isn’t there a day to celebrate the single life?