Love from, Florence Grace

Before you read my blog post, you may want some background information as to what I am writing about...please click here  to read the article before reading my post. So let's get started shall we. Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, the woman proud not to be a feminist. Why? "Because I've never really faced inequality". Wow, Kaley. Good for you. Being a feminist is obviously only allowed if it is directly affecting you. Not. Feminism is- or should be- a global  movement, helping women all over the world. If you're a woman who has absolutely never  faced inequality in your life- and I should imagine there's very few of you- then you're are one of the lucky ones. I am so happy for you. But is it really okay to turn around and say you aren't a feminist because of that? You've never been affected by inequality, fine. But how can you turn your backs on the women who have? The women who face it every single day of their lives. Women who work for free, the gender...

"Just show her your penis. If she cries, she's just playing hard to get" Shocked? How about this: "Girls have periods. I call that 'blow job week'. What you need to do is get four girlfriends- then it's four weeks of blowies". I'm sure your jaw has dropped- where have these horrific statements come from? Let me tell you. They have come from "comedian", "TV personality" and "model", Dapper Laughs. Dapper Laughs is an alter ego for Clapham man Daniel O'Reilly. Finding fame in his six second Vines, Dapper Laughs has gone on to produce a novelty song that rose to number 15 in the UK charts, host his own stand-up tours and now has his own TV show- thanks to ITV2. Dapper's TV show will be listed as a 'dating' show where he will tell 'lads' how to get some 'pussy' and some 'gash' in the style of harmless banter between friends, as he tries to educate males who lack Dapper...

I'm sure all you fashionistas out there have been keeping a careful eye on Paris Fashion Week and wishing you could be there, wearing the clothes, designing them- whichever role, I'm sure you were watching it with a dream in mind! So I'm sure that it came as a surprise to everyone when well renowned designer Karl Lagerfeld hosted a display of 'protest', supporting the wrongly controversial political movement, feminism. At first, the idea struck most as quite positive. Someone of a high status choosing a popular event to support feminism- great idea, right?  Look a little deeper into the display and I am sure you will notice just how flawed the display was. Let's first take a look at who was used to take part in this display supporting feminism. Stick thin models, probably size 6 or less, all with the 'perfect' Westernized look and in, obviously, designer garb. These women, representing 'real' women all over the world, and yet hardly an ou...

WARNING:  The following article is about rape and contains sensitive content. The subject of rape I have chosen to talk about is predominantly female victims with male attackers from Britain and the USA- this does not mean I am not aware that rape victims can be male, can be children and that it is a huge issue all over the world as well as here. Please do not take offence to the areas that I personally have chosen to focus on. Girls love a big night out- the gossip, the drinking, the dancing. Best of all is the pre-drinks, and the getting dolled up, all girls together. Fancy heels, little dresses, eyelashes and glitter all come together to create an outfit preparing you for a night on the town. There's no denying though, that throughout all the fun of getting ready, there is often one worry lingering at the back of a girls mind. "Does this outfit create the wrong impression of me?". Half of all youths think that rape is 'okay' in a 'certain situation...

At this day in age, we are used to seeing the female body naked. It might be in films, to portray a sex scene. It might be in advertising, such as the campaign "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" campaign by PETA. One of the worst forms of female nudity in our society however is the Page 3 Pin Up girls. One word- why? Page 3 pin ups are something I have never understood. Whether that's because I lack sexual attraction towards women or not, I don't know. But I just can't get my head around two major points about pin up girls. Firstly, why would you want to smack an image of a naked woman, who doesn't look anything but trashy, in the middle of a well respected newspaper, such as The Sun? Secondly, what woman wants her naked body displayed as a grainy image in a newspaper for aging business men to ogle over on their train journey home to their wife? I just do not understand. Let's first look at this from the woman's point of view. Obviously the ...

Feminism is something we hear about all the time- girls defending it and boys taking the mickey out of it. It is an important movement that should not be forgotten, and it moved women forward in society, into the position that we find ourselves in today. So many opportunities women have are down to the feminists who lived before us, fighting for women's rights and equal opportunities. I for one am pleased with how feminism has changed the lives of so many woman and, although we aren't completely there yet, how it has helped some  men understand that women are in fact equal to men. Yet, although I am a feminist myself, I do think that somewhere along the line, something has gone wrong. Somewhere along the line, whilst fighting for women and men to be equal, we decided that actually, not all men were equal. Somewhere along the line, we started treating men the way men treat women. Doesn't this defeat the point of feminism? Feminists, including myself, are continuously put...

Sexualising females in the media is not a foreign concept. It is something we understand and are forced to see every single day- the way we have been for years and years and years- only, recently it seems to be getting worse. In advertising, in artwork, in music, the sexualisation of females is everywhere. There's no denying that the feminists from 100 years ago achieved excellent results. At last, all females can vote. Females can work in all kinds of jobs, not just "feminine" ones. Females don't have to be married to be respected. Females are undoubtedly more independent than they were 100 years ago, and it progresses all the time in leaps and bounds. But one area we seem to be going backwards  is in the representation of women in the media. Whilst women are feeling stronger and usually feeling more equal to men than ever before, the media are doing their best at trying to reverse over 100 years of hard work that has got women to the position they are in today. Mu...

As a child, we are taught from a fictional nursery rhyme that little girls are made from "sugar and spice and all things nice". In the modern era we live in, this can be translated to 'sweet' as a lover, a wife and a mother, 'spice' to keep our partners satisfied in the bedroom and 'all things nice' to please everybody around us- family, colleagues, lovers and friends. From a young age, this nursery rhyme drills into us that girls are 'all things nice'. But as we get older, staying sweet and nice becomes more of a challenge as we lose our naive sight of the world and the people around us and start to become more cynical in the way that we view things. Sometimes in life though, we want to be a ' bitch'. Opinionated and bolshy with a sharp tongue and blunt words, the only term that has come to describe a woman with these attributes is 'bitch'. Screw manners, screw politeness and screw being sweet. This is no longer the 1800...