Amy's First Angry Rant

Looking on Object, the news section ["New Year - New 'No Go Zones' (21.12.06)"] I notice this:

"Pubs, Bars & Student Unions - Bikini Babes
FRONT and other lad's mags have launched 'bikini babe' competitions across UK pubs, bars and even student unions (Loughborough). Female pub goers compete in FRONT bikinis, judged by the male onlookers.
Questions to competitiors include :- 'spit or swallow?'- 'do you take it up the arse?'"

Now, I'm going to have to give myself a few minutes to compose myself before I can articulate anything about this "bikini babe" thing.

Ok. Here goes.
Although there were other cases of disgusting objectification of women mentioned in the article (including a topless carwash & diner in Coventry), this one particularly annoyed me.

The idea of getting women to compete against each other to be crowned the hottest and most desirable according to male objectives is just sick. Making each contestant wear skimpy bikinis while surrounded by fully clothed, possibly drunk males, is just degrading. Is this at all necessary? No. But, of course, there's no rhyme or reason to it, just male leeriness and objectificaton of women to put them in a submissive, passive position to maintain the patriarchy by treating them as sexual objects & therefore keeping them down as second-class citizens. I mean, for fucks sake! Even the questions asked are nothing to do with the woman's personality, intelligence or any ability. Well, any ability other than making a guy cum. And, of course, the questions are about intimate, usually private interactions, and really the questioners have no right to know. The questions are all about what a woman would do to enhance a man's sexual pleasure, not about what she'd want, because it's all about the man's sexual gratification. There's nothing equal about that. There's nothing right about it at all.

And, let's face it. Girls will do this. Even if they're bloody inebriated or not fully willing - ie forced into it by (male) pressure - they'll do it. And why? Because popular culture manipulates and tells women to act in certain ways, to dress and look certain ways, most of which are geared up to fuel male lust and to gratify the sexual demands of men. Of course, not all womyn accept this. But many do, to varying degrees, of course, and it will be some of these girls who will participate in these activities, much like the girls who participate in the disgusting Girls Gone Wild franchise in America. I would go on about the vicious circle which these girls often find themselves, but I think I will just say, instead, that all this hurts women and their position in society, but it's bloody great for the patriarchy, and of course, great for the male spectators, who get to have something live in the flesh rather than a celluloid pornstar to wank over later.

There's a phrase going round in my head, which I read about in Andrea Dworkin's 'Heartbreak: Political Memoirs of A Feminist Militant", where she says she was too poor to afford a badge with one of her favourite Feminist slogans. The slogan?:

Don't suck. Bite.

As It Is Almost New Year's Eve...

Now I'm really, really not one to make a big fuss about New Year's Eve. To be honest, I tend to have a "same shit, different year" kinda philosophy. I mean, in all likelihood, it's not as if everything is going to miraculously change between the 11th chime and the first verse of Auld Lang Sine. Although, I guess it is nice to have a little contemplative review and look over the previous year. But, my friends would prefer to go for a piss-up, which is only natural because a lot of people don't share my perspective on New Year's Eve and, Goddess-knows-why, like to make a big hoo-hah out of it. When really, it's treated like a normal weekend-night piss-up. It's just not my thing.

So this year, I'm going to be baby-sitting my second cousins, and possibly their cousin who is no way related to me, and is a quite small baby. I'm not the most maternal of sorts, but hey, 30quid's 30quid. I just hope they sleep peacefully and don't interrupt my viewing of what will most probably be Series 4 of Scrubs on DVD. But of course, it's the season for little children to have bulbous amounts of snot bubbling out of their nostrils and to cough up and spew. Nice. Just dear God, please don't let them have diarrhoea!

This year, like all years before it, has been an assortment of up's and down's for me and for my friends. But, it has also had a few unique moments which have not happened in previous years: my GCSEs - which, apart from my "E" in PE, were great, although I am quite proud of that "E" - leaving my old school, St Andrews, was quite emotional since I'd been there for God knows how long, and starting my new sixth form was different, too. This was the year of Red Hot Chili Peppers at Earl's Court - hell yeah! - and Portugal with Faith, which was a helluva lotta fun. I went round the Baltics with the family, and met some lovely people; Tom, Jo and particularly Talia. Talia is my Manchester mate, and since meeting, she's been to Bedford town of Dreams for the weekend, and I recently stayed round hers in Manchester for a couple of days. So those would be the most monumental and significant events of this year. That and managing to long my birthday out (National Amy Day) for three whole days, which I feel is quite an achievement, and must be bettered for my 18th. O, and I've started learning to drive. In my two lessons I have driven on the wrong side of the road, been nervous of the accelerator, then got so friendly with it I drove in excess of the speeding limit a few times, and drove into a curb. Hell yeah!

But in each year, each month, week, day, there have been millions of moments - some good, bad, in-betweeny - which cannot all be accountable, and some are just nice to keep to yourself, or to share with the closest and most intimate of friends. And since I'm new to this blogging malarky, it would be too long, complicated and even a bit strange, to go into any more specifics about the previous year.

Happy New Year to everyone, whether they're going to spend the New Year's Eve night clubbing, with close friends and family, or anything.

Amy Is Confused/Debut!!

I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I don't even know what compelled me to do this.

And, of course, they make you come up with names for things, and I'm just not good at thinking up original/witty/interesting names, especially not on the spot. I just decided to flick through my iPod, and came up with a song by Death In Vegas featuring Liam Gallagher - Scorpio Rising, and thought ha, well I'm a Scorpio! So, yeah, none of the names here actually have any deep meanings. I hope I can bloody change them when I do think of something!
And I'm sorry to ramble on.

I promise you I will write at least some posts which will have a point to them. Even if their purpose is solely to vent or let off steam.

Maybe, if only to give some sense of purpose to this blog post, I shall write a little about myself.
Well, my name is Amy. I wish it wasn't, and I feel a certain lack of originality in finding another name for myself, even for this thing. *Sigh.* I'm only 17 (about 10 months 'til I can vote!!!) and I'm in lower sixth, doing the following AS levels: German, History, English Language and Sociology. I will most probably drop German at the end of this year because I really, really suck at it.

Like most people I know, I like to listen to music. To put a very, very broad label to the music I listen to, let's call it alternative. But a lot of it is "old school", and stolen from my dad. I owe several other traits to my dad: my sense of humour, my ambition and ego, but thankfully, not my nose. I like to go to local gigs - support the local scene! I watch TV too, mainly Scrubs, Friends, Only Fools & Horses, Blackadder, Gilmore Girls and Nevermind The Buzzcocks. I'm not much of a movie buff, I just watch things which entertain me, whether or not they're any good. I have no way of telling, to be honest.

When I was a kid, I always used to have my head in a book. I would be completely oblivious to the rest of the world, and it was like escapism for me. Then, I kind of didn't have time for reading. That said, recently I have been picking up the books again. Not so much fictional literature, instead I have been getting into feminist works; Backlash by Susan Faludi, Heartbreak - Political Memoirs of a Feminist Militant by Andrea Dworkin, and Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women & The Rise Of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy. I have some other books which are on my to-read list, mainly books which I received as gifts for Christmas, and a long list of books which I want to get. This is because I've found feminism on an intellectual level, and am beginning to learn more and more about it. I like going on feminist blogspots and yahoo groups and hearing about what contemporary feminists believe.

I know that I have only begun to scratch the surface, it's only the tip of the iceberg. But, wow, what I've read, it's filled me with exhilaration, and an innate desire to help other women, to create a truly equal society no longer ruled by gender. I want to grow, and I believe feminism will help me - and others - grow. I am convinced that feminism is still needed: the battle is not over! I believe that inequalities and attitudes against women are so incredibly subtle, most people do not realise they are there, and this just means it is all the more important that we have feminism.

I don't believe any of the stereotypical representations of feminism. I don't believe that to have feminist beliefs means to not have positive relationships with males. I have male friends, all of whom make me laugh. I just wanted to say all of the above in this, my first post, to make these opinions clear, because they are important to me, and a lot of my future blogs will be about feminism.

Ta-rah for now! (That's not to say I won't post again tonight, but I always feel a desire to write an introductory blog or paragraph like this, and maybe then write another one later in the space of one day or night, as far as I know there are no rules against this practice!)