#HeForShe

#HeForShe

For a while now I've wanted to post something on this. Ever since Emma Watson's speech at the United Nations, it has struck me how important this campaign is. Further to this, I am currently studying Weimar Germany at University, and one of the topics was the changing gender relations during this period. I never really understood the exact importance of studying this, as I believed it was just all about how women wanted real jobs and careers, until my lecturer pointed out that girls are not born loving the colour pink. It is drilled into them by society. Although many people watched/listened to what Emma had to say, I felt I needed to to say a piece on the matter too as it has really struck something with me and I wanted to express my views.

He For She is a campaign essentially giving feminism another name. The word feminism has been given numerous negative connotations which have been drilled into society; such as man hating and female supremacy. This is not what feminism is. Most of you out there are feminists and don't even realise it or do not want to admit it because of these negative connotations. Being a feminist means you believe men and women should have equal rights and equal opportunities. Women should receive the same pay as men and should be able to gain successful careers in fields where men have dominated for years. But it should also be acceptable for men to want to be 'stay at home husbands'. My dad was a house husband when I was very young, and he told me when he came to pick my siblings and I up from school, he was easily recognisable as the only Dad in the playground.  

He For She goes a little bit further though by making people aware of the discrimination which occurs against men as well.When people think of the term 'manly', they think of a guy who is possibly physically strong, but if you see a guy who is physically weak, would you call him any less of a man? He is of the male gender, so why should he be classed as less 'manly' than a guy who has big muscles? Furthermore, if a woman had big muscles, would you call her manly, even though she is evidently female? If your answer was yes, then your perspective of what it means to be a man needs to change.

Men should be able to form careers in Nursing, Social Work and as Receptionists without them being teased for doing a 'woman's job'. The stereotyping of  jobs needs to be torn away. It has been established woman can be just as great politicians as men, just as powerful lawyers and just as brilliant Doctors as men, so it needs to work both ways. Jobs should not be given to people based on such a little thing as gender; this criteria should be the last to be considered when hiring a person, with job performance being the ultimate headlining consideration.

It's time to stop these gender roles which have been drilled into society. The only gender role which should matter is the fact that nature has deemed women to bare children for nine months, and although this can mean the mother has an initial closer relationship with the child, does not mean the father cannot form just as close a bond or to be the one who looks after them whilst the woman went to work. 

Moreover, it should also be looked at what we 'teach' our children to like as soon as they're born. I mentioned earlier how my lecturer pointed out how girls only like pink because society has decided that for them. Why is it acceptable for little girls to play with dolls, but if a little boy wants to play with them, it somehow makes him 'girly'? Why are boys stereotyped to like dinosaurs, monsters and aliens whilst girls should like flowers, butterflies and rainbows? I myself, a 20 year old women, would much rather play with/draw/write about monsters and aliens than butterflies and ponies. I always questioned myself, why do only boys get to play with toy racing cars and motorbikes, and even sometimes lego? I can remember getting jealous of my brother whenever he got such presents for Christmas off relatives and my sister and I were given glittery and pink make up. I'm not saying I wasn't grateful for my gifts, but it has just hit me recently how the answer I gave myself 'because he's a boy and you're a girl' really isn't an answer at all. I should not have had this reasoning. No one should. So if you are reading this, and your young daughter wants an electric racing car for her birthday, but you don't want to get her one because she's a girl. Just consider how be far more grateful  she'll be for it than that dolls house you saw in the Argos catalogue. It's the same for boys, if they want a dolls house, but you've already picked out that expensive toy motorbike, think of what a waste of money it would be if he didn't enjoy it as much as you'd hoped.

So the big question which lies behind gender association, is why? Why should girls like pink and boys like blue? Why should children be force fed this? Would you stop your child liking something because of their gender? I'm not saying all people do this; I am just attempting to address the social norm, and question it.

Another campaign which I believe bares a similar significance is the Free The Nipple campaign. Many people will not give this campaign a look as they believe it has some sort of bad reputation, but I 100% agree with what they have to say. It's about the sexualizing of women's breasts. I am not saying women's breasts are not allowed to be attractive, but that is not what they are made for, and so why should they be covered up? I am also not saying women should go around topless, but they should be allowed to such as a man is, instead of being arrested for indecent exposure. It has been proven that bras are not actually needed to support women's breasts. They have little effect, so why should we wear them? A woman's breast contains the same material as men on the outside; nipple and breast tissue, the only difference is a woman is able to produce milk. This is another important point; an issue which recently has had a lot of backlash. The idea that a woman is unable to breastfeed in public.

Breastfeeding is just as natural as sneezing. If you were thrown out of a public place just because you you sneezed, how unfair would you find this? It's crazy how some people feel uncomfortable because a mother needs to feed her baby. Nature has designed her body to do this, so why should she opt for using formula in public when the best thing for her baby is to breastfeed them?

I am not trying to force this down everyone's throat. The fact you clicked on this link shows you must have had some interest and curiosity of the subject. This is something I have wanted to write about for a while, and although it may not be the best timing with my dissertation and multiple other assignments just around the corner, I feel great finally writing this down. I understand if people do not agree with what I have to say or wish to oppose my opinion. I respect that, but this is my point of view and my decision to share it with whoever I can. So I thank you for taking the time to read this.

<3

What to do in the shower...

How To Wash Your Hair

...In case you were wondering.

So over the past few years, I've been researching a lot about how I should be washing my hair. I'm not going to promise I'm an expert, but I have learnt a fair few things about what to do and what not to do for different hair types. My own hair is long, thick and naturally curly/frizzy (see below), which makes it really hard to control!

So here are some of my tips and tricks for thick, curly hair:

1. First of all, DO NOT WASH YOUR HAIR EVERY DAY. This really applies to all hair types, even those with naturally oily hair. If you wash your hair every day, you are stripping it of all it's natural oils and goodness. You are doing more damage than good! The natural oils in your hair help protect it from damage, but also gives you natural volume and curl. If you've noticed your hair has become flat, and you wash every day, try and hold out and do it every other day instead. Even if you think your hair is too greasy, try and add some dry shampoo or throw it up into a bun on that second day; after a couple of weeks you'll notice that you actually don't need to wash it as much and will become fuller as your hair has had time to absorb your natural oils. This will also help with hair growth.

I used to wash my hair every two-three days until I read that the singer Lorde, only washes her hair once every two weeks. I haven't gone as extreme as this, but I found it so easy to train my hair so I only need to wash it every 5-7 days, and most of the time it isn't even greasy on the day I wash it.

I promise this is the easiest, most healthy thing you can do for your hair. Not even 100 years ago, women were only washing their hair once a week. I'm not saying you have to do this, but just try and extra day without washing for a while and see what you think!

2. SHAMPOO - Stay away from the cheap stuff. If you have dry hair, like mine, it's hard to find a shampoo that actually works. So I always go for the branded stuff which says it's for dry/frizz-prone hair. What I'm using at the moment is TRESemme's silky smooth shampoo and conditioner, which leaves my hair feeling so soft. 

Cheaper shampoos will often have similar chemicals to household cleaning products, such as sulphates, so have a look at the label before you buy. These chemicals will be harsh on your hair and will dry it out more, actually having the opposite affects to the ones you want.

Another way to tell if the shampoo your using is not healthy for your hair is how much it lathers in the shower. If you find yourself fully encased in foam, your shampoo is not helping your hair (foam = chemicals). The less it lathers, the more it will do for your locks.

3. ANTI-DANDRUFF SHAMPOO - Most people who use anti-dandruff products are not actually using them effectively. I read about this one recently. Usually, with shampoos, you would rub into your hair and rinse it straight out, but for anti-dandruff shampoo, you're meant to take your time with it. You don't need to treat your whole hair with it, so take a dollop and massage it gently into your roots and scalp and then LEAVE IT IN FOR 5 MINUTES. This gives the shampoo time to treat your scalp effectively, or else you might find snow on your shoulders again the next day... So if you find that nothing works for your itchy scalp, this might be where your going wrong!

4. CONDITIONER - This is perhaps the most important stage of the washing hair process for people with dry, thick, curly hair! As I said above, I'm currently using TRESemme's silky smooth conditioner, (but I also like Herbal Essense's one for dry hair, but I've left it back at home, so I can't remember the name, sorry! It's smells like orange though, yum!) which literally leaves my hair silky smooth. BUT, before you even think about applying conditioner to you hair, there is something very important you need to do first! And that something is to squeeze the water out of your hair first. If you've just dipped you head under the shower and straight away applied conditioner, you've gone wrong my friend. Where is the conditioner meant to go? Because if your hair is dripping wet, the condition is just going to slide straight off. You need to give it a chance my friend. So try and squeeze as much water out of you hair as possible, just so you hair can effectively absorb all the moisturising oily goodness of your conditioner which is what is ultimately going to to give your hair that lovely soft feeling and silky glow. 

After you've left it in for about five minutes, if you're brave enough, wash it off with cold water. What this does it closes the cuticles in your scalp (prevents hair from falling out when you dry it) and leaves you hair with a nice shine. 

---Bit of science for you... when you feel cold, you notice the hair on you arms will stand on end; this is to prevent your body losing heat, and they go down when you're warm again. This is the same principle as the hair on your head - when you rinse with cold water, it makes your hair stand on end, preventing them from escaping.  

5. DRYING YOUR HAIR - With dry and frizzy hair, it's best not to towel dry your hair, as the fibres on towels will cause your hair to go frizzy, undoing all that you have done so far to prevent the frizz. So it would be better to use a micro-fibre one, like this pretty little thing below which I got at poundworld, and acts like a turban;

Or, if you don't want to use one of these, then you can always use a cotton t-shirt, which is soft on your hair.

Whilst it's still wet, you can add some smoothing serum (I've started using the Bleach London Split Fix Serum, which has changed my life) or I sometimes use a curling mousse to keep my curls in shape... Wella Shockwaves Curls and Waves 3

                                    

And I think that is everything! I have a funny feeling I have totally missed out a step... But I hope this helps some of you out there anyway. I know I had major trouble trying to manage my hair, so I hope I've been able to put everything I know and have researched and tested into an easy step by step for anyone else out there who has problems taming their hair.

Thank you x

<3

Haven't posted for a while...

Update on Life...

So Christmas has come and gone once again and I feel like time is moving too fast! How has Christmas already past us and 2014 is nearly over? The end of my degree sees even closer now this side of December 25th than before it, and I'm already dreading those last few weeks where we'll all be working hard on essays and exams without any time to actually say goodbye. And then what will happen? I have too many ideas of what job I would like to do, that I can't settle on one. I might return to my home job in a supermarket for the summer whilst I search properly, but at the moment it is too confusing! Other third year students will agree with me!

So Christmas Day was lovely and I got so much more lovely presents than what I was expecting. The boyfriend and I spent Christmas Eve having dinner with his family, which I always enjoy! His little nephew was being exceptionally cute, as always, wanting me to play games with him and dragging me around the house. I found myself drifting off eventually as I had been at work earlier in the day and was already knackered. Wine didn't help.

Christmas Day was spent with my family. In the morning, the boyfriend went back over to his own family's to open presents, whilst we opened our own. I had bought my family a Christmas jumper each (below) from Primark; I was actually surprised everyone wore theirs!! Especially my brother as he's a grumpy teenager who dislikes Christmas and present giving. He takes a Sheldon (The Big Bang Theory) stance on the whole idea of present giving, where there's just no point to it.

They all look so pretty!!

I finally got a Pandora bracelet which I have been hinted for, for a while. It's so beautiful and already has five charms. I also got a food mixer from my parents for my baking, which is just so beautiful I can't contain myself. I feel like a kid again with all these presents. My boyfriend's family bought me loads themselves, and I felt so spoilt. Hopefully I'll do more posts with my presents, as I am so excited to share what I got! And the boyfriend himself got me the most beautiful necklace along with the most comfiest slippers EVER. He knows me too well!

Boxing day is my sister's birthday, so this was spent at home as well! I didn't realise how much I'd actually bought her until I was giving it to her. I think she had a great day; as she was able to see some of her friends and got loads of games for her new Xbox One. That's right, she bought herself an Xbox One and it is beautiful. I admit, I am jealous... but gave us some east gift ideas!

Christmas is great, but is not as exciting without children! Now my siblings and I are all older, Christmas is definitely not as exciting as it used to be; it's just another day really. I was personally quite excited just to have a day off work since I've been in every day we've been open! Kids make the day more special, as my boyfriend's nephew showed me on Christmas Eve. I honestly can't wait until I have my own family and we can got all out with the decorations and spoil them with presents and go overboard with the Santa thing. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy Christmas; it was great! But the excitement around it comes from children!

<3

My Week In Pictures

A little exciting snippet into my life.... Warning!! The following images may contain scenes of a Christmasy nature....

These pictures are not really in order, especially as these two happened yesterday, but I could not contain my excitement of actually getting to see the Coca Cola truck yesterday in the middle of Liverpool! I didn't even know it did a tour of the UK in the run up to Christmas, and I just pointed at it with my mouth open in shock. It looked so wonderful, and I'm not just saying that because Laura and I got a free small can of coke!

 This looks so much prettier in real life... So Laura and I had a day trip to Liverpool yesterday to do a bit of Christmas shopping. I bought my family the most amazing presents which I can't wait for them to open on Christmas Day! Aaaaah it's so exciting! I did also buy myself a couple of things, but I can never resist! 

These two were indeed two of the things I bought. It's really weird, because me and Laura keep buying the same things, and I didn't even realise she had this eye shadow pallet until I asked her if the colours suit me. This is the first ever eye shadow pallet I have bought as I usually use ones that are given to me as presents. But I couldn't resist these colours. They are so pretty!! I tried the shimmery pink with the darkest tone today and thought it looked fab. And the best thing about Barry M is that it's cruelty free!

I also got this nail varnish from Barry M in Red Wine, which, I'm not gonna lie, looked a lot like blood when I was putting it on. I've wanted a colour like this for a while now; I've got a strong, bright red, but this is a lovely deep scarlet colour.

So I took a selfie of myself during the week. That happened. I'm not good with selfies, but I liked this one.

I made gingerbread biscuits!!!!!!!!! I actually made a gingerbread man for each of my house mates. They said they all liked them, which made me happy. But what they didn't know is just how many of these I ate before they could get to them... Not even sorry.

This happened a little over a week ago, but my history course mates and I went to Patisserie Valerie for cake and coffee, and oh my goodness, it was amazing. I cannot convey to you how delicious this slice of strawberry gateaux was. It was so light, but still so creamy. My friend, Emily, had the chocolate one, but I didn't think I could handle it. I had a mocha with it as I was feeling jazzy... yes, jazzy = mocha time. Honestly one of the nicest places I've been for an afternoon kinda tea thing, and it wasn't even too expensive.

This happened. There are only 6 of us in the house, yet this is how many calendars we have... and since this picture was taken, I think we've got a couple more. Mine is obviously the Doctor Who one, but I also have the one below it.... you will soon seen why.

I absolutely loved this when I bought it... I got it with the BBC Doctor Who magazine, which cost me a few bob, but I definitely thought it was worth it... Until I opened it up on the evening of the 1st December...

...And found this. A toy?!?! What is this?! Where is the chocolate?! No where in the magazine or on the box did it say it was not a chocolate calendar, but contained toys. Usually people would think this was better, but I was looking forward to chocolate!! I felt even worse when reminded how cocky I was being because my advent calendar was so thick, it must contain the best and biggest chocolate of the lot. But no. No... that was not the case. So Jess bought me another, CHOCOLATE advent calender the next day :') But my army of Doctor Who monsters is still slowly growing...

<3

Ice Skating

I didn't even fall over...

So my housemates and I spontaneously decided to go ice skating last night! It was absolutely brilliant. I haven't been ice skating in so long, and I'd forgotten how much fun it is! We found some vouchers to get some money off and we thought 'why not?!' One of my housemates, Chelsea, brought along her two American lacrosse coaches, who were lovely!  
I'm not the one taking the above picture, (I'm the ginger one) but that's my amazing housemate Laura who I've lived with since the start of University. She so pwetty, So are all the others. I live with some of the best, definitely.

I look incredibly silly in this photo... This was one of my many attempts at ice skating backwards. Needless to say, I was rubbish... I can race around forward easy enough, but I can never get the knack of going backwards... If anyone's got any tips, let me know?
At least I didn't fall over, which is something to be proud of! My boyfriend warned me of falling over and another skater coming along... Ouch!! And I was a bit better than Laura who never strayed to far away from the barrier. Bless her the little cutie! To be fair she did get quite good at the end.

In other news, I have so many other blogs I want to post, but I find I can only ever do them when I'm all tucked up in bed, ready to sleep. I recently went to Patisserie Valerie, and I have some amazing pictures I want to share. I also bought a LOT of new clothes (which is bad), so I want to try and do one of the 'haul' things. I also invested in a cheap berry lipstick the other day which is actually one of the best spontaneous buys I have ever done. I have a free day tomorrow, so hopefully I shall get a couple of these done!

<3

Banana and Blueberry

Best EVER muffins!!.... Only if you like bananas and blueberries

I absolutely love baking, it's my favourite hobby, especially when I'm stressed! The other day I made up some banana and blueberry muffins, which turned out nicer than I thought. 

Because I love baking so much, I wanted to use this blog as a way to share my bakes and the recipes I used. I hope they are useful to some of you.

Banana and Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

• 250g Self Raising Flour
• 1tsp Baking Powder
• 50g Butter
• 80g Caster Sugar
• 2 Large Eggs
• 150ml Milk
• 200g Blueberries
• 2 large Bananas

Recipe:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius (I don't know how to type in the symbol thingy), or gas mark 6.
2. Prep the muffin tin with cases (this recipe should make 12 muffins).
3. Mix the butter and sugar together until it's soft and fluffy - if the butter is hard, blast in the microwave for 20 seconds until manageable.
4. Whisk in the eggs and milk until fully combined.
5. Crush both bananas in a separate bowl until they're all mushy and goopy (yes, you read that right). Then fold them into the mixture.
6. Fold in the flour and baking powder until it's smooth texture.
7. Before adding in the blueberries, covered them in a tablespoon of flour (this will stop them from sinking whilst the muffins bake). Then fold them into the mixture.
8. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases, filling them almost to the top. If you have any left over mixture, feel free to eat it.
9. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20-25 minute, or until they are golden, have risen well and are firm to touch. Leave to cool for only a few minute, as they are delicious served warm! Then tuck in!!

<3

Winter Is Coming

Winter is nearly upon us.....

I just wanted to share with you an outfit I really liked which I wore the other day. You can't really see my green dress I have on, because the lighting in my bedroom is awful, even though this was at 10am! But it was just a normal, dark green skater dress. 

I think this outfit has reflected the recent weather with it being constantly dark and cold. However, I tried to liven it up with a big wooly scarf (which was extra cosy), otherwise it just looked a bit too dull with a lot of dark tones. Also, it's starting to get colder now, so I reeeeeeally needed a scarf!! I added a little girly cuteness with my hair half up, because it looked a little too edgy with a leather jacket and also leather boots (which you can't see).

I just really liked this look and felt the need to share it. I think I need to do more stuff like this with my hair, because I usually just wear it down and it's getting a bit boring...

And yes, that is a Doctor Who poster in the background. And yes, I was watching Doctor Who on my laptop at the time.... And apologies for the messiness of my bedroom. I promise I've tidied it now!

<3