In Defence of Femininity

Over the past few months, I've been examining myself and my identity as a woman. I've been looking at what I naturally value for myself, what modern culture expects from me, and what traditional values state. I'm a regular follower of the website Feelin' Feminine be it that I am not Christian or Jewish, and on the flip side I've watched videos by lacigreen and such on youtube for the opposite point of view, so I think I have a pretty good idea of both sides. I think I've got myself sorted out for the most part.

While, I'm not the most patriarchal person, because I've been given reason not to be, I do believe that men who actually do their job behaving like men and take on the responsibilities of men deserve to be recognized for their actions the same way women are emulated in the public world. I believe that if more positive messages were being given out to boys and men, telling them that being a man involves taking responsibility for women ei. not just sitting on the couch, possibly after a 9-5 workday, and demanding sex, then there would be less chaos in the private world. Reversely, I believe that women who "do too much", work a full day, take care of the kids, cook, clean, tend to their husband/boyfriend, aren't helping the situation either, because if they assume responsibility of everything, then the man isn't going to just suddenly becaume a chivalrous knight in shining armor for no reason.

I also support modesty rather than the "if you got it, flaunt it" mentality. Modesty makes me feel comfortable and secure in myself. It takes more than the right set of genitals to be a lady, and in the same way it takes more than a generous set of fabric over one's body to be modest. Modesty is more about drawing attention to oneself in a positive manner rather than a vulgar one. There is much more respect shown to a kind girl who can be percieved as beautiful without being outright sexual, rather than an outwardly confident and loud girl who makes use of nothing but her carnal appeal.

When it comes down to it, femininity is really a matter of perception. From every side of the spectrum, everyone's calling each other oppressed, overworked, undervalued, underappreciated, and asserting themselves sole as the "free" women of the world that don't face the plights that other women do. The best thing is to just evaluate the options, go with the most reasonable one, and ignore the backlash of different societies calling you crazy.

For the Love of Studying

I am a student and I can not stress enough on how much I love studying. The excitement of obtaining new information and solving problems brings great enjoyment into my life. There is so much class, so much wisdom and truth in knowledge, the thirst for it is insatiable.

But here is the clinch, I love studying, but I cannot say the same for school. In school my goal is not to learn and absorbe information, but to get enough points so that when the end of the quarter or semester comes around I have a black letter A for most of my classes and a GPA of at least 3.8 . That is the problem with school. The incentive is not to aquire information and skill, but to prove that you know. In this way I've made it through most of my math classes with an A or a B but I still can not do addition or subtraction confidently without a calculator. Yet, by looking at my record I can say that I am good at math. Great, isn't it?

I've wished so badly, ever since middle school that I could be homeschooled. I could go at my own pace for mathematics, have actual time to learn and memorize the processes and breeze through English and history class. It would be so much more effective and I think I would be better off, but my parents believe that doing that would make me more antisocial than I already am. I don't completely agree, but I can't change anything about it. When I grow up if I have children, I don't think I would have them go to public school for the entire K-12.