It was International Women's Day on Tuesday (March 8th) and I'm all for equality!! This is going to be a little less serious of a feminist/equality type of post, but hopefully there's still some kind of message to take out of this! Weirdly enough - probably because of the time I've grown up in - whenever I think of equality and human rights, I think of Beyonce. Isn't she great? Queen B (Beyonce) uses the term hustler as well as diva to refer to women as Queen's and bosses. I just finished reading #GirlBoss by Sophia Amoruso - read it - she's also great! Speaking of Sophia Amoruso, she relates the term Girl Boss "to a female who strives for living a deliberate life." (I know this isn't an academic piece, but the nerdy side of me wants to correctly reference this, so if I reference something - just excuse it!) I spoke a week or so ago about the double standard between men and women when it comes to virginity, here is another double standard between the genders. If a man is driven to success, he can be direct,  use a cut throat mentality and be completely career orientated - no one bats an eyelid - and he is admired, he is a boss! Compare this to a female. If a woman is driven to success, strives to be her best she is too ambitious, bitchy (for being direct) and should be more worried about her family. As a girl, I've been told by society that it is important for me to procreate, that I need to get married and have children while also maintaining a career - not a high position in a career, because God forbid a woman is actually good at her job and gets praise for it - but a career nonetheless. What if we don't want to procreate? What if we want to strive to get as high up that job ladder as we can? Does that really matter? Don't we have the final say for our lives? Why the fuck does society play such a huge part in what we do? Speaking of which, why is it so frowned upon that women swear? Who the fuck made that rule? Why can't a woman be proud of her sexuality? Why does that make her a slut (side note: slut is my least favourite word ever)? Why does the genitals between her legs make an impact on her ambitions and careers goals/objectives? Fuck all of these stupid societal rules. I am proud to say that I'm a girl boss. I know what I want (for the most part) and I strive every single day to get it. I want my blog to be as successful as I can make it and I become more and more proud everyday of the direction it is going! I am striving toward my career goal, a secondary teacher. Once my Undergraduate, Honours Bachelor degree I'm striving toward doing my Masters of Education - and maybe even a PhD one day! I'm not letting anyone or anything get in my way and at this very moment, I'm choosing to stop caring about whether or not I get anyone else's approval. Similarly, I don't think anyone has the right to tell me what to do to or with my body. It's my body! Fuck people. We live in a society that is okay passing judgement and hatred on people who actually know what they want with their lives/bodies. The other day Kim Kardashian West posted a naked photo on Instagram and you know what, as much as everyone hates it, I'm totally okay with it! Yeah, she's a mother, she's known for her sex tape or countless other nude photos; but, who the fuck are we to judge? When I saw the photo, I honestly felt completely okay with it. It's her choice. Just like it's someone's choice to embrace their sexuality, raise their children a particular way, not have children, terminate a pregnancy, etc. It's not selfish, it's a choice and it's their choice not your own. If it's not your life, you have no place to pass judgment because we all know that you wouldn't want someone to judge you for your choices! People that I personally know are constantly questioning what I actual do on my blog. Why I don't have a real job, etc. You know what, this is a real job, I do a shit tonne of work each and every day to make sure this blog (and the people behind it) run as smoothly as possible. Don't get me wrong, I love when people have questions or queries and just want to know things about blogging - I get it, it's a fairly new concept and not something many people get - but, if you start criticising what I do I don't need you in my life. I'm a girl, a woman. I have a passion, I'm driven. I constantly want to strive to be better, know more, grow more, learn more. Sometimes I like my body, sometimes I don't and that's fine. I'm not usually one to publicly 'celebrate' International Women's Day but this year was different, I have some shit going on in my life that I need to reflect on. Some things in my life I'm thankful for, some I regret and some I'm still just trying to figure out. This International Women's Day, I embraced who I am, what I'm doing, where I want to go and who I want to be in the future. It's not all positives; I focused on the flaws, the negatives and the things I am striving to change. Slay girls! Slay!! Love yourself and love those around you! (FYI: this isn't intended to be man shaming at all!! Just building women up!)
I want to leave you with a few quotes to ponder...