A Walk To Beautiful

RAPE-AXE

Due to the growing number of rapes in Africa, a women who goes by the name of Sonette Ehlers, a blood technician in South Africa, decided to invent a little device called the rape-axe, in the hope that it might help to lower the number of rapes. Here is Wikipedias definition:

The Rape-aXe is a latex sheath embedded with shafts of sharp, inward-facing barbs that would be worn by a woman in her vagina like a tampon. If an attacker were to attempt vaginal rape, his penis would enter the latex sheath and be snagged by the barbs, causing the attacker excruciating pain during withdrawal and (ideally) giving the victim time to escape. The condom would remain attached to the attacker's body when he withdrew and could only be removed surgically^[2], which would alert hospital staff and police. Like most condoms, Rape-aXe also usually prevents pregnancy and the transmission of HIV and sexually transmitted Infections.

There are many criticism of the device and to them Ehler says: "As with everything in life there will be negative attitudes and I can't be responsible for people who refuse to educate men and feel the device is medieval," and responds by calling the Rape-aXe "a medieval device for a medieval deed."

Half the Sky

I am in the process of reading a new book entitled, "Half the Sky" by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

While carrying this around school, it caught the attention of a few men. After asking the typical question of what is that about, and replying that it is about the oppression of women and girls in the developing world, I was presented with another question. "what is that, another one of your feminist books?" First of all, I am not a feminist nor have I ever read a "feminist" book. If caring about the rights of women makes me a feminist then maybe I am, I guess.

The thing that really irks me about this question is that the men who asked me were so closed minded. First of all, why does it matter if I am reading a feminist book and secondly, they were more concerned with the "feminist" part of the book then the topic. They know nothing about what is going on and when you begin to discuss it they don't want to hear about it.

This isn't just men either. Women too become disgusted with the contents of the book and don't want to hear the troubles that other women face. You would think that being a woman you would feel for other women. I just don't understand how people can hear about these things and not give them a second thought. Just like they say, "out of sight, out of mind." They get disgusted with hearing about the stories yet they fail to realize that for them this may just be a story but that story is based on fact and some women live through them everyday.

Male Overload

By the year 2020, forty million men in China will be without a wife. The reason behind China’s future social dilemma is the “one-child policy.” Due to this rule, many families have chosen to keep only the boys. The girls are “aborted, abandoned, or hidden away.” The families choose to look only at the present rater than the future. What happens when all these chosen boys grow up and have no woman to marry? Their present day overpopulation may soon reverse itself due to the fact that China is fast becoming unisex.

With this future overpopulation of unmarried males, outbreaks of kidnapping and prostitution will become the norm. In fact, in the clip it tells the story of a women who was kidnapped and sold to a man for $435 for the simple fact that he could not find a wife on his own.

When will the world realize that despite what they may think, they do need us. Whether it be now or in the future, they will never be able to fill the void of a world without the female sex.

This clip explores American parents on a journey to meet their adopted Chinese daughters for the 1st time. Through the direction of Lisa Ling, we are taken into China to discover first hand what it is like to be a girl in a country overpopulated with males.

China's Lost Girls - Watch the Documentary Film for Free | Watch Free Documentaries Online | SnagFilms

I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE

Women have come a long way since bra-burning. However, despite the fact that we are now at an "equal" level with men, we are still in need of a good confidence booster every now and then. Despite our graduation from trainer bras to push ups, we still have those insecure days when a good pep talk is in order. Here's to women everywhere.

Dear EMOTIONAL CREATURE:

I believe in you. I believe in your authenticity, your uniqueness, your intensity, your wildness. I love the way you dye your hair purple, or hike up your short skirt, or blare your music while you lip-synch every single memorized lyric. I love your restlessness and your hunger. You possess the energy that, if unleashed, could transform, inspire, and heal the world.

Everyone seems to have a certain way they want you to be- your mother, father, teachers, religious leaders, politicians, boyfriends, fashion gurus, celebrities, girlfriends. in reporting my new book, I learned a very disturbing statistic: 74 percent of young women say they are under pressure to please everyone.

I have done a lot of thinking about what it means to please; to be the wish or will of somebody other than yourself. To please the fashion setters, we starve ourselves. To please men, we push ourselves when we aren't ready. To please our parents, we become insane over-achievers. if you are trying to please, how do you take responsibility for your own needs? How do you even know what your own needs are? The act of pleasing makes everything murky. We lose track of ourselves. WE stop uttering declaratory sentences. We stop directing our lives. We forget what we know. We make everything OK rather than real.

I have had the good fortune to travel around the world. Everywhere I meet teenage girls and women giggling, laughing as they walk country roads or hang out on city streets. Electric girls. I see how their lives get hijacked, how their opinions and desires get denied and undone. So many of the women I have met are still struggling late into their lives to know their desires, to find their way.

Instead of trying to please, this is a challenge to provoke, to dare, to satisfy your own imagination and appetite. To take responsibility for who you are, to engage. Listen to the voice inside you that might want something different. It's a call to your original self, to move at your own speed, to walk with your step, to wear your color.

When I was your age, I didn't know how to live as an emotional creature. I felt like an alien. I still do a lot of the time. I am older now. I finally know the difference between pleasing and loving, obeying and respecting. It has taken me so many years to be OK with being different, with being this alive, this intense. I just don't want you to have to wait that long.

Love,

Eve Ensler

Being different is not the problem, it is the solution. Reading this Introduction to Eve Ensler's I am an Emotional Creature, made me proud to be a women and proud to be my own self. It injects into you a fresh supply of confidence that momentarily makes you feel as though the world is not to far from your grasp.