Why We Should Go Easy On Russia

Ever since primary school Jess brought an Anastasia DVD from Woolworths, I have been obsessed with Russia. The fallen monarchy, Winter Palace, Russian dolls- even the Rasputin Cossack dance on that wii Just Dance game- I love it all. The problem is, as I’ve grown up, it’s proved quite a hard love to defend: Russia rigged the election, Russian doping scandal, Russia hates gays, whichever part of the internet you go to (unless it’s, like, Putin’s LinkedIn page) there’s at least one article which aligns with Reagan’s ‘Evil Empire’ view.

So this summer when my Russian friend offered me the chance to visit her hometown Izhevsk I was so excited to finally see whether the media was right.

It wasn’t. Now obviously I’m not denying Chechnya’s gay purge or the fact the government’s corrupt- we’ve all seen the Reggie Yates documentaries- but when we talk about Russia we seem to solely focus on demonising it, which is strange considering every country has flaws and when I visited I was amazed by how normal it felt. So here’s why I think we should go easier on the planet’s largest country: 

Should We Support Ivanka Trump?

Headlines from the past few days make it apparent that Trump’s eldest daughter has been suffering from her father’s election:

‘Sales of Ivanka Trump apparel slumped at Nordstrom’

‘Upset with Trump the President, consumers boycott Trump the brand’

‘More companies drop Ivanka Trump products’

Here we see a female entrepreneur- a breed which is unfortunately still rare in the modern world- having her business boycotted due to the actions of the men in her life. On paper it’s a feminist’s nightmare, but in practice I think it’s pretty justified.

Don’t get me wrong, as a rule of thumb judging women for the actions of the men orbiting them is a no-go, but in this case, to blame men for the entirety of her demise just isn’t accurate. It’s not about boycotting Ivanka because of Donald’s actions (first name terms amiright), it’s about boycotting Ivanka because of her own. Or should I say lack of. Because yes, he is her father, and yes it would be blady awkward at their next family Thanksgiving if she publicly condemns his behaviour, but it’s still her choice not to do so. To deny that she has a choice is, as Sartre aka King Of My Heart describes it, ‘bad faith’.

The Shoulder Smoulder

This isn’t a post about why it’s okay to defy dress codes– after all, they’re often implemented for a reason- however surely we must question the rules in order to establish whether the logic behind them is fair or not. Because the guy that sang that song that was used in the Cadburys advert a few years ago which then got covered by Ella Eyre said ‘we don’t have to take our clothes off to have a good time’ which presents a nicely rounded smorgasbord of options. We can strip if we want to but we by no means have to. However at the moment, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Recently minimal clothing has become synonymous with forcing little girls in spaghetti straps to leave school to prevent their shoulders from being a distraction to the boys. In this situation, the child was five years old.

In the UK, the weather isn’t hot enough for shorts and even if it was most schools have uniforms which control what you wear, so although you can be disciplined for rolling your skirt too much, from what I’m aware, our system is nowhere near as critical as that in (for example) American schools where girls are actually sent home due to their outfits. Now when it comes to feminism there is probably no issue whiter than discussing how middle class American teens are being sent home for exposing too much St Tropez tan but the other day I saw this comment under one of Emily Ratajkowski’s Instagram posts and I was too shocked to function. So I think it’s worth talking about.

Feminot Listening

A quick Google and we get the definition of my third favourite thing in the world (after cheese straws and my mum of course):

We could click the arrow for more definitions but I don’t really think we need to as the summary is so simple. Equality. Feminism is the belief that men and women should be culturally, politically, economically, socially (and any other -ally you can think of) equal;  with that in mind, why is ‘feminist’ one of the most controversial labels in modern society? Or maybe more importantly- why do people hate us so much, and to such an extent that they feel the need to trend comments such as #FeministsAreUgly or #FeminismIsAwful? So let’s get some things straight, let’s iron out some crumbled duvet misunderstandings and hopefully enlighten anyone that gets kicks out of telling us to go ‘burn our bras’ (Dad I’m looking at you) on what we’re really all about.

Things Feminists Are Tired Of Hearing

Cosmopolitman

I feel we’ve been chilling rather nicely in the freezer at Half Girl Half Teacup (or HGHT for those that can speak fluent acronym- I lost my membership to that club after a small LOL incident back in 2012, “So sorry to hear Mike’s died, lol xx” apparently it doesn’t mean lots of love. Moving Taylor Swiftly on.) my recent posts have been rather gentle compared to my previously topical discussions and so I thought I was time to get feministing again. And I don’t mean to brag but I’m, like, really good at being a feminist.

So here we have it, my favourite magazine: Cosmopolitan. I’ve bought a copy from what feels like every newsagents in Brighton- last year I even got a German print with the hope of translating it (which is incredibly difficult as ‘clitoris’ isn’t in the Collins Easy Learning dictionary)- but then I noticed something.

Take this Cosmo cover for example:

GCSEcrets

I’ve been waiting, since May the 12^th, for the fact I’m doing my GCSEs to settle in. (I’m hoping its like the emotion equivalent of buses- you know how you wait for one and then three come along at once- I’ll just wake up tomorrow and suddenly be overcome with feelings.) Because right now I simply don’t feel like my GCSEs have been all that they’ve been built up to be for the past 11 years (no biggie or anything) of my school career; the class of 2015 has almost conquered the lengthy trek up exam mountain and our biggest struggle has been getting rid of finger dents from writing so much. Where’s the frostbite? Where’s the severe altitude sickness? Where’s the dramatic cliffhanger when someone is literally cliff hanging and needs Ben Fogle (my stunt double) to swoop in and save them from death? Instead we’ve got some chewed penlids and twitter uproar over Jane and her blady Edexcel sweets. In homage to the underwhelming nature of the exams so far, I thought we should discuss the THINGS THEY NEVER TELL YOU ABOUT EXAMS (or as I like to call them, GCSEcrets)

Revision You’ll decide that the week before your first one is a great time to start the Game of Thrones box set and risk confusing your entire historical knowledge with the political situation of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. No, the war of the roses didn’t involve Gwendoline Christie fighting her cravings over a tin of Cadbury’s chocolates. Note that binging on TV also becomes instantly acceptable when Netflix decide to release a new series (Orange is the New Black we’re all looking at you) mid-exam season so, obviously, physics has to be deprioritised.