Size of Merit

On Thursday 21st November 2013, half the nation (this may be a slight exaggeration) tuned in to watch everyone's favorite TV Christmas countdown. - No, X Factor, not you - I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!

As per, this year's camp contains a handful of soap stars, a washed up 90s throwback (Sorry Carlton, we still love you), a few TV hosts, the required Glamour Model-esque female, a reality TV star... and an Olympic Gold Medalist?!

Stop the Press! You mean to say this year's camp mates contain a person who might just be worth her fame?

Groundbreaking, ITV, simply ground breaking.

There is no doubt that Rebecca Adlington is one of this countries greatest sweethearts, swimming her way in by winning us two gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. As a young, and completely un-athletic female, Becky Adlington is up there with Jessica Ennis, Dame Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe on my awe-scale. I can't commit to what I'm going to have for dinner, let alone to a single sport for more than half my life. To me, and to many others, these women are truly remarkable; they show determination, grit, poise, elegance and there is not one of them I wouldn't love to call my mate. 

So I know I am not alone in saying that watching Ms Adlington break down over the fact that she feels she is not beautiful enough, broke my heart and struck so many chords.

This years Camp beauty is Amy Willerton, Miss Universe GB. Amy is many things young girls aspire to be, beautiful, bubbly and, to the surprise of so many, actually pretty intelligent. It was only a matter of time before the morality of beauty pageants and whether or not they are 'good' was brought up. Personally, I believe Beauty Pageants just, are what they are. Whilst I don't agree that women should be treated as objects they do seem to do some good, The Miss World Organisation has raised more that £250 million for children's charities since it begun and, it's true, the girls genuinely do chose to be up there. So in the same way that female dancers and glamour models and porn stars use what their Mumma's gave them, Beauty Queens should be allowed to, too.

However, I think there is something seriously, SERIOUSLY wrong if a women who dedicated her life to a discipline and won this country two GOLD MEDALS feels inferior to a Jordan Price castoff, Beauty Queen. I'm not saying that winning a beauty contest is easy, because it isn't and I would by no means win one, but I REFUSE to be told that it is anywhere near as hard as winning any Olympic medal.

So what if Becky Adlington hasn't got a perfect nose, or a size 8 waist?! 

SHE'S A GOLD MEDALIST! Not to mention the fact that she's a genuinely lovely human being. 

How many of you can call yourselves perfect?!

Didn't think so.

When you strip it down to the basics the fact that society's messed up idea of what a woman should be has affected her too should be ringing alarm bells to everyone. Few had heard of Amy Willerton before I'm a Celeb, but Rebecca Adlington has been a household name for years and yet I wonder who, upon leaving the Jungle, will be granted more page space and air time...?

It's sad, and disheartening and ever more true that it is high time we start valuing human beings on what they have achieved, not the size of their waists.

- xo

Take It Off/Keep It On

If you have been shocked at any entertainment news since this year's VMAs all I have to ask you is which rock have you been living under since the 80s?!

The following things are not NEW or SCANDALOUS:

• Sexualisation of the youth.
• Girls in music videos in very little clothing.
• Black girls in music videos in very little clothing.
• Men singing about 'honeys they would like to fuck'.
• Men having 'honeys they would like to fuck' in very little clothing in their music videos.
• Women being used as objects of sexual desire.
• Slut shaming.
• The fact that sex sells.
• The fact that, for whatever reason, naked ladies manage to sell.
• Women making themselves sexy.
• Women getting naked in their own music videos.
• Provocative dancing.
• Women not exactly liking the fact that they are constantly represented as 'honeys the boys would like to fuck'.
• Drugs.

Now here is a list of things that ARE new:

• The term 'twerking'

Therefore I would like to pose you all this question: 

Why, in light of recent events, is everyone so up in arms about half naked young stars who want to own their sexuality?

Madonna and Britney were at it years ago...

How has it always been perfectly OK for Rappers to dress up their music videos with half naked girls, humping cars like dogs on heat, yet it not be OK for Miley to step on stage and point a foam finger at her crotch? Literally, the whole universe reacted like she's stepped on stage and stabbed a small puppy. She was turned into a monster.

Why can Robin Thicke have naked girls in his music video but Lily Allen does it ironically and everyone seems to miss the point?

What is wrong with you, society?! What do you want from us?!

I'm glad Miley keeps taking her clothes off and sparking up in public places, I'm glad Rihanna gyrates on a giant throne and I'm glad Lily is willing to call out every person, every where who keeps trying to put women, their sexuality and their worth in boxes.

These three women, although doing very different things, are all getting at the same point. I'm gonna go ahead and say it here that yes, I think Miley has done wonders for feminism. 

Shoot me, but I do. 

Mostly  I think that the fact that being a feminist has such awful connotation is ridiculous. Essentially to be a feminist is to be a humanitarian, so why all feminist are obviously asexual, man hating lesbians is beyond me.

Some of us don't want to burn our bras because they are Agent Provocateur and they make us happy, thank you very much and good day to you sir! 

By making the choice to get on stage and do what she did, Miley simply stepped up and showed everyone that maybe, just maybe, women don't need Rap stars to undress them and get their hips moving; sometimes we like to do it for ourselves. Equally by Lily keeping her clothes on and singing the word 'bitch' over and over again whilst a group of scantily clad ladies danced about behind her, she was showing us that maybe we don't always want to take our clothes off either and that's just fine too.

.

Let women take their clothes off or let women keep their clothes on.

Teach your daughters that it's THEIR choice to make and teach your sons to respect that choice.

And for the love of God, someone please tell Robin Thicke they own heels bigger than his dick.

- xo

Blind 3rd Year Panic

Following a wonderful summer, where I was obvz just too busy to write and keep you all updated with my fabulous life*, I have started my third and final year at University. Terrifying.

I three weeks ago and so far I am floating somewhere between complete denial and utter panic. Every now and again I catch myself thinking about what I'll be up to this time next year, when it smacks me that, I don't actually know yet. Which then sends me off frantically thinking about the fact that I have to write a good dissertation and get at least a 2:1 in everything I had in this year or I will have, for want of better words, totally ballsed it up.

I mean, third year is A LOT to take on. I know, I know, lazy student voice coming into play here, but it is. I have three units which will all require at least two 3000 word essay (bar one, which requires an exam in May - great), then I have that all important 8000 word creative dissertation to write as well. Creative Dissertation, sounds easy enough really, doesn't it? Not like I've got to do loads of critical research or anything? Wrong. Just, wrong. I have so much to do I could cry. I've written 1,300 words already... but by the time it's been redrafted I'll probably only end up using one or two sentences from the original draft...
I mean, can't I just print off all my tweets and hand them in, instead? I think they very creatively tell the story of a young girls plight to try and shield her absolute insanity from the world. It could even be accompanied by one or two of my posts off here...
Mind you, the examiner might send the men with the straight jackets for me if they were to read all of my tweets in one... I'm surprised none of my followers have yet, to be honest...

Currently I feel like I'm drowning in it all. How is possibly the middle of October already? Will my sanity and patience (mostly my patience) last through til Christmas? Or by that point,  will I have completely turned to the wine bottle to ease my ills?

I have no idea, I just hope that, for the first time ever, my organisational skills come out to play and that I am able to keep on top of everything.

How hard can it be, plenty of people graduate with good degrees and go on to be successful, why shouldn't I be one of the?

And for the love of God, what on earth am I going to write my dissertation on...?

- Hayley xo

*Alright, so my life isn't so fab. I had horrible writers block and spent most of summer working, seeing family and being drunk and musical festivals. Such fun. 
PS- Boyfriend and I still good!

But What About the Diet Coke Bloke!?

Being part of a campaign like No More Page 3 is exciting, but as comes whenever anyone  tries to change anything around here, it brings out the haters and the trolls.

Thing is, they all sound the same and at this stage of the game, where the campaign has been in existence for well over 6 months and we've created an FAQ sheet answering their monotonous cries of 'Well don't look at it then, you're blatantly jel, you munter', I'm bored of hearing the same lame arguments being used against us.

For the millionth time:

It is not about the images themselves, but the context in which they are presented!

However recently a new complaint from our faithful trolls has been cropping up, involving a certain topless bloke mowing the grass all in the name of Diet Coke. 

'You hypocrites' they cry, 'You'll get rid of our tits but leave the Diet Coke bloke free!'.

Naturally this got me thinking, were we being hypercritical? Were we leading a campaign with a 'do as I say, not as I do' attitude? Well, no, actually we weren't.

The Diet Coke bloke (starting to feel bad about calling him that, really must find out his name) is an advert. In the same way that David Beckham swoons about in his tighty-whities for H&M and Armani, or the way Rosie Huntington-Whiteley lounges about in her underwear range for Marks & Sparks or Agent Provocateur. 

That's advertising. That is NOT a group of human beings deciding to stick a half naked young lady on a page of their newspaper everyday, calling it a feature, for the sexual gratification of it's male readers.

I'm not saying it's alright to sexualise human beings in order to sell a product, as one of our brilliant supporters said, 'Wanting an end to the objectification of women in the media does not mean I want to see the objectification of men instead. Inverting the problem is not the answer.' So if our lovely trolls could stop comparing the two, that would be wonderful, because they simply aren't the same.

Similarly, the idea of Heat Magazines 'Torso of the Week' keeps cropping up, to which I point this - Every single week, without fail, Heat has at least one article on some celebrity female who, at a size 10 and 10st is clearly a fatty. There are countless 'Beach Body' features within the publication all of which aim to show us how 'normal' these 'overweight' celebs are when really all they do is belittle not only the confidence of their readers but the bodies of these human beings (because yes, despite the yachts in St. Tropez and the 96 house staff, celebs are humans too). Now tell me, do you see, in The Sun, features anywhere that belittle and objectify the male body as well as the female body... No?

No. You don't. 

So do not, dearest haters, sit there and condemn us for not condemning the pages of Heat Magazine when the publication itself spends 99% of it's page space making women feel inferior in their own skin too. 

We get it, you want the tits to stay, but this isn't `1972 and honestly, if you're so reliant on a newspaper to see some boobs then maybe you need have good look in the mirror and sort your lives out.

Just a thought.

-xo

If Hermes Can Sell A Birkin...

Alex Blimes, editor of 'Esquire' magazine said at the Advertising Week Europe conference on Tuesday that, and I quote,  "The women we feature in the magazine are ornamental. I could lie to you if you want and say we are interested in their brains as well. We are not. They are objectified."

Wonderful.

Mr Bilmes then went on to say how when he moved from GQ to Esquire in 2010, he promised to be more truthful and is doing so. He claims his magazine is more diverse than most women's magazines as they use women of different shapes, sizes and ages. Noting how Cameron Diaz (who is in her 40s) was a recent cover star. Something RARELY seen in Women's mags. 
Oh yes, because, I COMPLETELY FORGOT that Cameron Diaz is your average 40-something! How absent minded of me...

I went ahead and done me a little digging and it turns out that last year, the lovely Ms Diaz was on the cover of In Style, Elle, Bazaar and Cosmopolitan to name a few, and they were editions of the magazines all over the world. So, no, Mr Bilmes, I am afraid you have not done women kind a massive favor in liberation by sticking Cameron Diaz on your front cover. 

He talks about how, women, much like the cars featured in the magazine are there because they look good, and help sell, and about how men (and this is another quote for you all) "at certain times we like to see them [women] sexy". We like to see men sexy too, thank you very much, but if Vogue manages to give us Chanel Haute Couture, and Hermes can sell a Birkin, a handbag with a price range from £6000 to £100,000, without a half naked man in the background, then Esquire sure as hell can bring us a Ferrari without a girl in a bikini on it's bonnet.

I know that sex sells. It's a fact. We want to obtain and acquire the things we don't have in life, these luxury goods; these luxury people. But being open about the fact that you're willing to objectify another human being in order to achieve them isn't the step forward I'd hope equality would be taking in 2013.
When is the media going to wake up and realize that it's action's, it's Page 3's, it's girl-with-iPad-dipping-wet-just-out-of-a-pool, have an effect on the way women are seen. That their action's have consequences. They create smoke, with their provocative images, their lucrative pull and then act surprise when so many women feel unable to come forward after they've endured any form of abuse.

Women's magazines may promote all sorts of unhealthy idea's when it comes to weight and body shape... But I've never seen Beyonce oiled up and bent over a pair of Louboutin's.

We make it ok to see woman as ornaments, and, thank you ever so kindly Mr Bilmes, we get treated like them too.

I want to be a journalist, some days, it's just about the only thing I'm sure of, but I want the industry to have grown up by the time I get there or so help me God, I'll be raising hell from my London office.

- xo

The Death of The Fashion Statement

As one of the fashion conscious  having been following Fashion Week across the globe and trends since I was about 9, I am aware of the fact that what we wear speaks. 
Karl Lagerfeld himself has said
“Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality.” 

So WHY are there T-shirts for sale on Amazon and Ebay with the slogans 'Keep Calm and Hit Her' and 'Everyone Loves Gang Rape' to name a few?!

What kind of world do we live in where rape and domestic violence are being glorified, to the point where blokes think it's ok to wear it on their chests and, even worse, designers think it's ok to even put it out there in the first place?!

If racist t-shirts are made, they are shot down. Certain establishments do not allow entry to anyone wearing a  t-shirt with a political statement. Football shirts have been banned from almost everywhere other than football stadiums and yet, a t-shirt that tells you to 'Keep Calm and Drug Her' is a-ok... Huh!?

I AM BORED OF THESE SHITTY, RIDICULOUS AND OUT DATED DOUBLE STANDARDS.

What is about women that makes the world think it's ok to poke fun and exploit every possible thing about us!? Why is it we bear the brunt of all this bollocks, just because 100 years ago, we couldn't vote? 

It's sickening. I long to be a part of the fashion industry. As as industry, fashion holds the key to some of the most influential people in the world, and is something that inspire everyone. Fashion is culture, it's art, it's love and labor  and sweat and tears and it's beautiful... But when we reduce it to cheap jokes and vulgarity, we reduce this great thing to little more than chewing gum on the pavement.

I'm done. These t-shirts aren't a freedom of expression; they aren't fighting for a cause. They aren't making a fashion statement but a social statement. They scream 'Go ahead and rape here!' and 'We know rape isn't ok, but let's make it funny anyway'. It isn't funny. It just HIGHLIGHTS the fact that in this country, Rape Victims are treated like the guilty, they are made to feel ashamed and embarrassed and  many spend years struggling with the idea that it was their fault. It's the reason we had to wait until Jimmy Saville was cold in his grave to find out that he is one of the largest pedophiles this country has ever seen. It's the reason so many rapists get off lightly. The reason so many suffers of domestic abuse, both male and female, sit in silence rather than leave. 

We glorify the bully.

We shame the victim.

And I, for one, am sick of it.

Back on the Boob Brigade

Well, I suppose it's not really a boob brigade as a, please, we don't need those boobs in our newspaper brigade...
But we won't dwell.

I'm back doing the No More Page 3 campaign, which is actually very exciting, Uni work got in the way (story of my life, am I ever going to graduate?! I feel like I've been here forever, anyway...) Things have picked up considerably since I last checked in, to the point where even the main man himself, Rupert Murdoch, has tweeted about the possibility of removing Page 3 altogether!

Result! I hear you cry! She'll finally stop posting about tits, you say!
Not quite, I reply!

Here's the thing, the campaign is still, almost 6 months down the line, being REALLY misunderstood.
I'm not sure how much clearer it can be made that this campaign is not, I repeat NOT anti-glamour, or anti-choice or anti-women. It is not a group of bored housewives looking for an hobby, or the middle class looking for something to shout about, it's not a bunch of prudes trying to shove their opinions down the throats of anyone who'll listen, in the way that many extreme religious groups go about their business.
It is just a campaign asking to have boobs taken out of the newspaper, because, at the end of the day, whilst many would argue that, alright, Jordan's latest marriage/divorce I mean, the campaign was started by someone who's not even close to 40. So if people would KINDLY do some sort of background check before they open they're mouths (or their laptops, as case would be) both sides of the debate would stand a far better chance of actually being heard.

The Girls of Page 3 have launched their own petition, obviously, going against our campaign. Within their petition description they mention how Page 3 girls 'boost morale among the troops' and how they 'raise A LOT of money for charity together as Page 3 Girls of the Sun Newspaper.' Two, teeny, tiny, itty, bitty, little things here:
1) I believe, that these men (and women) who are fighting for our country deserve more than second rate soft porn to 'boost their morale'. In fact, I'm pretty sure these brave individuals love the idea that their morale is only as good as the tits in the paper. They're fight wars! These people haven't seen their families for Christ knows how long, and I don't see a half naked bloke being sent over there, sexy solider style, for the female troops. So can we just. there is absolutely NO reason why The Sun cannot contribute to keep the morale of our troops high, whilst keeping their tops on too.
2) The girls argue that they do charity work. If The Sun is going to push that as a reason for keeping Page 3, I'm about to run the marathon. Charity work and printing tits in the newspaper on daily basis are two VERY different things. Whilst I appreciate that topless calenders do sell (Tom Daley, I am talking to you) and therefore do seem like a viable way to raise money for charity, if the Sun is so concerned with Page 3 being associated to charity work, why not start introducing people who are out there, day in, day out doing work for some of the amazing organisations out there? Keep it to British Charities, if we're going to argue that Page 3 is a 'British Institution' (good Lord), and do profiles on people actually making a difference? On people who are out there, doing amazing and incredible things every single day.

Murdoch himself has mentioned the idea of replacing the Page 3 girls with 'Glamorous Fashionistas', so take it one step further Rup (is ok if I call you Rup? I'm going to call you Rup), scratch beneath the surface a little. Sure, feature Glamour Fashionistas... Henry Holland is releasing a capsule collection for Cancer Research (Gay, fully clothed, on Page 3. I see an angry mob forming... not). Have some faith in the British public, in your readers and the buyers and your advertisers.

So here we are, Hayley & her NMP3 adventure, round 2.
I'll keep you updated.

Much love xo