The Fat Lady Sings

Life has been extremely hard lately: dealing with my depression and the fact I may have bipolar and need medication, trying to have a better relationship with my boyfriend despite our issues, trying to get a better job and more cash, trying to sell my artworks, working hard to get as much out of university as possible, and having to come to turns with my awful diet/lack of exercise and the way it’s destroyed my body inside and out. I think if someone like me can get through tough times (although with a lot of crying and self-harm and bad thoughts), anyone has the chance to overcome hard situations. But there’s some people/issues that I have very strong opinions about. What better place to vent than Tumblr? To make myself look less like a crazy person, my boyfriend and I had a “D&M” (deep-and-meaningful) about all sorts of stuff after I woke up this morning, so I’m in that sort of mood.

1. Pro-Life/Anti-Abortion Supporters - Women have “fought” for quite a while to get the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy safely and efficiently, and without a whole lot of publicity. But some people still think the tiny blob of crap that resides within a woman’s uterus (at least, it’s a blob of crap until Week 10 or 12 of the gestation period, which is also the cut-off for an abortion) should be carried all the way through ‘til birth, regardless of the age of the woman, the circumstances of conception, etc. If a woman is raped and falls pregnant, she should be able to terminate the pregnancy. Full stop. No-one should be forced to bring an unwanted child into the world, especially if the mother is an addict of any kind or doesn’t have a stable home or enough money to support the child. In the case of underage mothers (between 12 and 18), it’s stressful for their developing mind and body, and the mental capacity of many people in this age group is undeveloped in terms of maternal instincts and moral/ethical judgement, definitely with the exception of some. I know some wonderful teenage mothers, but in the same respect I see some whom I know are completely unable to take care of themselves, let alone a dependent child. When you’re this age, you’re still out-and-about, drinking and partying, discovering who you are and what your life is destined to become. Bringing a baby into this journey can be either a blessing or a curse, depending on individual circumstances. You should get the chance to grow and experience the world before you decide to bring a child into it. You should make sure all issues (such as financial situation and accommodation) are in order before deciding to make such a monumental decision. 
   Some people don’t get this chance, though. Women who are raped sometimes don’t know they’re pregnant, and when they do find out it’s too late. They should have the right to put the child up for adoption, but they should make this decision just as important as keeping a child. There should be no unwanted children in the world; if you are pregnant, are against abortion but don’t want to keep your child, make the choice to put your child up for adoption, but treat it very seriously and put a lot of thought into your final decision/the family you choose. Whether or not to stay in contact is your choice, too.
   There’s so many different options that are available for pregnant women that cater to many beliefs and situations, and I think pro-life supporters are taking these away, creating a society that’s narrow-minded, and that both harms and sets a bad example for future generations. 
    
2. “Feminists” - I put this in quotations because I really mean women who say the word ‘feminist’ but actually mean ‘misandrist’. The former is someone who celebrates advances in the causes of females and who works hard to advocate women’s rights. The latter is someone who hates men. Just because you have a few bad experiences with your ex-boyfriends doesn’t make you a ‘feminist’. Nor does having a shitty stepfather or an uncle that beats you. Feel free to be a misandrist, but please don’t mislabel your stance as ‘feminist’. You keep saying that word, but I don’t think it means what you think it means. If you have had the aforementioned happen to you, I fully empathise and I can completely understand your mistrust of men and your wariness when in a relationship; you can even be both a misandrist and feminist while realising the differences between the two. But please don’t say things like, “Fucking hate men; women rule! Go feminists!”. Some men are bad, but the majority are rather nice. Women are not better or worse than men - they’re equal. So shut up. I’ve had some really fucked-up experiences with men, and I still love them to death. Sure, we get paid less to do the same thing and we get inappropriately ridiculed and propositioned sexually in the workplace, and we’re expected to look and act and feel in certain ways due to such things such as the media and religious beliefs. So do some men (albeit very few, and mainly social ‘minorities’). But fight against it as a true feminist; love your body, love your individuality, love your sexuality, love the fact that you’re a woman - advocate these things and work with both men and women to make the world equal. Most men advocate women’s rights. Don’t diss all men and say we should be able to do this and that because we’re smarter or more rational or whatever. We’re equal; we all breathe, we all put our pants on one leg at a time, so to speak.
   Oh, by the way… chivalry isn’t dead, and neither is romance. Stop dating assholes. 
    
3. People My Age Who Can’t Spell Or Use Proper Grammar - Look, I’m the same age as you, and I have a pretty reasonable grasp on the English language. Why don’t you? I do make mistakes sometimes, very simple ones at that. But I can differentiate between ‘you’re’ and ‘your’, and ‘their’ and ‘there’. I usually know when to use commas, periods, capitals and semicolons. If not, I just do it the best I can. Or create my own way of doing it! Haha. I know about paragraphs and spacing, numbering and bullet points. I can even write a half-decent essay or speech without being condemned for my lack of literary finesse. I guess this is just an agony aunt thing, but I feel very strongly about it. I know people who are the same age as me, took the same classes as me at highschool, even went to a better primary school than me… but their writing is deplorable, they pronounce words wrong, they put commas and semicolons all over their work like a fucking dog’s dinner… and they seem to look down upon me. I hate people who are so ignorant of spelling and grammar, they’ve been taught the wrong thing and insist their way is correct and the right way is wrong, or just an alternative to their way of doing it. These days, there doesn’t seem to be a wrong way, just a whole lot of different variations. But I’m old-school, despite being 19. I’m a huge hypocrite when it comes to this, but don’t murder me over it. It just shits me to tears. At least get simple things right, for God’s sake!
    
4. Vegans/Vegetarians - First off, I applaud your cause. I know many reasons why people choose to give up animal products; animal cruelty in terms of slaughter, severe allergy to meat, or just don’t like the taste. I know some animals are skinned alive, some have their limbs broken to slow down the process of dying (to “make the meat more tender” or something), some are squished together in cages, some are pumped with hormones, some are hung up and bled out while still alive. It’s fucking disgusting and it hurts to see such aggravating stuff happening in the food industry. But let’s think how HUGE the food industry is… so many abattoirs, so many barns, so many fields, so many factories. It’s impossible to completely stop every act of injustice going on. I’m sorry to say this, but not eating meat isn’t doing anything. I know it’s supporting the rights of animals and letting people know how you feel about the situation, but unless you’re going to the factories and saving baby chickens, or standing outside the White House with picket signs, or attending rallies all over the place, or actively fighting cruelty with bills and treaties and acts, there’s not much really happening. You may feel good, but it’s still happening all around you. I love people who go out and fight this cruelty with every strain of passion in their body; by both not eating meat or animal products, and going out and getting people in higher positions to rethink the way we operate the meat industry. You must be ACTIVE. Don’t just sit on the couch, eating mungbeans and mangoes while yelling at us meaties about how “heartless” and “disgusting” we are. Hey dude, I know where my food comes from, I know how most of it is made, I know what most of it contains, and I know injustice is rife in one of the hugest and most lucrative industries on the planet. But as an individual, I can’t stop it (it doesn’t mean I don’t want to). I’ve grown up with meat, and I’m not going to stop eating it just yet. I’ll eat meat until I lose the power to chew, to be honest. I also think about how many people we have fighting for animal rights; so they are slaughtered humanely (Fighing for peace? Fucking for virginity?), so they are treated right in pounds and in family homes, so they’re not taken advantage of or bred excessively. Societies like PETA and RSPCA are working to create knowledge in the global community. As we know, knowledge is power. So, with this knowledge, we have the power to fight for animal rights ACTIVELY and can make better choices and can care for our pets appropriately. 
   You can’t stop the killing of all animals, you can’t stop the food industry producing meat products, and you usually can’t convert a dedicated meat-lover. If we did, pests would eat all our valuable crops, we’d lack everything beneficial that comes from eating meat, and we’d have a lot of guilty veggie-converts not knowing why they gave up meat in the first place, and not knowing what giving up meat really means.
   Please, feel free to give up meat, but please… don’t try to guilt or convert me, don’t think you alone are stopping animal cruelty by refusing a few juicy steaks, and research why exactly you’re so passionate about this cause and it’s history. Don’t make me hit you!
   Oh, but I do love some of the vegan recipes I’ve seen - I’d never go past a well-made lentil burger! Haha.

I hope most of that made sense. I’m not that great at explaining myself; for example, writing this took me about 2 hours. I am surprisingly open-minded, although to some of you this rant makes that less evident. 
Also, I found a great post from the group “Pro-Choice: Abortion Isn’t Wrong” on Facebook (don’t know the author):

“‘Pro-lifers’ are such good people…yet they’d happily condem gay people to hell… I know gay/lesbians/transgenders have been bad-mouthed, spat on, beaten up simply for the way they were BORN. They’re so ‘pro-life’ yet they’d condem these people to death. I wonder if they’d still be against abortion if you could tell if the fetus a woman was carrying was gay. Something to think about isn’t it?”