Being Female and Other Merry Things

To begin, yes, there are good role model for young girls, but as children grow up, 

they typically gain more autonomy for themselves including the media to which 

they expose themselves through curiosity and something along the line between 

friendship and peer pressure.

Seeing these images alone is obviously not enough to trigger a sudden descent 

into dangerous body concerns and compulsions but it does do a good job of 

twisting the knife in. I'd like to say categorically that this is not a blind accusatory 

swipe at the parents of young adults with eating disorders who can find 

themselves feeling powerless and fearful when they discover the altered 

relationship their child has with food.

One thing we can do though, as described in 'How to Talk to Little Girls' (an article 
in which the author urges us to reign in the amount of importance we attach to 
looks when we address young children), is give them a more balanced 
perspective on valuable personal qualities.

In my opinion, this isn't something that needs to be done to the exclusion of 

appearance related compliments. Apportioning a dosage of shouting down 
every time a child shows an interest in dressing up or fusses over their hair is 
probably a bit rash (somewhat skewed by my personal interests), not least 
because not absolutely everyone needs to bury their nose in a books from 
infancy, through the acne ridden puberty, find themselves a rigorously virtuous 
partner of true intellectual substance, irrespective of appearances who prizes 
their ability to make it through a sentence without tousling their own hair.

Also, telling your daughter they they ought not idolise or even value more 
slender female figures (I'll defer to 'Real Women Don't Have Curves' to roughly 
elaborate on some of my views on this, essentially, a woman is a woman 
regardless of size or shape) and belittling a woman who, for diet or genetic 
predisposition reasons doesn't 'bloat' above a size 4 isn't big or very bloody 
clever. I recognise the point people are often trying to make because I've tried 
to make it myself, but it would probably be best if we all climbed down from 
our high horses every so often. Jennifer Lawrence who 
speaks proudly of loving junk food, has been hailed as a icon and role model 
for young girls for her admirable defiance of pressures to lose weight as an 
actress, could take more care on her the podium to which she has been 
elevated not to imply having or desiring a smaller dress size makes women 
'dumb' and only someone who looks like her can be considered 'a real 
person'.

I also recognise that men can be subject difficult body image influences, telling 
them how to look and act. This issue is often sidelined by the argument that it 
is relatively unsubstantial in comparison to the damage misogynistic social 
norms do to women and have done for so long. However, a lot of what is taught 
and ingrained into young men can negatively filter into relationships they have, 
becoming frustrated and in what can be decreasingly considered 'extreme' 
circumstances, becoming abusive and emotionally isolated from their partners. 

Probably the most plausible common thread this post attempted to follow was 
that the idea that role models can sometimes do more harm than good. I'll also 
be trite and say that the best you can probably do is your best, as any reliably
precocious teenager will tell you: be yourself, everyone else is already taken.

Notes on Notes

I wrote my first piece on club culture around three in the morning some time 

last year. It was the first prose I had completed since giving up on 

becoming a famous and understated writer of my time, at the ripe old age 

of nine. After a handful of reviews I was set on creating this blog and edited 

the article little before publicising. I now offer an attempt to plug a few of the 

gaping rationale holes presented in the first edit.

The first time around, I completely omitted the fact that men, too can be 

victims of sexual violence. This is a danger that comes with damagingly 

skewed perceptions of its own due to the banter associated with such acts.

I also in no way put the entirety of blame on female victims of abuse in clubs

and the way in which they dress. People can be sexually assaulted in their 

old age, as an act by groups who use rape as a weapon or repugnant 

'corrective' method for homosexual women in certain parts of sub-Saharan Africa, or simply as a result of being in the wrong place at the 

wrong time. These are instances when individuals have little to no control 

over the crime but I simply urge individuals to give an extra moment's 

thought to how they might make it hope safer at the end of the next night out 

because you are immediately that bit more vulnerable to events that can 

change your life in a heartbeat.

There's nothing inherently wrong with the standard student night life as long 

as we look out for fellow students- and that's all I'll say on that before I start 

sounding too much like a student safety leaflet.

Stereotyping the Stethoscope

What comes to mind when you think of a doctor? The answer to this depends 

a lot on your generation and perhaps more so on your upbringing. I grew up 

hearing my parents often remark at how young medical practitioners now are 

and certainly it has not escaped the attention of many members of the older 

generations the increase in the proportion doctors from ethnic minority 

backgrounds.

The diversity of socio-economic backgrounds from which medical students 

come from still leaves something to be desired. Of doctors being trained, over 

30% went to private school while less than 5% grew up in deprived areas. 

Alongside this is the fact that individuals from white backgrounds are statistically 

twice as successful in attaining a place in medical school. 

It is little wonder students shy away from applying to medical school every year 

in response to what they see to be odds stacked too highly against them. The 

general perceptions are of students from wealthy and privileged backgrounds 

being the only ones granted entry to medical schools and without anyone to tell 

them otherwise, these ideas will only propagate themselves and grow stronger.

But what does it benefit society and the medical profession in the long run to 

diversify the pool from which the lucky few a plucked? Well there is a good deal 

of potential to be harnessed from having often had to work against negative 

social expectations in the pursuit of social mobility and a dream.

We aim for universality in health and although that's not to say that being 

brought up in a wholesome family atmosphere with stables and trips to Harvey 

Nick's on dad's credit card automatically detracts from a person's intrinsic level 

of drive but there needs to be proper representation and reflection of the 

demographic of patients the healthcare system serves.

It should go without saying that this kind of pre-application reduction in diversity can all too easily lead to a negative skew in the 

amount the profession represents and understands the population as a whole 

and in a healthcare system being changed to give more control to doctors in 

designating funds, that is a very worrying idea indeed.

But the issue doesn't end there because once in medical training, the 

performance of students from ethnic minority backgrounds is not as high as 

their privately educated counterparts. Naturally there is a great deal of 

speculation on the reasons for this, possibly being due to parents pushing their 

children into the career path and financial worries detracting from performance 

as students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and postgraduate study are 

often in greater debt. Another key factor is confidence. Fortunately, it has also 

been shown  that students from LSE backgrounds can have their confidence in 

whether on or not they are 'university material' boosted by targeted summer 

schools and direct interaction with and motivation from individuals already 

involved and simply being treated with respect.

We must push on with the work being done to encourage pupils to strive to 

follow their dreams and put them on an even footing with others. Alongside this, 

however, is the need to do this responsibly and in a manner that doesn't 

patronise under-privileged pupils and essentially rob them of a sense of 

achievement when they are given places. Done correctly, we all stand to gain.

A Bit of Harmless Fun?

Makers of promotional videos for clubs quickly realised that putting a camera in 
someone's face makes them a lot more 
likely do something they're likely to regret 
in the morning; add alcohol to that equation and things escalate quickly. Strong positive 
reinforcement on the part of managers of clubs like this shows girls that the more 
provocative the outfit and the more importantly, the more willing you are to
parade your body, the better the reception you can expect; drinks on the house gleefully ensue and if the barman is lucky, enough attention can propel you into an intoxicating nest of whipped cream and a pool of tequila. 


But at what point do we draw the line between unfettered hedonism and something more
sinister, like the insidious and systematic undoing of decades of work and sacrifice by 
women who wanted femininity to encompass something more than a subservience to 
whatever dress code and behaviour is deemed most alluring by contemporary male 
attitudes. This isn't to say that every woman that goes to a club sporting anything less than a knee-length skirt and turtleneck is a puppet to male whims, as the idea is to avoid a restricted definition of what a woman ought to be or do, but there has to be some degree of awareness. When does it get more worrying than just the interaction of girls wanting to 
have fun and 'boys being boys'? Things can go too far and find young women plied with 
alcohol in a club becoming the  victims of opportunist sexual violence and part of a 
disturbingly overlooked statistic.


The act of rape gets easily shrouded and dismissed by both men and women insisting 
that the victims of rape in clubs were 'asking for it' and it can get to be a thinly veiled 
judgement dealt on the victims. Having spoken to a woman who was the victim of violent 
rape that left her in mental and physical anguish, the amount the act can be flippantly 
dismissed is made all the more shocking. She was told that she could not have been 
raped because she had had consensual sex with her attacker a year previously and was
known to have had multiple sexual partners besides that. Reporting it to the police was a
fruitless effort for her as an unsupported individual and she is not the only one. It makes 
me sick to think that in the 21st century there are still beliefs that if a woman has said yes
before then any subsequent no is are rendered irrelevant. 


Alongside this lies the ever powerful force wielded by mass media. Rihanna's recently 
published music video for her single 'Pour it Up' features her wearing a thong stuffed 
with dollars and a bra that scantily covers the bare minimum while she and some pole 
dancers twerk and dry hump to their hearts' and bank accounts' content. There is still a 
shortage of role models for young women to base appropriate levels of self respect on
and that might just be something to do with the producers and managers behind the 
scenes being predominantly men who benefit nothing they can cash in by promoting 
images of women that don't invite objectification. Endorsement of fully dressed female 
successes won't bring rape to a screeching halt or make men stop wanting sex but it just
might give pause to enough people for the prevalence of this crime to be challenged. 


This issue has to be tackled as more than a tag line that gets drowned out when interest 
in the pop song that triggered it dwindles, because for the victims, the repercussions 
endure. Earlier today I saw a bag with a slogan that read 'feminism is an unfinished 
revolution' and when you know the attitudes that have slipped through the net of human 
decency, it's not hard to agree.