Even in 2020, society still tends to lie to women about pretty much everything. Modern ladies of all ages are given impossible standards to meet and told how they should want to look, what they should want out of life, and so much more. It’s officially time to stop buying into these widespread myths, and the process starts with becoming more aware of them. How many of the following do you still buy into?

The Legend

I was sexually assaulted by Amir Tavassoli

Today, a Black man called me a bitch.

Disclaimer: not a medical professional. Sharing knowledge and experience form 10 years of treatment.

This article contains spoilers for I May Destroy You as well as talk of rape and sexual assault.

This article contains spoilers for I May Destroy You as well as talk of rape and sexual assault.

*TRIGGER WARNING*

I thrive in the summertime. Maybe it’s because I was born in August, but I have always felt like the best version of myself in the sunshine and hot air. There’s something about the long days and late sunsets that encourages me to make the most of every day. Summer offers newfound optimism-- adventure awaits around every corner. If I were Mother Nature, I would see no reason for any other season.

I don't think I should have to warn about spoilers from one of the most iconic movies in history, especially one that is almost 20 years old, but I will anyway: if you haven't seen Thelma and Louise, you should first go watch it immediately, but second, keep in mind this article does contain spoilers.

Hey Gurlll & Welcome To The Safe Zone!

Do you have a uterus? Do you sometimes feel anxious, experience sexual desire, or ‘cause trouble for others’? Well, then, you may just be suffering from Wandering Womb Syndrome! Yes, that’s right, it’s totally possible that your womb has taken a mind of it’s own and started to wander freely around your body, causing all kinds of mischief…

*TRIGGER WARNING*

I recently started seeing instagram photos which are part of a new challenge for women to show support for each other. So basically what it requires is a female friend to nominate you to post a photo of yourself, which you post, which then shows that they support you. This is indeed a positive social media trend that I believe is needed - especially with our females on social media While it's refreshing to see a positive social media trend among women, it does make you question why women supporting each other is even a challenge to begin with?

Why doesn't she eat anything? Is she hurting herself on purpose? She probably just wants attention.

‘Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

hey honey,

Along with the rest of the (privileged) world lockdown has me confined to my home with absolutely nothing to do. Along with nothing to do comes the desire for obsessive social media usage, and absolutely bugger all to share with the world. My lockdown posts so far have been a few pictures of my dog looking cute, one selfie, a compilation of little things that had made me smile, and one snapchat thirst trap of an especially booby selfie with an inane caption about managing to get dressed. While wasting away another day in lockdown I (unusually for me) decided to do a full face of makeup, which lead to wandering around my home until I found the most flattering lighting, then banging out about 100 selfies until I found one where I liked my facial expression. Clearly, this was already very much me at my best, but because of the time of day the lighting wasn’t quite as flattering as it could’ve been, so I figured I’d whack it in Facetune and knock down the contrast a bit and up the saturation to recreate that perfect “golden hour” lighting. After a lot of little tweaks I finally had “the perfect selfie”, which in my eyes was still just a selfie because all I’d really done was touch up the lighting. At this point I paused before instagramming it purely because I was worried about posting two selfies too close together and seeming vain, so the selfie sat in my camera roll for a few days.

I was sexually assaulted by Amir Tavassoli

My experience took place when I was seven. I’m not going to go into detail, partly because over the years I’ve pushed a lot of them out of my mind. It almost feels like a weird nightmare at this point, 20 years later. Also, I take trigger warnings seriously and wouldn’t want anyone to be affected by the violent details I do remember. What I will say is that it involves being locked in a closet with two younger brothers while the older brother played video games with his back against the door. All of the perpetrators were under 15. And because of something some people familiar with fundamental religions call “the two witness rule” no one was ever charged. My attackers grew up and moved away unscathed. No one ever knew.

Women in David Malouf’s Ransom are significant in their absence, remaining confined to the historical and social realities of the novel’s setting. While Malouf’s reinterpretation of the world of Homer’s Iliad explores the nature of violence, war and patrimony, these themes are never removed from their traditionally-understood place within the ‘masculine’ sphere of influence, and the author presents a society, in which woman’s importance exists only in her association with the deeds of great men. As a result, the women in Ransom serve only the roles a patriarchal society will permit; those of wives, mothers and handmaidens. Malouf’s choice not to challenge these stereotypes may be read as a result of his authorial loyalty to the source material, or, more-critically, as an exploration of the ways in which cultural narratives surrounding war and violence are presented as almost-entirely masculine affairs.

Alex Haley, the author of the best selling book Roots. also wrote a book named for his paternal grandmother, titled Queen, the story of an American family. Each book was turned into a made for television mini series. Queen, aired over three nights in February 1993 on CBS. Alex Haley died before the book was completed and it was finished by his co author David Stevens. I’ve watched the mini series three times and read the book at least five times. I find the story of this woman to be simply fascinating. Since March is women’s history month I decided to celebrate this woman in American history who I believe is very inspiring. According to Wikepedia, David Stevens said he had hundreds of pages of notes that Haley’s left behind, but he completed the book mostly from the memory of conversations he had with the heroine’s grandson.

Misogyny. Even the sound of it is unpleasant when you say it. However, you can’t fully imagine how unpleasant this word really is until you have experienced the type of situations where it is applied. Here I will be sharing examples of what it’s like for a woman to work in a misogynistic business based off of situations I have experienced, or witnessed. As you read I Would appreciate it if you would respect that these are real situations that have happened to real women, and not to belittle or dismiss them.

Being a tradesperson in the heavy vehicle transport industry as a female is a factor that I will not prioritise while sharing my experiences of work and the world, for reasons you will soon understand, but I cannot deny its influence on my experiences – and it might not be in the ways you’re expecting.

As a working woman, it is really hard to be feminine and soft at your place of employment. It some times feel like you have to take on very masculine energy just to keep up and stand in your place.

Earlier this morning I watched a post on Instagram of a video where Lil Wayne talks to 50 Cent about exotic women, while black women are just "angry". It's something that everyday just gets under my skin.

As time went on Lilianna became best friends with Mary Jane. Her father had never looked at her the same and it felt like wonderful life that she once knew would never be the same. Before the travesty against her body she had been somewhat an ambivert, knowing when to be introvert and extrovert. However after the rape she went completely changed, becoming an introvert completely. It was as if her spirit internally had been crushed, no longer in touch with God. She started to question if he was real, why would he let that happen to her, was it her fault for being disobedient or sneaky. Poor Lilianna, a child that had to face so many hard questions.

When all the bans came down last year there was a lot of misinformation that swirled around. The pro life and pro choice people both believed lies. A lot of Americans are pro choice. I wanted to put out the truth as a neutral person.

Today, a Black man called me a bitch.

G.D Anderson once said that: "Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength."

As I’ve spoken more openly about my feminist beliefs not everyone has been fully supportive. Many people have and thank you for that. Some people are confused and some people are put off. Feminism is still controversial today. It seems like some people just want me to be a ‘normal’ writer. I can focus on social change, sure, but feminism is a bit much. It excludes men, apparently. Well this is my message to men.

We as Black Women have so much to deal with. Our children, significant others, parents, bills, pets, plants, house chores, work duties and so much more all need constant attention. It's life right? Yes, but we often too many times forget we need attention too! We may have the best support system in our siblings, parents, friends, co workers, and significant others. Our tribe may check on us every day. Yet we sometimes forget we must check on our selves. We have to make sure we take the time out of each day to see how are we feeling physically , mentally , spiritually , and financially. Kings lead and Queens stand beside, or behind our Kings, but Sis let's face it... it's us with the drive to handle it all and a lot of us do handle it all alone. If you are a single parent or if you have someone you are spending your life with it's us Queens that have a heavy weight on our shoulders because we know our men are so targeted, so oppressed that we try to take so much pressure off of them so they can lead and live peaceful lives as possible. This doesn't take away our happiness and peace we love to cater to our men and uplift them daily . Our Kings hold the household down, often are the major breadwinners, and decision makers. But still we be knowing what needs to be done and we get it done right ? We are so stereotyped to be strong at all times and never publicly show our emotions when sad or angry . It's levels of course to expressing any emotion, still we need to break the cycle and end the stigma and release what is in our souls, hearts and minds. Holding raw emotions in is not good for our mental health. If you are stressed , worried , or depressed Sis express that. Don't be ashamed , you know why? Because everyone on the planet felt those exact same feelings before. We are just the ones judged when we express it. I am so tired of us being looked at as angry black women when someone insults us and we check them on it. No we are not angry black women, we are black women who happens to get angry sometimes just like everyone else.

“She's fierce, she's blunt and she's unapproachable” someone said. Is that so, I wonder? What do you actually know about her?

Well, hello and welcome to Madeline’s Life Take 2. I decided to do a minor introduction as I think it would be fitting for some of you to get an idea about the person who will be writing the stories, the life lessons and the sometimes wine fuelled content.

Disclaimer: not a medical professional. Sharing knowledge and experience form 10 years of treatment.

First, allow me to say that I am in no way a medical professional or expert on PCOS. This article is the research that I have found while struggling to understand PCOS and how it affects not just myself, but 1 in 10 women around the world.

Did you know that most individuals with vaginas and vulvas have never seen it? And I don’t mean a funky cartoon diagram in sixth grade sex-ed. I mean their own. We are told from a very young age not to touch it, to leave it alone. But why? There’s no sound answer to that question, and yet from a very young age, we are told to leave it alone, and that’s the last we hear about it until we’re much older and expected to know everything there is about our bodies. In fact, many people with or without female genitilia couldn’t tell a labia from a vagina in the first place. The world must not yet have realized that when you grow up forced to pretend that something doesn’t exist, that not only do you learn nothing about it, but the idea of learning about it feels wrong.

The Legend

One of the most well-known of the English Queens, Alexandrina Victoria was born on 24th May, 1819, at Kensington Palace, London, at 4.15 in the morning. Her father was Prince Edward, the 4th son of King George III, and her mother was the Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. The little princess was christened on 24th June, 1819, in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton. Alexandrina Victoria was fifth in line to the throne.

A Suffragette was a member of militant women’s organizations in the early 20th century who, under the banner “Votes for Women”. Fought for the right to vote in public elections, known as women’s suffrage. The term refers in particular to members of the British ‘Women’s Social and Political Union’ (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil disobedience. In 1906 a reporter writing in the Daily Mail coined the term ‘Suffragist,’ in an attempt to belittle the women advocating women’s suffrage. The militants embraced the new name, even adopting it for use as the title of the newspaper published by the WSPU.

How often do you think about how much waste is made when you're on your period? If you use traditional pads and tampons, it's quite a bit. In their lifetime, tampon users will use and dispose of, on average, 11,000 tampons. Each year, around 12 billion pads and 7 billion tampons end up in landfills. Not to mention the tampons that are flushed and go through the water system. So what are the alternatives? Well, my fellow period-havers, there are so many more sustainable options out there. Here are just a few.

I am here to talk about something which isn’t exactly dinner table conversation yet it needs to be addressed. From my theme picture above you have already figured out my topic by now so there are no surprises here. The information that I am going to provide however may be surprising. My goal is to provide important information which is vital to every woman’s health and for the future sake of our environment.

Birth control. For one a miracle cure, for another hell on earth. Since the birth of the pill, many different variants of the contraceptive have appeared, each with its own side effects.

I remember being around 14 years old, in a "fight" with some friends and saying to my mom, "Who needs friends anyway?" She laughed at me and said "Girl, every woman needs a good group of girlfriends. You'll see." At 38 years old, that was probably the truest thing I've been told. I have always been what you could call a "serial friend audition-er"; meaning anyone could get a shot, but the likelihood of survival was slim. My personality is complex and thus requires connections with simple but varying personalities that share, well, anything in common with one of the people living in my head.

It’s easy to get caught up in the magic and nostalgia of old-fashioned fairytales without considering what underlying messages they may convey. Of course parents aren’t telling their kids stories with the intention of giving them an unhealthy idea of relationships. Regardless, this may be what is happening. There is a stereotype of women getting into relationships with toxic men in the hopes of “fixing” them. Many of us saw a great example of this shortly after the release of the film Joker (2019) in the form of a meme, a tweet by @TamiDaBushPilot that read “*watching the Joker movie* (under breath) …I could fix him”. Just like most stereotypes, this was derived from a real-life pattern. This begs the question of just why so many women find themselves drawn to troubled men. For the purposes of this article, we’ll stick with the example of a heterosexual relationship wherein the woman wants to “fix” the man, simply because that’s what the stereotype commonly refers to.

Finding a potential mate in life is quite frankly a blisteringly daunting task for anyone, it was in the past, still is today, and more likely than not it will be for the foreseeable future, unfortunately. Though I would like to take a moment to example some clearly s***ty reasons why some people need to always be left alone. This refers to the narcissists, wallowers, drama seekers, etc. Now in some cases, I agree that it is unmerited because the dator is really worthy of a great datee especially if both are willing to put in the time and work to make something of the connection experienced. However, more often than not those who are getting left in the dust aren’t as date-worthy as they think they are. In my opinion of course. Feel free to agree to disagree but here is some food for thought.