No matter what you say, I will say the opposite

 "Question what the TV tells you

Question what a pop star sells you

Question mum and question dad

Question good and question bad!"

"Sex Yeah" - Marina And The Diamonds

I've always said education is undeniably a form of manipulation. Of course there are some objective things you learn from it, but there are lots of other subjective ideas and opinions parents, teachers and role models tack on us.

That's why I've been thinking and finally came out with this idea: every time you're told something you didn't know, search for arguments against it, even if it actually convinces you, try to refute it. There will always be absurd things being taught as absolute truths, mostly in the Internet (don't get ideologies 100% from the net!) but also in words from celebrities; what you learn in school is mostly an actual truth, but you won't get very far if you assume everything a grownup tells you, and there are always subjective ideas that aren't true for everyone (especially in History and languages classes), so you'll want to find your own truth and, if you're confident enough, share it with your teacher. You'll always learn something new!

"So, how can I be aware if a celebrity or someone in the Internet is actually lying?" First of all, you should understand that there are certain things that are true just for some people: everyone has an opinion, and all opinions are different; that's what makes this world interesting! So you're never sure if what you're being told is actually your truth. If it looks objective, you can always look for information from other sources (including real people outside the Internet!)... actually, you should really do that. Otherwise, just look for other people's opinions and see which one convinces you. Maybe there will be certain points from different opinions that you find convincing... and that's great! That means you can use those points to build your very own opinion!

"What if I see a negative opinion about something I don't really understand?" Well, there will always be facts and collectives you shouldn't really give your opinion about (let's see, if you're a white cisgender straight male, why would you give an opinion about transgenders? Does it have something to do with you? No? Then chill!) since you most probably don't really know anything about it (unless you know someone who lives or lived it and can tell you). Then what you should do is either look for opinions from people who knows about it: for example, if you're trying to build an opinion about the furry fandom, what you should do is look for a furry fandom member's opinion; or just don't opine about it: no one told you to, nobody will blame you if you admit you don't know about it.

So, when it comes to making your own opinion, the solution is quite simple: search for information for yourself and, if the topic doesn't really concern you and/or you can't know about it, just stay away from it.

How to get EQUALITY

[AUDIO COULD NOT BE FOUND]

"FUCK EM
Fuck feminists
Fuck the left
Fuck the right
Fuck anyone in between who feels men don't deserve rights
Fuck everyone who claims men need to be fixed
Fuck everyone who ignores that men suffer right along side women
Fuck anyone who thinks they can define men or masculinity"

"Fuck Feminism" - Jared White

There's quite a lot of people complaining about a problem nobody is moving a finger to solve... As I said in "Time to fight for men's rights" (LINK), what we call 'feminism' is not useful anymore: yeah, if we called it 'equalism' or 'egalitarism' instead of 'feminism', we'd erase all that it historically means... Because that's precisely the point! Feminists WERE fighting against a male chauvinist society... which doesn't exist anymore! What we need now is not feminism, it's egalitarism.

I still hear some people (if it's fair to call them people, which I doubt) saying that "men are already empowered and the fight for equality is only for women"... NO, simply NO. Read the previous entry (the one I linked in the first paragraph) and you'll see how women, instead of getting to the same level of men, are trying to be the crap they complain about. Men are not free of oppression: you can complain about men if you are a girl, but if you complain about women as a boy...! So NO, there is no such thing as male superiority anymore, deal with it: I know some people enjoys being oppressed, because if you are you have something to victimise yourself about, but, no, girls, we're not oppressed anymore, stop crying already.

Do you know how to get the equality you ask for? It's very simple: both males and females should have the right to choose: I have to be able to choose to be a housewife without 'feminists' calling me 'tamed' or 'destroyer of equal rights' and my husband has to be able to choose to be as stereotyped as he wants to without a bunch of crying 'feminists' calling him 'male chauvinist' as well as we have to be able to choose to be the brain-washed 'liberals' 'feminists' want us to be; of course!

So, now, if you really want equality, let me allow my husband to have sex with all the women he wants to and be free while I do whatever I want as well, even if that means doing the cleaning, cooking and staying at home (as long as it's healthy and I really want it... otherwise, see "Why do men cheat on women?"): because it's my decision and you should NOT be able to forbid it legally nor socially, and if it's not right or a mistake I'll end up realising by myself and learning from it.

Thanks.

Valentine's Day Task

 "I’m your carnal flower, I’m your bloody rose
Pick my petals off and make my heart explode
I’m your deadly nightshade, I’m your cherry tree
You’re my one true love, I’m your destiny"

"FROOT" - Marina And The Diamonds

For the task of today, we've had to visit this site and do the exercises of, at least, one of the proposed links. I chose the 'Elllo has a nice listening game about Valentine's Day Gift Hints' and, after listening to a speech full of gender stereotypes and 'things that work for girls' that would honestly work for both genders (men like to feel loved too!), I answered all the questions correctly without any mistake (it wasn't that hard...).

So, here's the screenshot of the result:

"Power And Control"

"Give a little, get a lot,
That’s just how you are with love.
Give a little, get a lot,
Yeah, you may be good looking
But you’re not a piece of art.
   
Power and control,
I’m gonna make you fall.
  

[...]

Women and men we are the same,
But love will always be a game,
We give and take a little more,
Eternal game of tug and war."

"Power And Control" - Marina and The Diamonds

 

For the task of today we had to write about a love song we like, explaining the kind of love it is. I chose "Power And Control", from Marina And The Diamonds' second album Electra Heart (2012), which focuses in dysfunctional love and 'hoolywoodian' female archetypes from the second half of the XX century (especially the '50s and the '70s).

This concrete track is seen from the perspective of a girl engaged in an unhealthy relationship where both her and her pair are trying to get 'power' over each other. Marina said the song was about "the power struggle in relationships [where] there's always one person who wants the upper hand." Love in this ludic and unhealthy relationship is described as "eternal game of tug and war."

The music video illustrates it quite well. Marina is seen in a mansion with her man, with whom she plays mind games. The self-empowering overtaking is represented by a bucket (firstly full of paint, then full of water) thrown at a canvas by him at the first occasion and at him by her at the last chorus.

"Power And Control" is, then, an example of a relationship where the important isn't really love but the power and control one lover can exert on the other, treating it like a game; it is, then, an example of ludic unhealthy love.

Here are the lyrics, translated to Catalan:

ENGLISH CATALAN

(Power and control) (Poder i control)
Give a little, get a lot, Dóna una mica, pren molt,
That’s just how you are with love. És exactament com ets amb l'amor.
Give a little, get a lot, Dóna una mica, pren molt,
Yeah, you may be good looking, Sí, potser ets guapo,
But you’re not a piece of art. Però no ets una obra d'art.

Power and control, Poder i control,
I’m gonna make you fall. Et faré caure.
Power and control, Poder i control,
I’m gonna make you fall. Et faré caure.

Women and men we are the same, Dones i homes som el mateix,
But love will always be a game, Però l'amor sempre serà un joc,
We give and take a little more, Donem i prenem una mica més,
Eternal game of tug and war. Joc etern de conflicte i guerra.

Think you’re funny, think you’re smart, Penses que ets divertit, penses que ets llest,
Think you’re gonna break my heart. Penses que trencaràs el meu cor.
Think you’re funny, think you’re smart, Penses que ets divertit, penses que ets llest,
Yeah, you may be good looking, Sí, potser ets guapo,
But you’re not a piece of art. Però no ets una obra d'art.

Power and control, Poder i control,
I’m gonna make you fall. Et faré caure.
Power and control, Poder i control,
I’m gonna make you fall. Et faré caure.

Women and men we are the same, Dones i homes som el mateix,
But love will always be a game, Però l'amor sempre serà un joc,
A human vulnerability... Una vulnerabilitat humana...
Doesn't mean that I am weak? Això no significa que sóc dèbil?

That I am weak, I am weak, Que sóc dèbil, sóc dèbil,
I am weak, I am weak, weak, Sóc dèbil, sóc dèbil, dèbil,
(Ah-ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah ah), weak, (Ah-ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah ah), dèbil,
(Ah-ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah ah), weak, (Ah-ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah ah), dèbil,
(Ah-ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah ah), weak, (Ah-ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah ah), dèbil,
(Ah-ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah ah), weak, (Ah-ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah ah), dèbil,

Power and control, Poder i control,
I’m gonna make you fall. Et faré caure.
Power and control, Poder i control,
I’m gonna make you fall. Et faré caure.

Women and men we are the same, Dones i homes som el mateix,
But love will always be a game, Però l'amor sempre serà un joc,
We give and take a little more, Donem i prenem una mica més,
Eternal game of tug and war. Joc etern de conflicte i guerra.

Power and control, Poder i control,
I’m gonna make you fall. Et faré caure..
Power and control, Poder i control,
I’m gonna make you fall. Et faré caure.
I’m gonna make you fall, Et faré caure,

We give and take a little more, Donem i prenem una mica més,
‘Cause all my life I’ve been controlled, Perquè tota la meva vida he estat controlada,
You can’t have peace without a war, No pots tenir pau sense una guerra,
Without a war, without a war. Sense una guerra, sense una guerra.

The Acropolis of Athens

"But if the earth ends in fire

And the seas are frozen in time

There'll be just one survivor

The memories of our lifetime"

"Immortal" - Marina And The Diamonds

For today's task, we had to look for a place we'd like to visit in the Unesco World Heritage List (UWHL) and describe it explaining why we'd want to be there. I chose the Acropolis of Athens. In Ancient Greece, an Acropolis was an elevated part of the city-state (polis) where people could spend time praying in several temples; in Athens, its most known one is the Parthenon.

The reason why I would like to visit the Acropolis of Athens is that I find Ancient Greek culture very interesting and indubitably a part of human philosophy we need and we're missing. I also love how Ancient Greek architecture expresses the ideal of beauty and harmony its culture professed.

The Acropolis of Athens was inscribed in 1987 as cultural site. Its official page in the Unesco can be found in this link.

Time to fight for men's rights

"Is there any possibility
You'll quit gossiping about me
To hide your insecurities?
All you say is "blah, blah"

Girls they never befriend me
'Cause I fall asleep when they speak
Of all the calories they eat
All they say is "na na na na na" (na na na na na)"

"Girls" - Marina And The Diamonds
       

Well, I come from taking a look at the most absurd law in all of Europe. It's Spanish, as it couldn't be any other way, and it's called LIVG or Ley Integral contra la Violencia de Género (Integral Law against Gender Abuse, for non-Spanish friends). For its name, it sounds good... What am I saying? Good? It sounds GREAT! The Above Lie bless LIVG!... Oh, wait, then "why would Heather call it absurd?" Sit back, relax and see... And better take some sandwich because this is going to be LONG.

Let's imagine the following situation: a healthy relationship, without any kind of abuse: John and Martha. John and Martha have two children: Britney and Marina (such original names); Marina loves her father and Britney spends a lot of time with both John and Martha. Let's say now Martha knows another man, Spencer. Martha and Spencer fall in love with each other and she decides it's time to express her feelings to John and the girls: the three understand the woman and, sad, John accepts divorce. Let's now say John loves Martha too much and doesn't want to divorce; then Martha asks for a lawyer's help. Since they're in Spain, the lawyer looks for a way to benefit his client... CHARGE JOHN WITH GENDER ABUSE! Regretful, Martha is waiting for the judge to identify the lawyer's lie, but... what does LIVG say about this?

It DOES happen

• The woman's accusation is enough to send the man to preventive prison for 48 hours, which already counts as criminal record and disallows him to get certain jobs and degrees/courses. This happens before checking if it's a false accusation.
• The man's presumption of innocence is not applicable, which means he's taken as guilty whether there are evidences or not.
• The man's statements and defense are not valuable. The only factors that condition the penalty are the woman's accusation.
• There is no penalty for false accusations.
• LIVG doesn't work if a man is being abused by a woman; however, if a man accuses a woman for gender abuse and the woman, without any evidence, says it's a false accusation, it will probably be taken as of it and the abused man will be sent to prison.

So, thanks to LIVG, our poor John is sent to preventive prison and loses his job and university certification. When he's sent out, the sentence forces him to abandon all possessions (home, car, ...) as well as Britney and Marina's tutelage to Martha. He's also forced to pay a monthly rent to her. He's now homeless, unemployed and unable to rebuild a stability. He finally commits suicide. Regretful, Martha, seeing what her lawyer has done, does as well. Britney and Marina are given to another family, with the ever-chasing trauma of witnessing their parents' suicide. Good job, Spain, you just arranged a family! That law is JUST WHAT THEY NEEDED TO BE ALL HAPPY! You might think this is an exaggerated example of what happens with LIVG... but no, this literally happens.
    

But this only affect Spanish people, doesn't it? Well, this afternoon I've seen a video of a man ignoring his woman in "Kiss Cam" (a U.S.-made thing you should get information about because I'm too lazy to explain). By the third time Kiss Cam showed the pair and the man ignored her, the mascot picked her and, for its actuation all along, I would say it was saying something like "I'm gonna make her happy". Everyone else agreed and laughed and nobody acted like it was wrong at all...

Let's imagine the next situation: a woman is ignoring her man while being shown on Kiss Cam, even though he's showing his eagerness to kiss while shown. During the third time this happens, a woman appears, picks the man and says "I'm gonna make him happy". Can you guess what would be the reaction of people? Exactly, beer cans and hot dogs thrown to them and the words "whore", "bitch", "cheater" and "bastard" becoming the new anthem of the game!

But, if I was going to put examples of all ambits (which I AM NOT since, as I said, Heather be too lazy to use "to be" correctly) we'd be just getting started! Yeah, women have been suffering really hard and, in some cases, they're still to get equality, but we should not accept this kind of chauvinism. Because it's not feminism anymore; it's REPULSIVE, AWFUL AND UNRESPECTFUL CHAUVINISM. If you want respect, respect others first; thanks.

Shakespeare's biography

"But with all my education I can’t seem to command it
And the words are all escaping, and coming back all damaged
And I would put them back in poetry if I only knew how
I can’t seem to understand it"

"All This And Heaven Too" - Florence + The Machine
   

William Shakespeare, considered the greatest writer in the English language, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. During his lifetime, he wrote 38 plays, 154 sonets and some other poems. He is best known for his plays, which have been translated to every major language.

He married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 years old, and they had three children. After he went to London to work as an actor and as a writer, the Globe Theater was built, in 1599, near the river Thames; it was where some of Shakespeare's plays were first performed. 14 years later the theater was destroyed by a fire.

Shakespeare is still known all over the world nowadays, maybe because of the fantastic element of his stories or the action in them...

Source: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/uk-now/read-uk/shakespeare

How to make real life interesting

"It's for the kids who have low self esteem
They've got no concept of reality
Living their lives inside a fantasy
'Cause they have troubled minds, troubled minds

Wipe the white golden dust into these broken hands
Must depend on a friend that will understand
Like the glitter making love to the gleam
Just remember things aren't always what they seem"

"Troubled Minds" - Marina And The Diamonds 

Boom! The 21st century has arrived! We've spent the last two decades letting our teens get stuck in videogames, porn and the Internet and now it's time to eat the feces of our mistake: our teens have been trapped in fantasies, letting go of reality and leaving their dreams rot in the hell of actual existence. Now most guys (and some girls) have their manga/anime imaginary boyfriend or girlfriend and, obviously, since everything is inside their computers, why should they ever go out of their room or get a job? That way, life before 30 consists basically on testing how long your parents can keep you alive. It might seem legitimate at first, but, in most cases, your parents are neither a money factory nor immortal entities, so keeping that lifestyle long enough is pretty impossible unless you can survive as a vagabond... and if you've reached that

I'm on my way :_D !

point you probably can't survive without a computer.

So, how to get out of that circle of destruction and virtual sexual attributes? Easy: find a reason to stay in real life! If you like drawings of girls with big breasts or boys with big muscles, try to create them yourself! If you like songs, try to compose one! Mix what you like about your fantasy and make it real! Slowly, you'll start to appreciate other things out there: one day, instead of drawing a bulky furry maybe you'll want to draw an actual animal (which doesn't mean all furry artists are troubled... but if you're under 18 and drawing porn, YOU ARE)! Instead of writing a love story maybe you'll find your own! Giving it a try can only give positive results whatsoever!

"So, how do I start?" Once you've spent enough time in it, getting out of the trap requires some adaptment, just to dare to step into reality. So, after finding a hobbie to make real life get some appeal and making it come true, apart from keeping it up, what should we do? Well, that's the hard part: you'll have to get rid of the toxic part of that lifestyle: try to spend less time playing videogames, on the Internet, watching manga/anime and, if you're underage, absolutely no porn. Masturbation is healthy, but it gets even healthier if you use your imagination, so give it a try.

"Hey, what if I'm OK with this? Can't I just carry on?" Of course! In its measure, all those modern life idiosyncrasies can be harmless; just make sure you're aware if it messes up with your life and social relations! Videogames, anime and the Internet can be actually good and healthy... just remember porn can't, regardless of your age, and so the rest if abused.

And if you still wonder why I said that about pornography, I think you should check this out:

The best moments of Christmas holidays!

"My loneliness is killing me

I must confess I still believe

When I'm not with you I lose my mind

Give me a sign"

"... Baby One More Time" - Britney Spears
 

There aren't many times one can really enjoy their school work, and this Christmas I found myself doing one of those special homework tasks that can make your imagination flow freely enough to let you smile, cry, fall in love and get angry with your own characters.

This concrete work consisted in five pages of an imaginated character's personal diary. I chose to write from the perspective of a tiger girl who lives in the Rool Woods, near a city where humans live. Alone in the woods, she finds the diary, which quickly becomes her only way to express her feelings. Even though, she's about to discover she's maybe not the only animal-human in the Rool Woods... I normally don’t care about these kinds of things, but I hope our Catalan teacher enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

So it was that Catalan work that made these holidays truly especial! I really hope there'll be more of this kind of things in the rest of this school year!

My 2015 resolutions

"I wish I had one good reason why
I should stay
How'd I get myself
Into this place?
I wish had qualities like
Sympathy
Fidelity
Sobriety
Sincerity
Humility
Instead I got lunacy"

"Cheryl Tweedy" - Lily Allen

2014 hasn't been a good year whatsoever, and 2015 brings plenty of new possibilities and hopes that I would like to profit! That means a quite big effort from my own... and maybe a little of help from others, but what it sure means is a good year!

So, to make 2015 even more interesting, here's the list of resolutions I want to achieve:

• Gain weigh. I want to be curvy, that's for sure. The huge problem is that, before I start my transition, fat goes to places it shouldn't be! So, for now, it's quite hard to get weigh without getting complexes in the way... So, in order to achieve that, I have some strategies:

Just two years, eigth months and thirteen days!

• The best option to not get complexes from the mirror: not looking at it! So, obviously, I can't get blind every time I'm in front of the mirror, but I can just not pay attention to it. I can do nothing to help how my body distributes my fat right now, so maybe the best option is to ignore the issue until I can actually help it.

• Waiting would help too. Maybe I should just admit I can't achieve this in 2015... actually, not until late 2017! So perhaps I'll just not gain until I get that beauty-beauty Meghan Trainor deals about in "All About That Bass"...

• The fastest but hardest and most harsh one: getting over it! I can't just think about the bad side of things and ignore the good one because I'll get neurotic sooner or later in life, I have to ignore the bad side and get all these things over with!

• Stop trying to make others happy. To be happy with my social identity, I have to make sure I get assertive. My way of relating so far, based on passivity and self-slavery for the sake of my friends, has been undeniably frustrating and it's time to be something more than just a ego-rising pet.

• I need to learn to say "no". I have to make my ideas and opinions 'important': not imposing them, but letting my friends know they exist and they are sometimes different than theirs.

• I'll have to find my own happiness! I can't depend on others just to stay alive, so I have to look for a way of happiness and entertainment that involves me, just me and only me.

• I have to get myself thinking "I'm worth it". It might seem silly, but I would really swear this problem comes from my lack of self esteem, so I should focus on it!

• Not make any resolutions! The easiest way of success is not thinking about it, and having plenty of things to do is quite depressing...

• So the best way to do this is relaxing, taking a deep breath and taking a long look at my capacities. That way I'll know what I can want myself to do and what I'll have to admit I can't. If I expect too much from me, probably I will get positively ambitious... and probably I'll just want to give up on absolutely everything in life, so it'll be much better to take it easy and do what I can do!

• Maybe being ambitious is way better than taking it easy! I think I'd maybe get some more goals: impossible ones, hard ones, challenging ones; of course! And if I fail, I will try another!

• Even better: accept "impossible" resolutions to find other ones in the way!

Heather's 2014 academically

"Used to be a major scale
But the melody went stale,
Musical cacophony let
Insy Winsy spider free.

[...]

Could never tell you what happened
The day I turned seventeen,
The rise of a king and the fall of a queen,
Oh, seventeen,
Seventeen."

"Seventeen" - Marina And The Diamonds

 

It was actually harder than that...

If someone asked me how 2014 would be in 2013, I would have answered it could never ever get worse so 2014 had to be better... Well, no. I could never imagine what was waiting for me after that innocent first term when I first failed a subject: Geography, concretely.

So that hopeful new year started actually quite well: it seemed I was going to fix my year and end up 3rd of ESO like a pro... Nothing further from reality: that second term brought me an even more complicated situation with two failed subjects: even though I had retaken Geography, Catalan and P.E. were now trying to make me give up and actually doing so, as it was proven in the third term, when Geography, Arts and P.E. sent me to retakes in September.

So the nice part of 2014 started for me in June. Holidays, sun, beaches, some retake homework; basically, summer. But that summer was actually good: though I couldn't use computers, I spent really good moments with my Wii and I actually discovered doing homework CAN be nice! I must confess most "My World" entries on this blog come from thoughts from the so mentioned summer.

After those three months of finetune.com (which has unfortunately stopped working) for Wii, Geography homework and plastic arts a new hope shined beyond my eyes: 4th of ESO! That was my chance! So it was a really good first term, full of great moments with old and new friends and... this blog! It was all perfect, everything was going awesome... until that week... Yeah, the first week of December completely wrecked the last shards of academic self esteem I had, and I actually ended up failing Spanish and Catalan.

But now I know what I can do to avoid this happening again: now I know the price of my mistakes and where they come from. I WILL end up 4th of ESO like the pro I really am and nothing is going to keep me from doing so!

A little bit of Spanish History for proud Spanish people

[AUDIO COULD NOT BE FOUND]

"You say that love is not that easy
And that’s the lesson that you teach me
So hypocritical, overly cynical
I’m sick and tired of all your preaching"

"Hypocrates" - Marina And The Diamonds
 

It's not really rare to hear stupidities such as "Spain has been a really great nation until the 2008 crisis!" from people who can't really look beyond their nose. OK, it is true that Spain used to culturally destroy regions all over the world, but it doesn't really mean it was a "great nation". No, it has never been good as a nation: culturally, even America is far beyond Spain, and TV shows it quite well; nowadays, success in Spain is equal to dumbness and... overall, being a scumbag.

But let's focus on the twentieth century: Spain has suffered the most absurd dictatorship ever, established by the least charismatic being ever... which was FORTY YEARS LONG! Wow, next time this happens, let's let them rape our country a little bit longer, okay?

Can I puke already?

And people still forget the most funny parts! Did you know a nuclear bomb was thrown during that period? Yes, it's referred as The 1966 Palomares B-52 Crash, an "error" committed by the U.S. Air Force which led a nuke to be dropped near Murcia; an accident, of course! IT WAS NOT MADE TO SCARE ANY DICTATOR, NO, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT! And everyone believed that and actually forgot it! Yay! The funniest part of all of it was by far when Spanish politicians bathed in Palomares to show people there was no danger (and THEY WERE NOT FORCED BY ANYONE, OF COURSE!)... By the way, that has NO RELATIONSHIP with radioactivity found in waters and fields in Murcia decades later!

OK, but the sixties and Franco are quite far from today, aren't they? Let's move to the 80's, concretely to 1983. From the mentioned year to 1987 Spain had a fun fun thing called Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación or GAL, groups of para-policemen committing terrorism themselves to "stop the terrorists of ETA", led by the PSOE (the two most popular political parties in Spain are assassins, deal with it) and financed by important officials within the Spanish Interior Ministry.

Source: Wikipedia (CLICK TO EXTEND)

And, once again, there's a political background behind these facts: terrorism was just an excuse, all they wanted to erase was Basque nationalist activism. Shame on you, PSOE.

But this is not really related to today, is it? Well, after the mentioned PSOE legislature, a PP (aka. children of Franco) legislature came out with a man called Aznar. What this man did was basically raising the housing bubble higher and higher so it could explode in the next president's face. And it did; in 2004, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, from PSOE, got covered with Aznar's sh*t and, a few years later, BOOM! CRISIS! And that's basically the reason why we're how we are right now, heh.

It is true that 1966 is the furthest I can rewind (my sources are limited!), but I wonder what would happen if someone spent some time on collecting and writing these things since much earlier... It would be very funny, I'm sure.

We live in Europe's stinky belly button, deal with it.

Is gender necessary?

"Well I, I wanna tell you a secret
You can take your double standard love and keep it"

"Hermit The Frog" - Marina And The Diamonds
 

So far, I've written about male and female stereotypes (entry about this) and the great fault in usual female behavior when it comes to relationships (entry about this). But, what's the origin of all these problems? Do we really need to separate between men and women? Well, I would say no: nowadays, we've got so many alternatives that make biologically straight pairs useless; when we fall in love with someone we do it because of a person, not because of a man or a woman.

But, then, why have we spent more than fifty centuries conserving that useless division? Regardless of religious issues during History, the most evident reason why we cut our society in between two genders is the domination of one of them. In modern times, the most common situation (and pretty much the only one, to be
honest) is the ownage men do on women, giving to half of population some kind of privilege but also chains and figurated prisons to the other half.

And, eventually, women opened those prisons!

Luckily, since the nineteenth century, women started to push the walls of those prisons and set themselves free progressively. That's why I'm totally sure the division between men and women is not benefitting anyone anymore, so, why don't we just erase it from society? It's good for nothing and it hurts half of the world's population. What if I like a diva's dress and I want to wear it along with my male attributes? Is it a crime? Of course it isn't my case, I just want to get rid of those attributes, but I'm sure you understand my point: there is no such situation as one where gender stereotypes are useful or good: if you truly loved your lover, you wouldn't care about their sex or gender (which is NOT the same, since gender is a social construction while sex is a biological truth).

That's why, here and now, I want to say: I am NOT A TRANSGENDER, I am TRANSSEXUAL. I don't care about my gender anymore, I don't want to belong to the female gender since the female gender is a social deillusion. I just want to be a sexually female being: I'm talking about sex, not gender; sex is having a vag*na while gender is being one.

[Christmas Special] Soft Sell and Hard Sell

"Primadonna girl, yeah
All I ever wanted was the world
I can't help that I need it all
The primadonna life, the rise and fall

[...]

Would you do anything for me?
Buy a big diamond ring for me?"

"Primadonna" - Marina And The Diamonds
  

For today's task, since it's the last English blog session before Christmas holidays, we've been asked to do a Christmas special. Concretely, we had to look up for the difference between soft sell and hard sell (which are marketing techniques) and examples (ads) for each.

Soft sell is considered to be the kind of advertising which uses friendly, subtle or casual sales messages, leading to a less conditioning way of publicity. It's also considered the most effective way of persuasion, since it's been proven that costumers feel so much less irritated than with hard sell.

Hard sell, as an opposition to soft sell, is the kind of advertising which uses a direct, forceful and evident sales message, which has been proven to be more likely to irritate costumers.

 Here are some examples, one for each concept:

I would say this is quite a good example of a Christmas ad using hard sell, since the publicised product is shown since the start of the advertisement and is seen several times during its progress.

Though Christmas is not explicitly a topic of this advert, I would say it is a good example of a Christmas ad using soft sell. Not only because funny stuff just can't be as irritating as hard sell publicity, but also because the product (in this case, the institution) is not shown until the end.

Why do men cheat on women?

"Who are those great looking dolls?
It's quick curl Barbie and mod hair Ken
But what do I do with my old Barbie?
Su-Barbie-A
Su-Barbie-A
(Oh Yeah) Su-Barbie-A
If you're going to tell me you don't like this dress
I'm sticking my head right in the oven"

"Part 5: SU-Barbie-A" - Marina And The Diamonds

There isn't any possibility for someone to do something as wrong as cheating on their pair without any reason or excuse, so I've been thinking: do wives and girlfriends do something that repulses husbands and boyfriends? Well, every person is completely different, but I can see some similarities on cheated wives and girlfriends' way to act in pair, so I would say they do.

To understand this, we need to take a look at genre stereotypes (entry about this): we've reached a point in which housewives are just trying to be likable to their man, objectifying themselves and becoming less of a person, getting friendless and staying all day at home.

When a man is looking for a woman, he's obviously looking for a person, someone in the same level to share their lives with. So once he's dealing with an object, then, there are two possibilities: him using that object, which leads to mistreating and gender abuse, or him getting frustrated, trying to make his woman happier to personify her and, if that doesn't work, forsaking her and looking for a true person. Both cases, unless the second one works, lead to cheating.

What I mean with this entry is that, if girls are really looking for a boy to share their lives together, they shouldn't be getting themselves below their boyfriend or husband: they have to be as independent as their man is, having their own lives and enjoying their own moments. It's the only way to make a man happy: if he truly loves you, he will only be happy if you are, and being an object will only get you depressed and suicidal.