In an octopus's garden...

In order to counteract the heaviness of last nights post I thought I'd show you a few photos I took at Yorkshire Sculpture Park today. If you aren't from Yorkshire, it's basically a huge bit of land with sculptures dotted around- some of them are permanent and some are just exhibitions. I don't go very often but when I do I love wandering around to see what's new- and today I was especially happy to as I got to practice playing around with my new camera! If you live in the area I'd definitely recommend a visit.

Thoughts: feminism

Tonight I'd like to diverge from my usual light-hearted posts and write a little about feminism, which has essentially become the buzzword of the last few days thanks to a particularly inspiring speech that Emma Watson made to the UN to launch the 'He for She' campaign. I apologise if my words get tangled somewhat; I should probably have made a plan but hey ho, life's too short and all that jazz.

I wholeheartedly identify as a feminist. In my mind there could be no other way. Feminism, as Ms Watson states, is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. Simple and to the point. Nothing there about man-hating. So why on earth has feminism become a dirty word? Why do I have friends on facebook posting the afore-mentioned speech yet pre-facing it with the words "I would NEVER call myself a feminist, but..."? Why, every single time I mention the word around any male friend, do I get moans and groans and told to just "lighten up"? The other day a work friend of mine actually said "but it's 2014, of course men and women are equal now". I actually laughed in his face a little and here are some reasons why:

• I can't remember the last time I walked through Leeds city centre without being wolf-whistled, cat-called or just plain leered at. Any man who says "oh I'd love it if women shouted nice things at me in the street" needs a reality check if they think there's any enjoyment to be found in an old man saying "nice arse" as you walk past them in a dark street. 
• The fact that some people still think a woman is 'asking' to be raped if she wears a short skirt or gets drunk. How about we start educating men to simply not rape women instead of women having to take precautions in order to not be raped? I can't begin to imagine having to deal with being raped, let alone then be told that it was my fault because I shouldn't have been 'tempting' men. My twitter timeline recently exploded over news of a nail polish that can detect the date-rape drug. Whilst I agree that it may be useful in medical terms in order to help victims, I find it heart-sinkingly sad that something like this had to be invented.
• Women are STILL being paid less than men for doing the exact same work. It makes no sense.
• I don't think any of my female friends could honestly say they have never been groped by a stranger, whether that be in a club or in public. It has happened to me a few times and I can't imagine I'm alone in reacting in silent shock and simply moving away, trying to ignore it. This is not okay.
• Since making her UN speech, Emma Watson has been threatened with being the next victim in a recent onslaught of leaked celebrity nudes. I find it disgusting that an intelligent young woman has seemingly made herself vulnerable to this type of abuse simply by trying to use her influence to help spread an important message. Everything to do with the current trend of leaked nudes is vile; the general public's consensus that it's the person's fault for taking the photos in the first place is basically the equivalent of the above-mentioned 'don't get drunk if you don't want to be raped' argument. Call me crazy but I don't understand what pleasure there is to be gained from viewing photos of a woman in a compromised situation that they obviously would not want you to see them in and are likely completely humiliated that you can.
• Every male who still thinks it's funny to make jokes about women 'getting back in the kitchen'. Yes it's the 21st century yet somehow this joke is STILL making the rounds- please, please, please get some new bloody material. You look like an utter moron. 

I think I could go on all night if I let myself; if you really need more reasons just go check out the Everyday Sexism twitter account-I warn you that you'll probably get pretty angry in the process of doing so. 

There is no doubt that feminism and the changes it hopes to induce are facing an up-hill struggle. It is so important that this issue continues to be openly discussed and I hope, in doing so, that one day men and women will be unfalteringly proud to call themselves feminists. 

I don't know about you...

...but I'm feeling 22! Okay I'm sorry Swift-haters but I couldn't resist that one seeing as I'm going to tell you a little about my 22nd birthday earlier this week.

I didn't have much planned for my actual birthday- if I'm being honest I felt a bit 'meh' (for lack of a better word) about the whole thing, but I ended up having a lovely, if rather chilled, day in the end. I actually opened my cards and presents the night before, as if not my parents would've tried to wake me at the crack of dawn before they went to work the next day and if my 22 years on this earth have taught me anything, it is that I am not a morning person. I was lucky enough to receive a couple more of my beloved silver knuckle rings, Foals' 'Holy Fire' on vinyl, a lovely new leather purse and a MAC lipstick- nothing extravagant but it doesn't take much to make me happy.

I'd arranged to meet one of my best friends, Gaby, in Leeds to take advantage of Pizza Express' annual free bottle of birthday prosecco. She just came back from working in Marbella all summer so a pizza and prosecco was exactly what we needed- I went for the rustichella which is basically a Caesar salad on a pizza, need I say more?

Once we'd finished our food we met up with another of my friends, Susie, to head to Belgrave Music Hall's roof terrace, which I think it's now fair to call my favourite place to go in Leeds. We had a lovely leisurely afternoon drinking Amstel (just a little less sophisticated that prosecco) in the sun, only popping back inside to take advantage of resident Dough Boys' half price slices; because apparently one pizza wasn't already enough..

Like I said, it was nothing too exciting and most of my friends were either back at uni or working, but it was a good day with a few good friends nonetheless. Really I just wanted to post a few higher-quality photos on here as I remembered to take my DSLR camera out for the day- seeing how much better these photos look than iphone snaps makes me really keen to do more lifestyle-y restaurant-y posts. Watch this space!