Rachel Ellen

Sunday, 18 January 2015

Long Time No See

So it's been a while, sometimes the longer you put something back the harder it is to get back into it.

So what's happened since my last post? (11/11/14 if you were wondering) Quite a lot really.

Too much money has been spent, between Christmas presents, treating myself, eating my own body weight and travelling between home and Sheffield it adds up to an unfortunate number.

On November the 26th I turned 21, which is kind of a big deal and makes me feel completely middle aged.

Christmas, of course, happened. Plenty of gorgeous presents and happy smiley times (as always I'm a terrible blogger and have hardly any photos)

A couple of drunken nights with home friends that I barely see!

Some a little more drunk than others....

But I don't half miss all those pretty little faces!

This happened

Which I think is my 2014 highlight, "Can I live?!?!"

I finished my first term of my final year of uni, mortifying! This included my first exam since first year, which I wasn't dealing very well with;

Not sure I could find anything more accurate if I tried

New year happened, which as a boring 21 year old, I worked (love tha money!)

And now it's nearly time to start my second term of final year, which hopefully will include many more blog posts. If anyone has any advice on how to get writing inspiration I'd be so eager to hear

Hope everyone has had a great couple of months and haven't missed me too much

Thanks for reading

Rachel xx

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

opinion 17:23

"Skinny Shaming"

by Rachel

Anyone who's been anywhere near a TV/radio/the Internet recently, must be aware of Meghan Trainors song "All About That Bass". Whether negative or positive nearly everyone has an opinion on it. Whether it is a big step forward or backwards in society is all down to opinion. I believe this song is just floating around in the same area just for different reasons.

An article I read today inspired me to express my opinion s and argument about the ideas of "skinny shaming": Skinny Shaming, Not Reverse Discrimination . The article discusses the idea of "Reverse Discrimination" and how the author doesn't believe what bigger people and smaller people go though is the same. There are things in the article I both agree and disagree with and it is definitely worth a read.

Personally, I believe, I have never been large or particularly curvy (apart from as a baby but it hadn't really crossed my mind) and I have never had any kind of eating disorder. What I feel puts me in a good position to discuss this matter is that I was very skinny in high school, I've always had a large appetite and had a fast metabolism to match.

In the following list I am in no way saying larger people don't suffer the same, if not worse, but these are ideas on the opposite.

I will begin with ideas on my appearance:

1. In my first year of high school I was faced with the following exchange with a girl I barely knew:
"Are you anorexic?"
"No!" (Me, at 11 completely baffled by the concept of this)
"Oh so you're bulimic?"
I feel I don't have to explain the many things wrong with this. But this, and many questions like this, did spark the idea of "what if I was and I just didn't know" how ridiculous?

2. "Wow I'm so jealous that you're so skinny" paired with comments like above, makes sense? Not at all.

3. Although All About That Bass wasn't out at the time of me being at school, the media and celebs have portrayed this for a long time "I'm bringing booty back, go tell all them skinny bitches that" as a teenager I had no bum, I mean I was leg to back all in one line. (Now that I developed a bug bum compared to my waist I complain about that-never happy) I couldn't help the size of my bum anymore than I could help the size of anything else!

4. "You must be able to wear anything you want" if you're very skinny, nothing fits you, skinny jeans, not a chance, tights that don't fall off if you have the right length, don't count on it. A top any lower than a turtle neck, not unless you wanna show all your chest and your belly button too if you lean down.

And god forbid you tell anyone your clothes are too big, how selfish and inconsiderate are you.

Now ideas on my eating habits:

5. "You do know eating the fat on your meat doesn't actually make you fat" this and other similar sly digs. Yes, I am aware, I just don't like the slimy, chewy consistency or the taste so I will choose not to eat this, regardless of my weight. Even if it did make me fat, why do you instantly think this is about my weight.

6. "Why do you wanna eat healthy, you're already skinny" skinny does not directly correlate with healthy, as curvy does not directly correlate with unhealthy.

7. "Why aren't you eating, you must be anorexic. You have to eat." Yes I am aware of that, but I have just eaten a large meal an hour ago, so am therefore not hungry. Surprise...

8. *Eat some take away food*: "I'm so jealous you can eat what you want and not get fat" some people try so hard to maintain their weight and are faced with these kinds of comments if they eat badly just once. Such sense. Much logic. Wow

And other issues:

9. "Boys like a little more booty to hold at night" All About That Bass strikes again, firstly, why is the my appearance only rationalised by whether boys like it or not? But let's take this back to a teenage me, I will never have a boyfriend because I'm naturally skinny? Real confidence boost there, I'm feeling extremely body positive now.... (sarcasm)

10. The problem of trying to match beauty standards. Little teenage me tried to eat more bad food to try and put on weight, or trying to cut out exercise to see if that would help. These were only short bursts of lapse in common sense, but we can see how some people could be completely took over by this idea.

At one time society placed a larger figure as ideal, Marilyn Monroe for example, not large by any means, but entirely different to the ideals held in the last 10 years. The "size zero" ideas caused an increase in eating disorders to fit this ideal. Now if this song really makes an impact (I truly hope it is in the direction of body positivity), this could idealise a fuller figure, point 10 proves how dangerous this could be, people once again taking drastic measures to fill these ideas.

Society CAN and will change, we need to be careful how it changes, we are more aware now than ever of the impact of media/society/celebrity culture, so we need to use it to create true "body positivity"

"Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top"

I appreciate if you read all this, if you have any further discussion points either in agreement or disagreement I would be happy to hear them.

Thanks,

Rachel xx

Thursday, 30 October 2014

lifestyle 11:38

The curse of a baby face

by Rachel

This blog's been like a ghost town this month, well it is Halloween month after all (bad excuse for being lazy)

I am super excited for dressing up for Halloween and seeing everyone else's outfits, I'm not even interested in going out this year, I just want to be dressed up! Child

October has also brought quite a few birthdays, firstly my uni housemates 21st. I thought a kind and fun gesture would be to buy some party poppers, yes these little doo dads:

As I went to buy these plastic poppers, this is what followed:

Monday, 13 October 2014

travel 12:02

The Old Town

by Rachel

A little bit delayed, but this will be the last of my series of holiday posts. As I mentioned in the overall post about my holiday, I have given more detailed posts about Hipparchos Observatory and now it is the time for The Old Town, which is located in Rhodes Town.

The old town is packed with tiny, windy market streets, shops upon shops. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get any pictures of the shops, it was way too warm with that many people. We visited The Old Town twice in our weeks holiday.

Each corner just brought something new and gorgeous to look at, we had missed some parts so we were definitely glad to go back.

Saturday, 4 October 2014

travel 10:00

Hipparchos Observatory

by Rachel

Following the recent holiday post I wanted to delve into more detail on the Observatory we visited whilst in Faliraki.

In my pre-holiday Tripadvisor searching I stumbled across this gem of a find. Hipparchos Observatory and Astronomy Cafe-Bar (yes it is a mouthful of a name!) I'm not one for simply baking in the sun on holiday and neither is my boyfriend so we had to find things to do and I thought this was just a little bit different!

As you can imagine, the observatory was on top of a rather large hill, dragging ourselves up that with a hangover resulted in more than a few complaints. However there was some gorgeous views of the bay.

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

travel 18:00

A Strawberry Daiquiri Please

by Rachel

Last week I returned from my holiday to the sunny Greek Island of Rhodes, slap bang into the cold miserable British Autumn. Here's a few of the better pictures of the lovely week of sun, sea, sand, food and drink.

There will be a post in a few days all about the observatory in the above picture

Yes we did have to put sunglasses on just to get a decent picture #notaphotogeniccouple

I will also do another post about the picture above and Rhodes Town.

Pictures speak louder than words so I'll leave this post as it is. Make sure you check out the next two holiday posts, Saturday will be the next one!

Thanks

Rachel xx

Saturday, 27 September 2014

opinion 13:53

Equality

by Rachel

Following Emma Watson's UN speech, I've been thinking a lot about Feminism, about equality and what everyone stands for. I'll try not to waffle on for too long. I realise this isn't my usual type of blog post but I felt it was important and relevant.

The new campaign "HeForShe" is about men being involved in the fight for equality. Feminism has, over and over again been associated with negative connotations "man-hating" being one of them. I do believe Feminism is a confusing word, due to it sounding much more like the word female. The Google definition is:

The key part being "equality of the sexes"

Emma Watson speaks about how men should be involved with feminism, and this is what this campaign is about. I won't go into too much detail, I feel it is important for you to watch and gain your own opinions.

After watching this myself I came across a video saying she failed in this attempt of a speech. I was quick to click as I wondered what criticism could be brought upon that speech. But he has some valid points, his analysis of "HeForShe" is particularly interesting. Again watch for yourself, there are moments I definitely don't agree, but it is always interesting to see the other side.

If you are a person who has a negative view of feminism and don't identify yourself as a feminist due to these bad connotations, I don't believe you are a bad person. I believe most people have very little understanding of the matter due to the media. This campaign, although possibly badly worded, is important. If only women are included in the fight for feminism then it is pointless. That is only half the worlds population.

What I feel is the main problem in the fight for equality is the "us and them" attitude. Tumblr is a prime example of a place of this attitude. One post has been bugging me for a long time is this:

Sunday, 18 January 2015

Long Time No See

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

"Skinny Shaming"

Thursday, 30 October 2014

The curse of a baby face

Monday, 13 October 2014

The Old Town

Saturday, 4 October 2014

Hipparchos Observatory

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

A Strawberry Daiquiri Please

Saturday, 27 September 2014

Equality

Rachel

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