Rachel Ellen

Monday, 18 May 2015

The Botanical Gardens

Last week I finished university Yipee!! However the lifestyle I'm living now is a lot less exciting than I thought it might be! I think I might have watched more television in the last week than I had throughout the rest of the year so far, daytime TV is not exciting.

One thing I did do was finally visit the Botanical Gardens in Sheffield, which I've been meaning to do for some time, and it didn't disappoint as the following pictures prove:

Tuesday, 21 April 2015

opinion 12:09

Role Models

by Rachel

Yesterday when it was lovely and sunny, a friend and I took a walk around a few parks in Sheffield, but today's post isn't about pretty parks and the sun unfortunately.

The sun brings out the best and the worst of people, we all know that (well in Britain we do, since the sun rarely makes an appearance).

Whilst walking around a lake appreciating the sun on a Monday afternoon we walked past some fishermen, about 5 of them with two young boys. One of these men are holding a can of beer. And we got some very unwelcome comments (not entirely accurate dictation but accurate enough)

Beer holding guy: "Oh witwoo ladies"
Other guy: "behave mate"
Beer holding guy: "check out them two though, wow. And check out the arse on her"

And there was more but we were out of proper ear shot by then. I have to say me and my friend were more than uncomfortable.

Now, catcalling is one issue, it is unsolicited, it is verbal abuse. It is completely unnecessary and makes girls very uncomfortable. Especially when the speaker is around 40 and the girls are 21.

What made this so much worse was the two young boys, probably no older than 9, sat listening to this man. This man might be an influential man to these boys, could be their father, uncle, cousin or maybe that friend of their dad that they think is extra cool. This man could be their role model. This then means that these boys are learning that a cool and fun way to speak to women is to catcall them, to make them physically uncomfortable in public to disrespect them and try to assert dominance over them.

These boys may well go to school today and say to their friends "look at the arse on her" and here starts a brand new generation of ignorant, sexist, pigs, and they won't even realise it's wrong.

If you're above the age of 18 (and especially if you are 40+) realise who you are to children, you are an adult. You are therefore inadvertently a role model and you need to be responsible. Be careful what you say be careful what opinions you put in their absorbent little brains.

Oh yeah, and don't catcall. This isn't the 1940s, somewhere along the line men discovered women are actually human (but of course the women had already worked that out).

Sorry for no pictures and a bit of a rant, but it is something that is important to me.

And the sudden influx of views of my blog last night was super exciting. I'm thinking of making a Twitter page specifically for my blog so keep an eye out for that.

Thanks for reading

Rachel xx

Thursday, 16 April 2015

university 16:04

The Home Straight

by Rachel

Hello!

MY DISSERTATION IS FINALLY HANDED IN!

I wish I felt more relieved that I do but right now I'm quite nervous that I am unable to change anything. And I'm in that constant state of guilt feeling like I should be doing it at any given moment.

Tuesday, 24 March 2015

university 21:53

The Life of a Third Year Student

by Rachel

Hello!

So, I'm now well into my third year of university as you may know. I always thought the talk about third year workload was all exaggeration and I'd be fine, especially looking at the timetable i picked up for this year:

Yes that is a completely accurate university timetable of 4 hours a week.

"9 grand a year?!"

I hear somewhere in the distance. I know, trust me I know.

How, may you ask, do I have too much work to do? Well this is where the dissertation lands and only 4 hours a week may just be a blessing. The amount of reading and time put into this thing is much more than i anticipated and it's slowly driving me crazy. This is one of the many ways that I'm getting ideas down for it, although this doesn't even remotely represent of the sheer amount of work I have done.

Yes that is on the back of my bedroom door.

Everyone around me just seem to be little balls of floating stress.

"me looking at all the work I have to do" - a very accurate representation of my life right now.

I'm both sad to be leaving university and can't wait. No more deadlines woo! Real life job and experiences, not so woo. The idea of a Masters degree is more and more tempting as it means another year of being a student (and having a student card)

- advice for anyone debating a Masters, hold off until September 2016. As far as I know you can then get student finance funding for them rather than funding it yourself.

One thing I'm finding very helpful in lowering stress and ensuring sleep is a little stretching. I'm locked in my house for about 5 days a week with not much release of energy. Now I'm no fitness advocator and I'm impressively unfit, but basic stretches (like the sorta thing you'd do in primary school PE) just to get your body moving again have been a great stress reliever.

Hope everyone's doing alright, especially with uni, let me know if you have any good coping strategies.

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Sunday, 1 February 2015

list 12:59

Resolutions

by Rachel

Last February I made this blog, I was so excited by the idea and had been meaning to do it for the longest time, I now have over 50 posts, and hope I can make at least 50 more in the next year.

To me February is the month of resolutions, any resolution in January is set to fail;

No drinking - alcoholic Christmas presents sat around tempting you
Eat better - there is so much leftover Christmas food, food related presents, naughty food on sale everywhere, it's never going to happen is it!
Any resolution that costs any money - It's January, there is no money!
More exercise - have you seen the amount of snow that has fallen! (If you haven't due to not being in the North of England, there has been a lot, even if there hasn't, it's cold outside)

So lets not worry about January resolutions that have failed/weren't going to happen in the first place.

My February resolutions are small, achievable and good for me!

drink more water - it goes without saying, I think most people could do with more water in their lives
Drink more green tea - I've been dabbling with the occasional cup of green tea recently and the Twinings Lemon Green Tea is actually starting to be a flavour I enjoy. Hot drinks are always nice in winter anyway.

A resolution that I thought about making in January, but as above I pointed out that there is no point, I'm going to try and do it now, this one might be a bit more difficult. I want to do things I don't normally do, go to museums, art galleries, explore a bit more. Make my life a bit more interesting and therefore my blog.

My third resolution is definitely the more difficult one, I'm extremely lazy at the best of times and I don't like going out in the cold. I suppose it's all about seeing how it goes.

And while I'm writing, this week I went to get my hair cut, no not just a trim or a re-shape this time. A good 7/8 inches off and I actually love it, so much more manageable than what I had before

Thanks for reading this rambly post

Rachel xx

Sunday, 18 January 2015

university 16:35

Long Time No See

by Rachel

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

Monday, 18 May 2015

The Botanical Gardens

Tuesday, 21 April 2015

Role Models

Thursday, 16 April 2015

The Home Straight

Tuesday, 24 March 2015

The Life of a Third Year Student

Sunday, 1 February 2015

Resolutions

Sunday, 18 January 2015

Long Time No See

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

"Skinny Shaming"

Rachel

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