Girls, let's get inspired!

Weekend comes to the end, we need to get inspired for the next week!

















Share these quotes with your friends because we deserve nothing less but the BEST!

More quotes here.

Poetry time: For the Men Who Still Don't Get It

Sunday Afternoon on White Crest Beach (1984) by Carol Diehl

"What if all women were bigger and stronger than you?

And thought they were smarter?

What if women were the ones who started wars?

What if too many of your friends had been raped by women wielding giant dildos and no K-Y Jelly?

What if the state trooper who pulled you over on the New Jersey Turnpike was a woman and carried a gun?

What if the ability to menstruate was the prerequisite for most high-paying jobs?

What if your attractiveness to women depended on the size of your penis?

What if every time women saw you they'd hoot and make jerking motions with their hands?

What if women were always making jokes about how ugly penises are and how bad sperm tastes?

What if you had to explain what's wrong with your car to big sweaty women with greasy hands who stared at your crotch in a garage where you are surrounded by posters of naked men with hard-ons?

What if men's magazines featured cover photos of 14-year-old boys with socks tucked into the front of their jeans and articles like: "How to tell if your wife is unfaithful" or "What your doctor won't tell you about your prostate" or "The truth about impotence"?

What if the doctor who examined your prostate was a woman and called you "Honey"?

What if You had to inhale your boss's stale cigar breath as she insisted that sleeping with her was part of the job?

What if You couldn't get away because the company dress code required you wear shoes designed to keep you from running?

And what if after all that women still wanted you to love them?"

For the Men Who Still Don't Get It by Carol Diehl (1, 2)

The double shift: Are women made of cast-iron?

"As they passed the rows of houses they saw through the open doors that men were sweeping and dusting and washing dishes, while the women sat around in groups, gossiping and laughing.

'What has happened?' the Scarecrow asked a sad-looking man with a bushy beard, who wore an apron and was wheeling a baby carriage along the sidewalk.

'Why, we've had a revolution, your Majesty -- as you ought to know very well,' replied the man; 'and since you went away the women have been running things to suit themselves. I'm glad you have decided to come back and restore order, for doing housework and minding the children is wearing out the strength of every man in the Emerald City.'

'Hm!' said the Scarecrow, thoughtfully. 'If it is such hard work as you say, how did the women manage it so easily?'

I really do not know,' replied the man, with a deep sigh. 'Perhaps the women are made of cast-iron." 

The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) by L. Frank Baum

a BIG thank you to all that made this project great..

The I❤BG project has officially ended, for now at least (but the blog will go on). With this occasion we would like to extend a BIG thank you to all who have been involved and contributed to the project. We couldn't have done it without you!

Here are a few of the many ways you helped our small project be a BIG success:

Since the launch of the I♥BG blog, we've had more than 7100 unique visitors from 109 different countries around the world.

You helped organize 11 I♥BG Tea-parties in 10 countries, where more than 120 young people participated in discussions on gender. 

You helped us create an amazing E-book filled with empowering stories which will help inspire others to overcome the challenges they face.

You helped us spread the word and empower girls and young women all over the world:

“It’s not about gender, it’s about you! You decide! Stigmatization, discrimination, they’re all there, they’ll always be, but it’s up to you to prove the world wrong, and more importantly, to prove yourself right.”

Participant in Romania

“There are numerous things which girls can feel proud of. But, important thing to understand and to realize is your inner strength. Rejoice every moment of life, developing such a spirit that would always make you think optimistic.”

Participant in Nepal

“There are many things that can be told about what it is like to be a girl. We are complicated, persistent and we always get what we want. But the secret is – sometimes finding out what we want is the hardest thing of all. But when a girl says "I love being a girl" - she means it, which is one of the few things she is sure of.”

Participant in Macedonia

You made us proud to present our project at more than 10 international events and meetings and helped us gain the support from many other youth networks and organisations.

So thank you for all your support and be sure to check the blog again soon. We promise we have a lot more in store for you.

Inspirational Characters: Tiffany Aching

Picture by Krewcia

...If it came to that, the book never gave you the evidence of anything. It talked about ‘a handsome prince’ . . . was he really, or was it just because he was a prince that people called him handsome? As for ‘a girl who was as beautiful as the day was long’ . . . well, which day? In midwinter it hardly ever got light! The stories didn’t want you to think, they just wanted you to believe what you were told...

. . .

Anyway, she preferred the witches to the smug handsome princes and especially to the stupid smirking princesses, who didn’t have the sense of a beetle. They had lovely golden hair, too, and Tiffany didn’t. Her hair was brown, plain brown. Her mother called it chestnut, or sometimes auburn, but Tiffany knew it was brown, brown, brown, just like her eyes. Brown as earth. And did the book have any adventures for people who had brown eyes and brown hair? No, no, no . . . it was the blond people with blue eyes and the redheads with green eyes who got the stories. If you had brown hair you were probably just a servant or a woodcutter or something. Or a dairymaid. Well, that was not going to happen, even if she was good at cheese. She couldn’t be the prince, and she’d never be a princess, and she didn’t want to be a woodcutter, so she’d be the witch and know things, just like Granny Aching—

The Wee Free Men by Sir Terry Pratchett

Tiffany Aching is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's satirical Discworld series of fantasy novels. She is the protagonist in 4 of his books in which she grows from nine-year old to a girl of sixteen in the last published book. Her stories often parallel mythic heroes' quests, but also deal with Tiffany's difficulties as a young girl maturing into a responsible woman. During the course of the series Tiffany grows to be a witch, however her powers are rather cognitive than magical. She possesses First Sight, the ability to see 'what is really there' (as opposed to Second sight, which shows people what they think ought to be there) and Second Thoughts, which are defined as 'the thoughts you think about the way you think'. As a witch and a young woman, she often faces stereotypes, prejudice and social pressure but always keeps determined to stand her ground and fight injustice.

Courtney Martin on reinventing feminism

Courtney Martin on actual, the generation(s) after ways of feministing
+ a lecture on how to succeed in activism in general

...you can get more of her at feministing.com

Who runs the social media? Girls, really?

Mari-Claire Price, the Executive Coordinator of the European Youth SRHR Network, YouAct, recently has raised a handful of really valid questions at Conversations for a Better World about the presence of girls in social media and the effectiveness of the social media campaigns among girls:

"I recently read an interesting article discussing the demographics of Facebook users across the world. To my surprise (and delight) the article stated that ‘women rule social networks’ with 64% of Twitter users, 58% of facebook users and 57% of Myspace users being female. A women ruled Facebook! DJ please, a request! Beyonce- Girls Run the World!

But looking closer at this study, we can see that the claim that ‘women rule social networks’ is nearly as questionable as the lyrics of that song…. do girls really run the world and do they really run social networks?"

You can read the whole thing here!

SRHR: activism and Academia (Daryo)

"Oh wow, had one of my courses on gender today and was wearing the I ♥ being a girl t-shirt, of which a student at the end asked me what was written on it, resulting in me explaining what it meant to me... both YSAFE/SRHR-wise as well as, whilst being consiered 'male', wearing a shirt like that, focusing on the whole gender and biological essentialism thing.

Anyway, point I want to make here: learned that the teacher, who was participating in the dialogue as well, turned out not to know anything about SRHR [sexual and reproductive health and rights] at all! Felt pretty strange to discover that this teacher, whilst she knows a lot about many scientific relations to gender from a lot of different angles, had never heard of these concepts, not even when fully pronouncing the names.

In other words: she knows a lot about gender history, epistemology, discourses (!), biological essentialism, social constructivism, different forms of sexualitites and identities, paradigms and you name it, but seems to be stuck in this 'scientific field'. Conclusion for today: there is more need for SRHR in universities, or it should at least be mentioned!

Not that any of you can do anything with this kind of information, but did seem like a thing to share; after all, it started with the I ♥ being a girl t-shirt."

Daryo

Empowerment recipes (Luīze)

Sweet Fawn Coma Love

"Sweet Fawn is my latest belle-pop discovery (thanks to Agnese Putna) and this video has as many as two things that I find especially empowering and inspiring - the reclaiming of dresses (adore!) and quote that to me sounds like finally taking a step beyond the prejudice that love (existent or the lack of it, preferably one that lasts forever, though) is the only thing that fills heads of the girls, finally there are girls that say that

Just coz' you love me doesn't mean that I don't have plenty of shit to worry about."

Luīze

Girls & Contraception (Maya)

"Contraception gives me control over my life and future, over my health, family status or work aspirations. And what is most important about it - IT GIVES ME A CHOICE!

How and when to protect myself it all up to me. And remember, there is a method for everyone. The pill and the female condom offer girls the chance to be independent and make their own decisions while the condom can help generate trust and security between partners. So make good use of your right of choice and enjoy yourself safely!"

Maya

Girls & Education (Luīze)

"I am so happy that education in my life
has never been a struggle,
a fight or an unfulfilled desire,
it has been something normal
and obvious, just one step more in my path.
I happen to be so lucky!" (Luīze)

Katarína ♥ Being a Girl

The amazing YSAFE intern-coordinator Katarína talks about what is that she LOVES about being a girl (although it's not that easy sometimes), as she says:

"It's NOT OK to expect a girl just to shut up and smile prettily!"

I ♥ Being a Girl, because... II

We had a long-long conversation with girls volunteering at the Latvian Association for Family Planning & Sexual Health and they ♥ being girls, because being a girl to them means being able to:

• trust your intuition
• have a spice-sense
• have unlimited fantasy
• come up with wacky jokes
• enjoy lacy things
  
• be interested in all kinds of feminine stuff
• have that amazing shape of the body
• be beautiful
• use make-up
• enjoy female solidarity
• smile while walking down the street
• wear sparkly crowns (Ms. Universe gets a crown while Mr. Universe does not)
• be a muse
• inspire
• be boyish
• let others carry your heavy stuff
• tease
• be forgiven more
• let to walk you home
• show your vulnerability
• be taken care of

"all those cool words that are feminine
in Latvian by their grammatical gender,
like inspiration, idea, thought, wisdom, state…"

The beautiful word cloud created with Wordle.