Lena Dunham is my spirit animal...

I have a habit of seeing successful young female writers storming the media and feeling an irrational fury and hatred against that person. That is the unfortunately ugly way I subconsciously channel my envy for another's life.

'Why does she get to write a hit tv show that's super awesome and is beautifully representative of a current young generation? I could totally do that better than her, and it would be a million times awesomer. I bet she's actually a bitch.'
- The recent yet no longer applicable opinion I had of Lena Dunham.

I used to hate Lena Dunham because she was leading my dream life before me and taking all my glory, but then I watched Girls, read some interviews, stalked her twitter and fell deeply and admirably in love with her. This girl is unbelievably cool and funny and I want.to.be.her. How could I have ever felt bad feelings towards her? It's not her fault she's done amazingly well at such a young age because of her wit and talent. Let her be an example to you, not a source of hatred. Let her path influence your own. Idolise her, if you want. And I think I have.

I think in making such a quick change in opinion I have taught myself it is much healthier to think well of people you may envy, and to love them for what you don't have. They've obviously done something right and you can learn from it.

It is also completely ridiculous to actively despise someone you've never actually met, and only a little bit mad to love someone you don't know.

One more time with feeling.

The significance of everything and anything is subjective to the individual. When meaning exists for some, the same thing can be a matter of indifference for others. This also signifies that a lot of what we think is important, is purely because of how we have interpreted the event or the object or the situation. Perhaps even the feeling of sentimentality is entirely fictional, that meaning doesn't really exist. No other creature celebrates Christmas or birthdays, for them it is just another day. They don't feel disappointment, or expectation, or experience any anti-climax.

It is not to say that sentimentality is bad, or the downfall of the human race. No, it is what can primarily define us as a species. And possibly we fill meaning into every single tiny moment and thing of our lives to cover that hole we inevitably feel when curiosity gets the better of us and our answers will not suffice. It may be the fear of the unknown phenomenon of life after death, or the meaning of life, or the reason behind our existence that causes us to fill in the gaps as a peace of mind.

What we cannot do, but what we continue with daily, is let the sentimentality define our lives in the way we define our sentimentality. For that allows your day to be 'ruined', for disappointment to creep in, and for further misunderstanding. Instead, if you allow yourself to enjoy the meaning and feeling you create for everything with the acknowledgment that it may not really matter then you understand your own subjectivity. If you accept the 'bad' outcomes of the day you felt meant a lot as a part of the meaning then disappointment does not exist. It is all okay, the feeling still has the same effect.

That is near impossible to achieve I know, but it's a thought to have at least.

Christmas doesn't count for Atheists. Apparently.

In response to FoxNews.com's article 'A Christmas gift for Atheists -- five reasons why God exists'

**Disclaimer: If you can't detect the sarcasm, this is purely a response to the article, and not a dig at a generalised Christian culture. 


Around this time of year, the small yet feisty race of the Fox News Christian Preachers, come out with all the best new information on the lesser known threat that is Atheism. The Christmas spirit seems to inspire the age old 'we are right and you are wrong' argument which often claims the ways in which atheists are always going so off the handle in their desperate need to believe in something that isn't actually there. The poor souls suffer in this festive season for their spirituality and happiness is concealed by an empty void known only to the Godless.

This is of course due to the fact they are unable to understand the origin of this celebration of the birth of a man 2000 years ago who may or may not be the son of a God. Every single atheist also does not participate in the originally pagan mid-winter festival because of this misunderstanding. Supposedly. This potentially contagious  way of thinking apparently doesn't even have a substantial back up. "There's no good evidence for God's existence!" is not a legitimate argument for not believing in the Holy Deity. Although, researchers have not found the appropriate argument for atheists world wide, and therefore they must stick with that insufficient reasoning.

Here is the insufficient reasoning:

1. There is no current evidence to provide the origin of the universe, only that it expanded due to the Big Bang Theory. The argument that this must mean God is the creator of all things is absurd, for if something cannot begin from nothing how is a transcendent, unembodied mind to be excluded from this rule? There is no evidence for how the universe began, which does not therefore mean one can instantaneously jump to the conclusion that it must be a higher being behind it because that surely seems even more illogical. For now let's just leave it and move on with our lives whilst scientists continue to research to fill our curious, human hunger for complete knowledge and understanding. Once they find the answer, we can potentially carry this argument on, or let it be resolved.

2. Scientific research provides the best explanation for the fine tuning of the universe. If you happen to mix a bunch of atoms together an great amount of things can happen at the right time, in the right place. The design argument is surely for those who struggle to accept the reasoning of physical necessity and chance. The latter actually lack the need for further explanation as to how and why this designer came to be in the first place.

3. Humanity and social evolution provide the best explanation of objective moral values and duties. Because EVEN atheists can realise that the Holocaust was wrong. And also because many Christians have interpreted some parts of the bible to be preaching a way of life that no longer corresponds with the current times, and have deemed it to be wrong. Therefore humans are not entirely reliant on a book to tell them the difference between bad and good. They can make decisions for themselves, due to a multitude of years developing as culture and society as an intelligent species.

4. Simple physical evidence provides the best explanation of the interpreted historical facts of Jesus' resurrection that probably didn't happen it was most likely a metaphor anyway. This one's quite simple, given we've recently realised a lot of the mistakes we've made with the meaning and translation of the bible what're the chances we've somehow mistaken an impossible occurrence for a ridiculous miracle? Particularly given there is absolutely no other evidence other than the sometimes unreliable bible for this death to life incidence.

5. Madness, desperation, delirium, and wonderfully passionate human belief can too provide personal experience with God. I once saw a water fairy in a lake when I was 9. I rest my case.

Alas, do not worry the good thing is that atheists tend to be very passionate people and want to believe in something.
(Please tell me what that is even supposed to mean)

Dear women,

To all the silly women this may concern,

I cannot remember a time when you didn't say you looked old despite you convincing me that only recently have you been making this observation. It has always been with a woeful sigh or moan that you pull back the delicate skin on your face and claim that this is how you used to look, when you had skin like mine. May I remind you however that I know for certain your skin was not uncomfortably tight across your cheekbones, tugging the corner of your eyes upwards at the age of 16.
"I look so much better like this," you say, staring pitifully at your reflection. "If I got a facelift this is what it would look like."
"And how ridiculous that would look." I have replied many a time, slightly fearful that a small section of your brain has been washed with the media's nightmarish beauty regime full of scalpels and implants.

It saddens me to know that when you look at yourself in the mirror it is not the bright, wide eyed face that I see but an old, ugly one only visible to you and you alone. I struggle now to tell you how beautiful you are, meaning it truthfully and adamantly, when I know you will not listen. For you, now that the smile lines have started to stay, the end is almost certainly nigh. The smile lines of course that you detest and the world around you enjoys, looks forward to even.

What topsy turviness we have entered into that you believe your wide eyes and pretty smile are not stunning but frightening. That they have been spoilt and hidden by a sea of wrinkles. Wrinkles, might I add for the thousandth time, that are invisible to everyone who is blinded by that kind grin you possess. Your eyes hold such warmth, such intensity and you have lost your ability to know that. Something makes you continue to complain to me how old you look, how ruined. How can you not see? Why would I be lying?

Alas, I know exactly what compels this despair you have for the apparent 'death' of your delicate features. Somebody, somewhere decided the age a woman must reach at the moment they turn invisible. Once a woman reaches this age no matter how pretty, how intelligent, how witty, how funny, how creative she may be the man who deems her undesirable no longer sees her. I know now that you are scared of becoming 'old', a term that should be taken gracefully and with honour, because you are frightened your voice is entirely dependant on itself. And who would hear a woman's voice anyway? Soon with any luck society will forget the female they can't fantasise about, they will become grandmothers and be put away in a cupboard of out of date women.

Why would a woman want anything to do anyway? Her life is over by 50. Even earlier than that, if you like.

I know how ambitious you are. I know that you still have dreams to do big things to go big places. You of all people have taught me that aspirations never fade, people will always dream. You still work hard for things, your life is not over and will not be for many years to come. You are not old. You are not yet tired. Those wrinkles you show me are not there. They don't exist.

So please, let me tell you that you are beautiful. Let me think it. I do know. I can see it.

Let me, for the sake of a new generation of women, not be afraid of becoming old. I want to do it as gracefully and brilliantly as is possible.

You are silly.

Yours,

Mollie.

In Afghanistan, there are women.

Before I start I want you to know that I cried before writing this, because it scares me. Ready?

In Afghanistan a woman's son was kidnapped and killed because she's a headmistress of a girls' school. His three month old corpse was found with 12 gun shot wounds to his body. She continues to educate young women in a world where women are dirt on men's shoes. She continues to be threatened by her son's murderers. Her husband was told this by them, "Your wife is working, she was a [parliamentary] candidate, and was awarded the Malalai gold medal by Afghan-Americans. And you still say you have done nothing and ask why we are cruel to you?" 

In Afghanistan a woman and her family was targeted by the Taliban for working as a gynaecologist providing healthcare for women suffering from abuse, including rape and domestic violence. She worked for an abortion clinic working for girls who had been raped by their relatives. If these girls did not have an abortion, they would be killed by their families in an 'honour' killing. Two years after receiving warnings from the Taliban, her 11 year old son was almost killed by a grenade in her back garden. Six months later her 22 year old brother actually died in a grenade attack in the front of her house. 

In Afghanistan, in recent months, the last two most senior female police officers in Helmand province have been murdered. 

In Afghanistan women continue to work in full burkas, receiving threats from the Taliban, spat on, murdered, judged, deceived, exploited, attacked. 

This is because they are women. I am so disgusted by this discrimination I could be sick. My respect for every single female in that country could not be greater. They persist in a slow and terrible fight every single day. 

Amnesty International is asking for local MPs to be contacted and pushed for support by the UK for women in Afghanistan after many countries pull out in 2014. Here's the link. https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/stop-violence-against-women-activists-afghanistan?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=niche_email&utm_campaign=women&utm_content=button2

In Afghanistan there is an entire country of strong but frightened women. I give them words and thoughts with hope and love because unfortunately it's all I can afford. 

Friends with different body parts.

I know this might seem really alien, but I actually I have a few guy friends who aren't complete jerks. I know. Shocking. They're all genuinely nice, intelligent human beings with good intentions and without any misogynist superiority complexes. I get on well with all of them, we all laugh together, none of them put me down with some messed up sexist comments, and we all accept the fact that I'm a girl and they're boys and we can all be friends with different body parts. It's cool. 

Despite this, however, I continue to be told by some members of society that my friendship with these lovely boys is not real. They only talk to me because they want something more. They're the same as every other sexist male pig; all they want is to GET IN MY PANTS. This is because of course scientifically it's impossible for any male to be polite and kind and friendly with a girl without some sort of dirty intention. And we forgive them all for this natural desire, their brains can only run on two thoughts: BOOBS and SEX. This even dates back to the middle ages where women could be possessions. In fact, why don't we forget the whole friends and equality thing and bring back this mentality? Because men won't change, right? 

Of course that would be completely and utterly ridiculous because most decent human beings are feminists without even knowing. Due to the fact that a nice person usually tends to like the idea of complete equality between the human race as it would be rather jolly if we could all just get on. 

I think it ridiculously unfair that we allow ourselves to assume every man has the same intentions with women and can't possibly be friends with one. If we are to continue a feminist revolution we've got to remind society that we are fighting for equality, not for female superiority. This means we need to stop presuming every kind male to have malicious intent behind his female friends and accept the fact that there are nice gentlemen, and there are nice ladies and they don't all have to want to have sex with each other. 

In When Harry Met Sally, Harry says that a man and a woman can't be friends without there being something more for one or the other. I think in some senses this is true, it's often natural for someone to start developing feelings for the opposite sex (if they're straight) when they spend a lot of time with them. 

But I'd like us to accept the fact that we can all be friends with different body parts and that it's totally cool. Thanks. 

Kids grow up so fast, girls even faster.

I would like for somebody to approach me and tell me why when children reach the age of about 12 there is a divide into how girls and boys are considered. A boy may reach the age of 12 and still want to play Pokemon and think girls give you germs, whereas, a girl may reach the age of 12 and start to think that makeup makes a child's face look older.

The boy will be asked no questions. He is a boy, after all.

The girl, however, will be pat on the head and told how cute and 'underdeveloped' she is should she choose to steal her innocence for a while longer. She has to steal it, for after a certain age a girl's innocence may no longer be her own.

As soon as a young girl starts to develop, grow boobs, wear a bra, have wider hips, she is subject to the unfair interpretation of the world around her. Inside her head she may still be wanting to play outside when she gets home but to everyone else she should want to stick posters of boys on her wall and act twice the age she is.

It is not impossible for a boy to go through judgement if he does not grow up fast enough, but from my experience of still technically being a child it's a very real thing for little girls in their tween years. There are boys in my school who can still hold onto their childlike qualities without judgement, some of them are even accepted by the 'cool' groups.

But let a girl go innocently into year 8 with pigtails and a fresh face and CBBC straight on when she gets home, and you witness a reject. The darling little girl who thinks that makeup is silly and boys smell, bless. Compared to the girls already frightened of their own appearance she must be happier. She hasn't grown up. She probably doesn't have men second guessing her age and staring her innocence away as she walks down the street with the new body she didn't ask for. Because she held onto her childhood, she's allowed to be free from oppressive sexism just a little while longer.

Don't make girls grow up when they don't want to. Once you say goodbye to your blissful naivety, it never comes back.