Let's work for free.

In the UK, the Equal Pay Act was introduced in 1970. Forty years later, survey shows full-time working women are still paid 16.4% less than men. That means, in term of proportions and comparison, women stop being paid from November 2nd while men are paid all year 'round.
This is only for the UK but I am sure it is pretty much the same everywhere in the world.

Surely you would think, people think it is outrageous, yet I don't think many people will sign the petition to try and change things (I suggest you sign it - here - not to be part of the latter category) because they just can't be bothered eventhough it took me like 27 seconds and a click. People cannot spend 27 seconds and a click to try and change their situation, that is way too much! But tonight they'll be watching Friends on tv, yeah that is no waste of time.

But apathetic people are not the only ones who won't sign the petition. All over the world, there are still many people defending their "family values" in which a woman stays home to look after the children and prepare dinner while the husband works and then goes down the street to the pub to down some beers. These people are the scariest. There is that website called "les Intransigeants" (and I won't have their link on my blog), that website is made by Christian students and if you read even the first few articles you realise they're anti-women, anti-Semitic, homophobic, negativist, and they don't even try to hide it. For the record, they used to have a blog this summer but a group of activist (me included) got it to shut down, then their second one as well but now they bought a ".com" which makes things more complicated.


Women used to fight for their rights. We all remember her:


But now women shake their barely hidden asses on MTV and society today thinks it's okay. NO, IT IS NOT! Women in the past have done so much and worked their asses off for their status. I don't understand, as I said here, my generation has become apathetic and it is quite pathetic to see all these young women who think it's okay to dress as prostitutes from an early age, this just makes it okay for guys to call them "sluts" because they behave like that. I have the impression the status of women is going backwards because of this generation. And why the Hell their parents let them do that when they are only 12. We are not supposed to go in the streets semi-naked when we're twelve nor when we're older either!

I am slowly but surely losing my faith in society if I haven't already.


Here is a guide to gender pay gap and how to fight it.



Have a nice day.



Comments

  1. Hi!
    First of all, my english isn't great so I apologize if you don't get everything I (try) to say.

    I totally agree with your observation about our generation and how people have become apathic. You gave a great every-day example: the women. Although, I wouldn't say it's only because of our (this) generation that people have become apathic and formatted, i'd rather think it's our society (since the begin of 20th century) that did this to people.

    Indeed, we live in a consumer society where the final goal is to consume and this happens by establishing 'standards'. Beauty=slim women, ugly=all the rest, buy what you don't need, don't think critically, etc. To be 'part of the group' (read society) you have to be "hype" and follow the trends imposed by the mass culture. Of course internet has magnified this winding/formatting even for the children. So seeing a 12-y old girl with a string and 10-cm heels on street has become for everyone (even the parents) normal, generally speaking of course). So yes it's a decadent society. Too many women AS men have lost their basic principles and that's very sad...

    Last but not least, a quick word about gender equality. There's one thing that I particularly hate: when parents let their son go out at night and return back home whenever he wants, while their daughter (from the same age, or even older) should stay at home from 6PM. I just don't find ANY logical explanation... Do you?

    NB: Note that I'm a young man, not that it has any signifiance in my beliefs and thaughts ;-).

    Ovidius.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do get what you are saying and I agree with your point.


    Thing is, trend and fashion has always been there. Yet little girls weren't walking around dressed as sluts, pardon my french.
    I know we live in a consumer based society which is sad but I don't know why you have to fall into it at such a young age.

    When I was 7 I didn't own a cellphone, nor did my friends, I owned a yo-yo and that was a very cool thing, see, there always has been trends, everyone had a yo-yo in the courtyard and it was pretty awesome, why has the new cool thing become an iPod or a mobile phone? At such a young age! That is way two much money to put in a kid's hands.
    When I grew a litlle to be 12, I did not think about my first time having sex, I read Harry Potter like any of my friends. Yet it seems normal 12 year olds now can only think about their first times and it is so shocking. They are children meaning they should do children things like playing video games, reading the new hot science-fiction book, watching ugly betty,...

    It just saddens me. And it scares me for my nieces as well, who are such pretty and innocent, beautiful girls, G-d forbids they grow up to be like these nowadays girls (They mom wouldn't allow it). I hear in my old school, children are caught drunk on school premises when they're 11.
    This is not normal.


    Anyways, I'm drifting away more and more from my initial subject which is gender pay-gap.
    People have become so stupid that they don't care, they don't think about important issues such as gender pay-gap, when they should, because it is not acceptable, women have come a long way to even be able to work and access certain professions and now I have the impression the women's status is going backwards.

    I despise the whole society. Except for a rare few people.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I couldn't more agree with you.

    You're right that trends have always existed and that ours, like yo-yo (great example btw), playing cards, reading books, playing monopoly, etc have now (almost) disapeared.
    Like you said in your other article, it seems like children have become 'older' than they actually are or at least they are expected to behave like adults. They do things that's not supposed to be for their age and that are actually degrading for their education and mentally formation. Basic but meaningfull examples: the first time, iPhone/cellphone, pc 24/7, dressed like a slut/wannabe gangsta etc. The result: all our children are looking just the same, just like little sheeps following the shepherd (=stupid 21century trends imposed by a recessive society).

    These are big actual issues that not many people are seemingly interested in. But like for the gender pay-gap, let's not lose all hope. Because they are people who are still fighting for that right, fighting for those fundamentals principles and even if it's a David vs Goliath fight, we must not lose hope and try to change the world even if only in our immediate surroundings.

    Always hoping for the best,

    Ovidius.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Do not worry, I haven't lost my hope, I myself try to change things eventhough for the moment it's only on a small scale, let's hope that in the near future, I will be able to make some change in a larger scale, and for that I am focusing on my studies so life can carry me further.
    I have lost my faith in humanity though because I know that at least 90% of the population just sits back and watch tv saying "if only", a thousand "if only"s won't make a difference, people have to act, to shout and protest for their rights, things that affect them! They don't. It's sick. (oh yeah they do but just in France =p)
    The first and only time ever that students from Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, gathered and protested was because the price of the pint was to increase by 5 or 10 euro cents. I mean WTF, beer is more important than rights? People need to adjust their priorities...

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm glad to hear that ;-). That you're trying to change things eventhough it's still on a small scale. By the way, just having this blog is a great thing because you'd be surprised by the power of the internet ;-).

    Actually you kind of chose the perfect studies to tell the world that everything is fucked up and that we got to change that: journalism. I wish you good luck because things are going to become difficult when in the future you'll write about such things as freedom of speech, human rights, the reality of wars and eventually criticize our current leaders. Censorship is unfortunately something that happens everyday so I really hope you don't get caught by the system and that you'll be able to tell the world what you really think.

    And WTF. OMG, for beer! Really? Have we become so...pathetic? I'm ashamed of our society... It's indeed sick and most of people have definitely lost their priorities.
    Our world has actually become so individualist and materialistic that everyone lives with blinders. I hope our (grand)children will have a better world to live in.

    ReplyDelete

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