Are all-women's shortlists the way to go?

My home constituency of St. Helens South and Whiston is being subjected to an all-women shortlist before the next election after Shaun Woodward MP announced he was to step down and retire. This strategy has been used since the 1990's as women constituted less than 10% of parliamentary MPs. So in an attempt to make parliament more representative, certain parties (predominately the Labour Party) have been implementing the strategy on 'safe-seats', like St. Helens.

Personally I think the suffragettes would be rolling in their graves; they fought for equal rights, not special privileges and although I agree that parliament should be representative of the citizens in the state, I disagree that all-women shortlists (AWS) are the way to go about making it so.

Not only is this discrimination against men but this is positive discrimination against women. It's almost patronising that women have been given the special privilege, it is as if they cannot gain the majority vote (whilst competing with men) on their own. Many women who have won through AWS (e.g. Luciana Berger MP for Liverpool Wavetree) have expressed that they would have rather won in an open contest and wished they felt they truly deserve their position. Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson famously wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan "I am not a token woman" so it is not surprising that women who win a parliamentary seat through AWS feel inferior. What is more important, having more women MP's, through undemocratic means, or having women who don't feel inferior? One may argue that a woman feels inferior constantly in this patriarchal society yet I believe that an AWS would further enhance this and patronise further.

To me a democracy has to allow for any citizen to stand for election regardless of the gender they choose to align with. By imposing AWS you take away the right for men to stand, for women to come into office fairly and for citizens in the consistency to vote for who they think is best for the job. Surely it is better to have an MP who has gained the majority vote from their constituency because they will do a better job than others (regardless of gender) than to have a better ratio of women to men in the House of Commons. I would argue women do not need to be equally represented in parliament (although it would be nice if a democratic vote evened it out that way) to be equally represented in society. I disagree with certain feminists who argue that only women can properly relate women and stand for their views. An MP should be able address all issues in society equally otherwise they should be sacked!

The same parties debated bringing in all gay shortlists and all black shortlists etc... But soon turned back on that idea for obvious reasons as it leads into dangerous territory. So why are AWS still used? The real reason is that they are too concerned with the here and now (and getting equality and representation on paper) rather than trying to properly educate, inform and understand voters. This may take longer, yes, but if it means that women can get to the aim of 50% representation in parliament fairly and without special privileges then I'm all for it. 

The government need to dispose of all-women shortlists in order to strive for true democracy and equality. They need to tackle the root of the problem first and stop feigning equality using their token women.

Lady Gaga - Future Icon? I think so.

I have so much respect for Lady Gaga. She has transformed the music industry. I was beginning to be bored by the latest artists until she came along. I was not a fan of her earlier stuff like "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" but I realise now that she had to start like that in order to get into the industry and become accepted. I wish though that she had started as she is now, she is an amazing performer and I look forward to each music video and each performance on the television. I always wonder what she will wear next as I love her style. Yeah, some of it can be over the top and just plain daft but I love the way she is capable of doing what she wants and being what she wants to be. It's just revolutionised the industry now. There are no limits.

Many people say she has copied off other artists such as Madonna. Yeah, who doesn't? Everyone has their idols and inspirations which come through in their style. The fact that she has taken all these different artists and put herself into it to create something completely new is just plain clever. I also think she is extremely artistic herself and has a lot in store to show us and reveal to us.

The latest video "Marry the Night" revealed a lot to me. It's nearly 14 minutes long (which reminds me of great Icon's such as Michael Jackson who did short film like music videos e.g. Thriller) and I think it shows a lot about herself.

It starts in a psychiatric hospital which I think represents her life before stardom in stage school. It shows the pains of that. How everyone is fighting to be a star and no one is really sane. There are so many pressures within the business and it shows how she fights back against it. I've just read that it is about the time when she was dropped from her first record label. The scene shot was very realistic to her, i.e. she was Naked and the time and in bed. I like it when artists let their past demons loose on the world. I like that I can relate and feel like they have trusted me with an intimate feeling. All her videos nowadays have underlying meanings and themes and I always like to try to work it out before I google it. It's what they want I guess. Take your view on it. Use your imagination. It's a very interactive thing.

I love Lady Gaga and I think she will be remembered through music history along with other greats. I look forward to telling my children and grandchildren that I was around when she started. Either that or the future will just think "My, those years were strange..."

Here are some of my favourite images of Lady Gaga:

Her and Tony Bennett after their single "The Lady is a Tramp." - If you've not heard it and Lady Gaga it may change your mind. She is extremely classy and an amazing singer. That lace dress omonomnom

:)

In awe of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest...

I am sat here writing my English Literature coursework which is to compare Hamlet, The Bell Jar and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I'm developing the quotes I've found and analysing them. Ken Kesey writes so flawlessly. He makes my essay so much easier as I could probably write a page of analysis on just one phrase in his novel. It's fantastic. By far one of my favourite novels of all time. 

Ken Kesey is an amazing writer. The way he writes gets me all riled up and ready for a rebellion. Almost all of his paragraphs are so profound. He makes every sentence count unlike some novels these days which tend to go off on tangents or just write things for the sake of writing them. It sometimes reminds me of Charles Dickens days when they were paid per page so just wrote huge amounts on nothing. Yes, I do love Dickens and am a big fan of his novels. However, I much prefer the writing of Kesey and others who are straight to the point and do not waffle, keeping you hooked every second of the way!!

"So you see my friend, it is somewhat as you stated: man has but one truly effective weapon against the juggernaut of modern matriarchy, but it certainly is not laughter. One weapon, and with every passing year in this hip, motivationally researched society, more and more people are discovering how to render that weapon useless and conquer those who have hitherto been conquerors"

This quote is just wow. It highlights everything that is great about this novel. This quote somehow sums up the whole novel and brings all the themes together. Obviously here, Kesey begins to develop his misogynistic view of modern society. Women are fully dominant over the men. The only weapon men have against this is their penis. Their only chance to regain power is by rape but women have learnt this and now know how to render this weapon useless, by castration.

Throughout the men's lives they have been oppressed by women and have many damaging memories involving women i.e their mothers, wives and Miss Ratchett. The ways these men gain power is through sex. McMurphy who goads Miss Ratchett all the time, Chief's erection to which McMurphy replies that he is "Getting bigger already" in literal senses and in terms of power and finally Billy Bibbit's wild night with Candy the prostitute which helps him to regain his confidence. However, as always the women are able to take that away as we see towards the end of the novel after all this rebellion that McMurphy has been stirring up just goes down the drain.

I don't know how much I agree with this in reality however the novel certainly makes me feel pretty misogynistic.

Didn't know people like these still existed...

 This video of a woman on a tram in London being awfully racist has recently been going around the internet. She was later arrested due to her actions. 

Now here we have an obviously ignorant and extremely bigoted woman hurling abuse at people who were on the tram. I agree with her getting arrested but one of my friends posed the question:

"What about freedom of speech?"

Should this woman have been arrested for just saying what she thinks? We live in a society where freedom of speech is valued. If the British National Party, English Defence League and other quite clearly racist Political groups can go around saying the same without being arrested then why can't she?

I'll tell you why not, because what she is saying is directly abusing other people. These parties, yeah their values instil an underlying racism but it's a general broad thing. I'm not saying this is right but when it comes to the law if you are publicly offending people in this way it deserves an arrest. If she was saying this in her own home or to her friends it would be different I guess. This doesn't make it right however I am just explaining why she was arrested. Another reason is that with this video going viral, if the police did nothing then a whole outrage would occur with people thinking that the police are still "institutionally racist" or that they don't discipline on these grounds. Well they do and they have and they do it all the time!

Free speech goes out the window when someone is this outright and abusive to those people on the tram and those on the internet. To be honest, if having to arrest people on offences like these means that we have no free speech. Then so be it! I'd rather not have free speech than just let something like this go by. It isn't even the fact that this is just Britain being overly politically correct. This is a genuine crime and a genuine value that Britain should upkeep. Being racist should not be tolerated at all in today's society. It is morally wrong. I don't care what anyone else thinks.

We should have learnt our lesson already with the deaths of many people which have been attacked due to their race. For example Stephen Lawrence and Anthony Walker.

It should not be tolerated at all! Who cares about Freedom of Speech. This isn't right!

Desperate what wives?

To all you British folk last night this lot appeared on your screens.
DESPERATE SCOUSEWIVES.

Right then. As a Liverpool born girl it made me laugh as some of the things are common to our scouse (The name us Liverpudlians give ourself) culture. The "scouse brow", going out with rollers in, that accent are all things that I commonly see. Most people from Liverpool are nothing like the stereotypes portrayed in this awful show as you can imagine. Just like all Essex girls aren't the same as the TOWIE lot. I cringe at the fact people watching this may actually think we are like this!! As if Liverpool hasn't got a bad enough name for itself anyway! Haha. It's cringe-worthy to see these Z listers thinking they are A list Celebrities. They aren't even known in Liverpool let alone anywhere else. It's funny for me to watch as I do like to poke fun at the typical scouse culture. I just feel sorry for all the other people who tuned in last night just to see what it was like and were just like "What?"

I used to watch TOWIE (The Only Way Is Essex) but it was just so scripted it was painful to watch! These shows claim to be reality and they are far from it! Desperate Scousewives makes TOWIE look Oscar worthy! It sometimes seemed the Scousewives didn't know their own lines but this added to the comedy value in my opinion.

I didn't think I would keep watching but I think I am going to. After all it is not all the time Liverpool is in the limelight and I like spotting places I know and hearing things I'm used to. Sort of nostalgic in a not so long a go sort of sense. I don't know how to describe it. Can't believe I'm even admitting this. 

I've never sinned more than I have in tuning into this show. Please forgive me. I'm a disappointment you all.

The forever sorry, Lauren.

Time to show my appreciation to the greatest show on earth.

If you don't recognise it by now you are totally and utterly missing out on one of the best things in life.

I present to FIREFLY!

Let me tell you a brief history of this show...

It all started with this genius. Joss. Our good friend, Joss Whedon.

"You may remember him as the creator of TV series' 

such as Buffy the Vampire and Angel..."

He is a brilliant producer, director, screen writer and more! He magically thought up the most amazing 

show ever. In my opinion greater than that of Buffy and Angel (Don't shoot). He combines sci-fi somehow with a crazy Asian space western and surprising it works. Don't ask me how. When I try to describe Firefly I just can't. It's totally different.

Set in 2517, it follows the crew of a "Firefly class" spaceship called Serenity which includes 9 beautifully developed characters. Whedon describes it as "nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things". The show explores the lives of some people who fought on the losing side of a civil war and others who now make a living on the outskirts of society that exists on the fringes of their star system.

After the war there were only two surviving superpowers: USA and China who form the government called the Alliance (and no it is not just Star Wars, there are no aliens or jedi's), resulting in the fusion of the two cultures (Asian western as described earlier). According to Whedon's vision, "Nothing will change in the future: technology will advance, but we will still have the same political, moral, and ethical problems as today." I think this is very prophetic and also very true.


Hopefully you have a brief overview now and aren't too bored. So yeah, that great doesn't it?! Well yeah but when the Fox are running your show it is a different story! 


Basically Fox for some reason did not want this show to succeed. They played episodes out of order, at different times each week, at times that were not popular and if that wasn't enough they CANCELLED IT! After only 14 episodes. Yup. The few fans that were able to emerge during this time in 2002 were outraged. They set up petitions, got Firefly known etc (Which thankfully is why I know Firefly today!) Eventually a film was made after lots of petitions and the hard work of Joss and the cast to keep Firefly going and then we have SERENITY which was brought out in 2005! 

Watch Firefly before this! People make the mistake of watching this first... Shame on them.

I only found out about Firefly at the start of this year so I did not have the agony or waiting years wondering whether or not I'd be able to see the beautiful Firefly cast ever again. Wondering what the end was going to be!? I luckily didn't have that. I watched Firefly with my boyfriend within a couple of weeks. The last 8 episodes we watched all in one sitting, followed by Serenity. I've never been able to sit through a 3 hour film, let alone 10 hours of something. But it is Firefly and I make exceptions. We were both gripped and nearly cried before putting in Serenity knowing that this was the last thing. Any fans will know this feeling ;)

Before Firefly I wasn't even a Sci Fi fan, my boyfriend was however and I started watching it as he said the first few episodes he watched were great. He was right! Since Firefly I feel like a little Sci Fi geek, I know love Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. I've even been able to sit through all the LOTR's (not sci fi I know). It's totally changed what I enjoy and I love it.

What I love most about Firefly aside from the brilliant story lines and the hilarious quotes is the characters. Joss somehow - in the short space of 14 episodes - develops the characters so beautifully. You connect to every one and love them all. There isn't one I like less than the others but maybe a couple I favour a bit more.

Here is Kaylee. She is my favourite. She is the one of them all that reminds me most of myself. She has such a positive little spirit that floats around the ship smiling and always has a kind word for everyone. She wears her heart on her sleeve quite like me and isn't quick to hide her feelings from anyone.

She loves strawberries and is just so flippin' cuteeeeee!

I think Jayne is my favourite too. I can't even describe why I love him. He just never fails to make me laugh out loud. Oh Joss, I don't even get how you can write such a great script. Truly talented.

He's pretty cunning dontcha think ;)

I just realised I could go on and on and probably tell you all about the characters and why I love them but then I'd end up saying they're all my favourite and ruin the Firefly experience for you!!

I really really really hope you get the chance to watch and enjoy the growing phenomenon that is Firefly.
Firefly probably has the most dedicated fan base of all things ever. Seriously. We're mental.

Join us ;)


Firefly:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Firefly-Complete-DVD-Nathan-Fillion/dp/B0001B3YTM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322509350&sr=8-1
Serenity:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Serenity-DVD-Nathan-Fillion/dp/B000BLJGBC/ref=pd_bxgy_d_h__img_b

Thanks for reading my mental little crazy post. It's the only thing I'm obsessed with I swear.
Wait... that was a lie.

Laurennnnnnnnnnnnn

My visit to Auschwitz...

On the 3rd of November this year I was selected to visit Auschwitz with an amazing scheme called the Holocaust Educational Trust. Every year they take 2 students from most colleges in the UK to Auschwitz in order to re-humanise the victims. It wasn't to show us terrifying images of walking skeletons and pits full of bodies. No. It was to show us the people. The people the victims were before they were dehumanised by the Nazi's. Before they were tortured and stripped of their identities.

 In the pre-visit seminar they showed us pictures of people who 'lived' in the camps. People who died in these camps. Class photos, families on their holidays, little children and more. We got to know the people. We related to them. They were just like you and me. We met a survivor. Her name was Kitty. She was such an inspirational women. What struck me most was that she spoke so matter-of-factly about her experience, as if it were normal. Obviously this is not how she feels but I understood that in order to tell her story she must disconnect herself from it. It was obviously traumatic for her. I felt sorry for her that she has to tell this story all the time. The story of her hellish life before, during and after Auschwitz. The story in which she lost all of her family except her mother. The story in which she probably lost part of herself. She would never be the same. This experience really upset me. She was obviously a strong woman. She spoke of it being luck not strength. Even the strongest of people were brutally murdered. You could not fight it, you just lived day to day through sheer luck.

I couldn't sleep the night before the visit. I had to get up at 3am anyway but before then I was so restless. Tossing and turning trying to imagine what the day would be like. How would I react? Did I need waterproof mascara and tissues? Or would I just still be unable to comprehend it -  completley detached myself from it. I hoped not. I hoped that I would learn from it, I hoped I'd understand. Only time would tell.

The whole day was a blur. It went so fast.

Can you imagine getting off the plane to this? We were all told it would be freezing. Wrap up warm they said. It could be snowing. But no, it was boiling. Nicer than the weather in England that day. I think if it was cold and snowy the whole day would have been different for me. My thoughts would have completely changed. 

We went to a synagogue in the town.It the only Jewish building standing after the Nazi's and people threatened by the Nazi's burnt down the rest. The only reason this building still survived is because the Nazi's used it for themselves. The last remaining surviving Jew in this town died 10 years ago but before this he used to come and open the door to the synagogue every day, even though their were no Jews to come. A sign that the Nazi's had failed in their mission.

I was pretty cheerful at this point. I'd seen a beautiful town, it was a lovely day and I finally had some food in my tummy. Auschwitz 1 was the next on the agenda. My smile dropped. I sat in silence. 

We arrived at Auschwitz and collected out headsets. It was very very weird. I felt like a tourist. I didn't want to be a tourist. A tourist visits nice places not a place where millions were tortured and killed. I felt awful. I felt even more awful when I walked through the doors and into the camp. My first thought was how lovely everything looked. I wanted to erase this thought from my head. How could I think something like that!? But alas everything was lovely. It was Autumn. My favourite month. The skies were blue, the leaves were yellow, the grass was green. I'd only seen these places in the black and white photos of the past. It felt so wrong to see so much beauty and so much vibrant colour in a place such as this. 

The notorious sign - "Work brings Freedom".

Words cannot describe what I felt as I walked under this arch. I just felt a chill although my body was warm under the midday sun. I imagined the millions of people walking under here but they would never come out. I would come out. I would be able to come home at the end of the day. They did not. They walked to their deaths. I can imagine the prisoners feeling quite positive as they walked into here for the first time. They didn't know what to expect, only that they would be housed and they would be working. They probably thought the same as me "Oh this is lovely". It must have been a nice comparison to the millions of ghettos that they were so used to. I may be completely wrong here but it is just what I think. Little did they know however, what was to come. They may have heard rumours passed along the grapevine but would you believe someone if they told you that thousands upon thousands of people are being murdered at these so called camps. You would not believe them until you saw. Like it is for us, for them too it would have been so hard to even imagine. It makes me cry to think that these poor, innocent human beings would have to realise that it was not just a rumour. They had to see it first hand, see it was real. I can't imagine how they would have felt when they realised the rumours were in fact true. 

I want to share a thought I had about these blocks.

To me these blocks - were thousands of people were crammed into one room - looked like those very expensive apartment blocks you see nowadays. The type people would pay a lot of money for. It was a weird thought and I shared it with my Educator, Mike and he thought it was very interesting. Interesting that thousands of people would pay for this and live alone on one floor whereas so many millions of people would be longing to escape from the crammed rooms of thousands of people. Weird.

This was the first of the belongings section that we saw. Although these weren't belongings it was the one of the most upsetting things for me to see. These were gas cylinders. A single one of these would have killed thousands of people in one sitting. The fact they were just discarded and thrown to the side with the rest of the 'junk' that they collected. It sickens me that just one of these cannisters accounts for thousands of lives and these aren't even all of the cylinders. 

:(

Hair. Human hair. I just don't have the words. Seeing this at the large scale that it was knowing that it wasn't even a fraction of how much there was just killed me. I'm a girl who loves my hair and never wants to have it cut this just ruined me inside. Girls and boys my age, younger and older would have had their beautiful hair bluntly shaven off without a thought. They were all clones. No clothes, no hair, no belongings. No individuals were left after this process just shells. Shells of what they were; stripped of their dignity.

The way it lay there, no life, no colour. Oh. I don't even want to remember it :(

Glasses just crushed and tangled. No intent of return. 

Crutches and prosthetic legs of the frail. These people were no use to the Nazi's. They sent them straight to the gas chambers after stripping them of their stability. I just have horrible images of people being dragged into the gas chambers as they now cannot walk. Very sad.

More belongings that would have just been ripped from their hands. I'd hate to see the little girls face as the doll is ripped from her arms. 

Shoes. Millions of shoes and this wasn't even the half of it. In fact not even a tenth probably. It looks like a sea of brown to you but when you got up close you could see lovely shoes. I spotted some pretty red high heeled sandals. I imagined the woman who might have owned these. She was very pretty and always looked after her appearance. These were her favourite shoes and she would wear them on special occasions. These were taken from her. Along with everyone else with their own shoes and their own story. 

The standing chambers in the basement of Block 11. Block 11 was used to punish those who went against the Nazi's, so lots of non Jew's were also kept here for trying to do the right thing. 4 people had to crawl into this and stand up for 3 days. Other rooms were suffocation and starvation cells, completely pitch black. 

Here is the area were roll call was given. People stood out here twice a day to be counted, in all weathers, for up to 2 hours. Some days if people were missing they would stand out here for several hours until that person was found. The person who counted was sat in that little tower, protected from the weather.

Gas chamber and Crematorium. Hard to imagine millions of people losing there lives inside. I didn't take any pictures inside here. We just walked around in silence. It was very strange and I just wanted to get out as soon as I could.

I really like art and would love to paint or draw a picture of this. No escape is what I'd title it. 

It was starting to get colder now and we were on our way to Auschwitz Birkenau. This camp was even more chilling than the last. Auschwitz 1 was a baby in comparison to this. This was huge. When I looked out from the watch tower I could see the camp stretching as far as the horizon. To the left and the right it was also as far as my eye could see. This camp did not have the gorgeous autumnal trees or big orange bricked blocks. It was just brown huts as far as the eye could see. Survivors tell us that there was no grass in Birkenau, just mud, a sea of mud. 

Here is the view from the watch tower. SS guards would look out over this every day. Prisoners would have never seen the sheer scale of the camp as they were often confined to just one area. You can see the train tracks running right up to the horizon. The sun was setting. It was only 3 o clock. I am used to it only getting dark at 4-5pm at the earliest back in the UK. This was just a realisation of the drastic seasons that Poland is known for. I was not cheery anymore. I was cold. A bitter wind encased my body and I shivered. I was so tired too. I'd been up all night and had a long day. I wanted to sit down. I said to Mike the Educator, how I've only been here for one day and I am tired, hungry and cold. I just can't imagine what life was like here.

The huts that stretched for what seemed like forever. The chimneys you see are huts that were burnt or destroyed by the Nazi's in order to try and cover up what happened here. Believe it or not just one of these huts was originally built to house 52 horses. During the Holocaust they housed up to 1000 people. We had 200 people on our trip. A plane full of people. A plane is so much bigger than one of these and yet 5 times more people would be kept in here. It was hard to visualise so they often gave us comparisons.

The watch tower and famous arch where the red train full of 500 people would come every day. People who would soon lose their lives.

Toilets. Yup. Hundreds of holes which survivors tell us they fought over and would only have a mere 20 seconds to do their business before they were beaten off the hole. 

A train were hundreds were kept for a minimum of 3 days when travelling to the camp. There was one bowl for water and one bowl for the toilet but it was impossible to move inside.When it got to this point people were brought out and sorted into who is to live and who is to die. 

There is a story of a woman who gave birth as the doors were opened and an SS Guard cut the cord and tossed the baby aside and sent the mother to the gas chambers.

In the children's barrack. These paintings were painted after someone was working on repairing the roof and was amazed that there were children ALIVE in Auschwitz Birkenau. So he got painters in secretly to paint these pictures so that the children could have some sort of a childhood.

Remains of a gas chamber. The Nazi's concealed all they could before the end. It was very eerie to look at. It was pitch black by this time. Only about 3:30pm

In Kanada where people first went to shower and have belongings taken from them. In here was a whole exhibition of photos that where found. Just one persons suitcase was found still full of photos. The rest were lost forever. There were 2000 photos just in this one case all from one person. These were her memories. 

This was it. The end of the day. I was glad that I would be on my way home. 

But first we had a memorial for all the lives that were lost. All the people that were stripped of their dignity. Rabbi Marcus did a beautiful memorial service. He sang a song but in Hebrew. It was utterly beautiful. A warmness filled my body. We lit candles for the people lost and placed them along the train track. It was a beautiful image. My camera blurs it but it was magical. A great end to a fascinating but a mentally challenging day. We were tired, aching and hungry. We could come home to the comfort of our warm homes and our loving families but they would not.

We must never forget.

L