Am I Beautiful?

Hey, Youtube... What Do You Think?

Teens and tweens have been posting videos on youtube asking the internet world to tell them if they are ugly or pretty. Here is BeautifulAndProud's video entitled "Am I Ugly?" In the description all she wrote was "Am I?"

Remember When...

I wasn't sure how exactly to start this post without sounding too much like the article, or without asking people to stop posting negative comments and encouraging these kids to keep believing negative things about themselves.

I think we need to look past the videos themselves and look at the root of the issue. Young girls and boys don't understand what it means to be beautiful. Right now most of the people reading my blog are in upper year university, so we've kind of lost touch with our end of elementary/high school selves. There was SO much pressure from our peers to look and act a certain way. We added to that by having our own personal beliefs of what a 'perfect' person was like. For me, how I thought I looked was a huge source of stress! I'm sure many of you could relate.

No one is going to get through to these kids by telling them to take down their videos, by posting comments saying they're pretty/ugly... How can we connect with these kids? There came a time when we all realized that our looks didn't directly influence the outcome of our lives. 

So, I think we should start sharing stories from when we were in high school. Maybe, just maybe, one of these kids will come across these and realize that it's your inner beauty that shines outwards to people, not what you look like.

Comment!

PLEASE reply back to this one. Tell us a story about someone noticing your beauty (hey, you can reply anonymously), write a poem, short story, or post a drawing, post some encouraging words, anything that you would have appreciated as a teen. And you can read my story in the comments!

Stay Beautiful,

Lisa

The Stigma of Domestic Abuse

Chris Brown at the Grammys

Now, I'm not the biggest fan of award shows, so when the Grammys were on this weekend I was just surfing the web. I came across HelloGiggles post called "I'm Not Okay with Chris Brown Performing at the Grammys and I'm Not Sure Why You Are" which I highly recommend you read. It's a reminder about how the media treats domestic abuse. Less than a year after Chris Brown hit Rihanna, he came out with a new album which hit #7 on the Billboard charts. 

After his performance at the Grammys this year he won Best R&B Album. There has been some interesting reactions on Twitter, from girls tweeting "Chris Brown... Please beat me ;)" to RIP Chris Brown, celebrities and others tweeting messages to support Rihanna, Miranda Lambert tweeted "Not cool that we act like that didn’t happen. He needs to listen to Gunpowder and Lead and be put back in his place. Not at the Grammys." Many people have been wondering why he was allowed to perform at the Grammys.  

HelloGiggles says it all: "The message we sent to young women was unmistakable: You are powerless. You are worthless. You will be a victim, and that will be okay with us."

You never know...

Today in class we were talking about domestic abuse. After the break, my teacher told us that he had a guest who would like to speak to us about her experience. A girl in the back of the class stood up, Jaclyn, who I have a few classes with. I never would have imagined that she was a victim of domestic abuse. She told us her story and explained how she was recently crowned Miss Canada 2012 and will be using that platform to "Break the Silence." Miss Canada is raising funds to send Jaclyn across Canada to educate students about domestic violence.

Jaclyn was a university student studying family studies when she was in the abusive relationship. She told us how she was studying the signs of abuse but it took her a long time to realize that she was in an abusive relationship. She was embarrassed, scared, and alone.

In her bio Jaclyn writes "As a society, we criticize those who have been victims of abuse. We blame them, assuming it was their fault. We put them down and make them feel embarrassed and ashamed." Read the rest of her bio here.

Myths: 

Men are always the abuser.

Even though my two examples are about women who were victims, but abuse is not gender blind. Women can be abusive.

If there's no mark, there's no abuse.

Abuse can be mental or physical. Abusers isolate their victims from their friends and family. 

Read some more myths about domestic violence here.

What do you think?

Does society blame the victim? Why? Why are these myths ingrained in us? Let's talk about it.

Are you in an abusive relationship or do you

know someone who is? Don't know what to do? Call Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868 

or call the police.

Or hey, you can email me - redcardi.love@gmail.com

Stay Beautiful,

Lisa

Marketing for Girls and Boys

A Cutie is Doing it Right!

This is Riley asking why girls have to buy pink toys and boys have to buy other coloured stuff. Many comments on YouTube point to the fact that she is probably repeating what her parents say to her... although if you read my older post (here) kids really do understand this stuff. They can come to realize that they don't have to buy into the girls have to like pink and boys have to like blue labels. At a young age, most kids want to play with the "girl" and "boy" toys - in my own experience I was babysitting a neighbour and her male friend of about 6 years old came to visit and was playing with a "girl" toy (I can't remember what it was now)... when his dad saw him playing with the toy he promptly took him away and said that it was for girls. 

This story reminded me of the House Hippo!

Stay Beautiful,
Lisa

Gay-Straight Alliances in Catholic Schools

Sorry for being away for almost a month - I got extremely busy with a musical I was putting on at school!

Now - back to business.

Taken from bornlikethis.org

GSA vs. Respecting Differences

The Ministry of Education in Ontario states that all publicly-funded schools must have clubs where students from the LGBT communities (or students who are interested) can come together to discuss anything to do with equity for LGBT students. The suggested group name is "Gay-Straight Alliance" (known by most as GSA).

Ontario's Catholic Schools have banned using the word "Gay" in the group's name, and have decided on the name "Respecting Differences" as the suggested group name. Instead of being specific to LGBT issues, the group would focus on all types of bullying.

The Catholic Church does not condone sexual acts performed out of marriage, and they accept that some people are homosexuals. However, just as heterosexuals, they should not act on their impulses. 

Share your opinion!

I've given a very brief summary of this issue. Should Ontario's Catholic schools (which are funded by all Ontarian's tax money) be allowed to ban GSAs? Or could the Respecting Differences clubs be a fair solution for Catholic schools?

Stay Beautiful,

Lisa