Tiny Bit of Politics

I’ve been trying to stay out of the recent political debate over the rise of UKIP in the European Elections, but I can no longer. With 24 seats, UKIP have the most number of seats, beating Labour by 4 seats and the Conservative party by 5 seats. I think that voting is an important part of our rights, if people choose not to vote then that is their choice and express the right to not vote, personally I enjoy politics therefore I feel that if I didn’t vote then I also don’t get the right to express my opinions on what is happening in the world of politics.

So UKIP – The UK Independence Party, right winged political party, currently run by Nigel Farage. A few things that some of its members have said over the years include:

(Source PinkNews) Demetri Marchessini was asked why women should dress to excite men, Mr Marchessini said: “Because that is the only way the world is going to continue.

“Because if they don’t men are going to stop fucking them.

“Do you understand, and may I tell you with great respect, that the incidents of love making in the Western Europe have fallen drastically?”

He said one reason for this was because women wear trousers. He said another reason was “because women work”.

He also said that it is not possible for a husband to rape his wife.

“If you make love on Friday and you make love on Sunday you can’t say Saturday is rape,” he told Channel 4 News.

(These are just little clip i will post the full footage on this topic after this post)

Another Example would be David Silvester who claimed that God sent storms in January 2014, due to the legalization of gay marriage.

Just 4 hours ago there has been reports of  UKIP MEP, David Small, being suspended due to claims of racist remarks and homophobic comments. Good Start to our representation in Europe!

(Source BBC) It is alleged Mr Small called African migrants “scroungers” and Clare Balding and Sir Elton John “perverts” because of their sexualities.

The Facebook page has now been taken down and Mr Small has not commented.

So these homophobic, sexist, racist, small minded ideas are clearly represented and held to some value to members of the UKIP party and these are the people who have the UK’s biggest representation in the European Parliament. For those who think that this is a small minority of there members, lets just think about it, if your ok with someones racist, sexist, homophobic opinions then in some small way or other then you must believe in them to an extent that you are comfortable hearing them. Personally I think its disgusting and I would like to think most humans would as well. There are too many examples of this type of behavior by individuals in the party, that it can be seen to be a refection of the political party to an extent as well.

The worrying issue is that across Europe we can see a massive shift in the dominating political parties. The two major shifts being the far right winged National Front party dominating in France and UKIP dominating in the UK.

(Source BBC)

• France National Front storm to victory – 25%, 24 seats; Centre-right UMP 21%; President Hollande’s Socialists a poor third with 14% – lowest ever EP score

• Britain Eurosceptic UKIP in first place, with 27%, Conservatives on 24% and Labour about 25%, Greens beating Lib Dems

• Germany Angela Merkel wins another election – 35% for her Christian Union, 27% for the centre-left SPD. Eurosceptic AfD score strong 7%

• Greece Partial results show far-left Syriza on 26%, PM Antonis Samaras’ New Democracy on 23%. Far-right Golden Dawn set to get three MEPs, with 9%. Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has asked the Greek president to call early national elections

Only time will tell the effect these results has on us and Europe! Gonna get a whole lot worse before it gets better!

 

 

Patriachal Pirates!

 

I do love the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, yes even the sequels. Main attraction was of course Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom however the action comedy does have a certain cheesy “cant help but watch it again and again” sort of motion to it! Anyway, I love them, even the 4th movie in the collection, which does not star the damsel in distress Elizabeth Swan and dashing Will Turner.

So automatically I see the film is on Tv and put it on while I’m surfing the internet, giggling away to myself at the cheesy bits that we all so dearly love to hate but yet can’t! Bearing in mind i have seen this film at least 5 times before if not more, I was suprised and shocked by one bit in the film in particular. (Spoiler Alert) So the basic storyline of the film is that Jack Sparrow gets fooled into joining Blackbeard’s crew by a former lover, Angelica, who is also the daughter of Blackbeard. So they want to go the Fountain of Youth and drink from it  (something to do with Blackbeard eternal soul) in which they believe Captain Jack Sparrow knows some of the details to do with the ritual so that the water works and gives black beard more years. One item in the ritual is a tear from a mermaid, who are not anything like the ones in the “Little Mermaid” (which i happen to love), there evil basically and like to seduce sailors who sing and then eat them from what i understand. So to back track, earlier on in the film Angelica saves this Missionary who then unintentionally helps capture this mermaid, he saves her several times throughout the movie. Shes stuck in a glass coffin while they travel across the island to the fountain and she cant breathe so breaks open the lid so she can breathe, then again when the coffin breaks he carries her because she cant walk because she’s never had legs before. ok so basically there is sexual tension and they both like each other and as Blackbeard puts it they “fancy” each other. The Missionary gets all protective over the mermaid and gets angry with Blackbeard when he calls the mermaid it and Phillip shouts that she has a name and then proceeds to give her a name.

This is the bit that annoyed me the way that he gives her a name, like she hasn’t got a name, and if she hasn’t, like she cant be asked before you assume she hasn’t got a name? The way that the man assigns her a name annoyed me! My feminist side was angered! I then realised that this was just another thing that showed the patriarchal ideals in movie making, whether this be the historical understanding of the time or the movie making industry. I also didnt understand how she could be this “monster” and still then be delegated a name by a man to which she should have been more powerful against,if the other mermaids are anything to go by. Another example would be the way that she is represented as hard by not giving up the tear even though they “kill” Phillip, and then on his miraculous return from the dead she cries which in my opinion such a stereotypical way of the media showing how weak and emotional women are, if these mermaids are evil then why try to feminize them? Why not use a mermaid scale or tooth? A tear has a feminine connotation. They use the mermaid as way of creating a romance story which means they use the way that the mermaid has been created in a more humanistic and feminine way to do this.

I’m not completely unaware of the fact that they use men as an object of attraction, the main reason I watch it is because Johnny Depp is in it! The way that this mermaid is depicted could have been portrayed completely different and could have been just as successful in my opinion that is what really annoyed me! I’m still a massive fan and I know its not the only movie to have such stereotypical representations of women or patriarchal ideas, but it did annoy me!

I still have a soft spot for rum, pirate hats, open seas and unopened treasures! Film number 5 comes out in 2016, I will still be going to see it 😀

 

A little bit about me …..

Hello, I’m Becky.

A couple of my friends have just started a blog, and I thought I would follow in their foot steps and start up a new blog. I have blogged before but decided that instead of restarting my old one I’d start a new one … so here I am.

I’m a soon to be second year uni student at the University of Derby, studying Sociology and Media Studies. ( Too which I hope to post about )

I’m 19, very soon to be 20, living away from home while I study, and soon moving into my own house with some of my flatmates. I lived with my mum in London before this. I have on sister and quite a large and complicated family, who doesn’t?

I get distracted easily so I don’t know how long I will do this for, but seeing as I’m a student and currently doing nothing with my time off it seems likely that I will be sharing my thoughts, ideas and opinions for the next 4 months at least until I am then distracted by the new semester.

Hope you stick around X