Sometimes I am just in the mood to express myself via my English tongue. Though I have earned all my experiences in this language via school, where I had this subject for eight years straight, my television-addiction with the combination of my hate of synchronised voices and my short stay in London a couple of days back, I kind of tend to sometimes think in English and I actually really enjoy writing some pieces only using words which one can find in an English dictionary. I am well aware of the fact that I could definitely improve my skills in this area but nevertheless really feel like writing today's post in English. I do not know what will happen and I definitely do not know if it turns out to be a good or a really, really bad idea. But, hey, I, all in all, have no idea if any posts come even near to the things I formerly wanted to talk about so I should probably just try it out.
But first, I want to tell you why I even had the idea of writing English. When the topic of my radical standpoints first popped into my mind I immediately had to think about my e-mail-conversations with a friend of mine. Even though we both were born in Austria, pretty close actually, we used to write to each other in this language. I guess, because it's a different way to express one's thoughts. Words form reality. Knowing that, every language must kind of "have" their own reality somehow. One just has to think about the things which are only able to formulate in German for example. There are sentences and word formations that really aren't possible to translate as a whole. We use paraphrases and try to get to the gist of a word order by using a variety of different phrases. Another good example is to my mind all the progressive-tenses, which English speakering persons can apply. How do you express an action which happened in the past but took a longer timespan in comparison to one that also took place some time ago, was yet shorter in German?
So, nevertheless, some while ago I wasn't at my height and told this friend which whom I've written quite a lot of mails back and forth in some words that it was also caused by my radical thinking in several areas... But these opinions alone didn't bring me down that much - I mean, of course it was quite hard to think about our patriarchal society and my inability to change anything with this situation - what really made me feel bad about myself was the thing that nobody seemed to share my views. At least not all of them, there were and are, of course, several individuals who share fragments of my thinkings but yet not all of them.
So, where shall I begin?
feminism, racism, any form of discrimination, veganism, clothes
Firstly, I may express my strong feminist way of thinking. You may or may not have sensed that, since I, here and there, have told you about the connection of eating disorders and sexism and also the strong interplay between this exact topic and feminism, I have some thoughts which strongly go in that direction. I kind of was raised like that. Both of my parents consider themselves femists and I really find it hard not to talk about oneself not as one, because it is so important to act on these binary system our society has adapted and also on all the roles which entitle certain groups of people to act in a definite way. We live in a patriachy, there is no doubt about that and everyone who says something different really should overthink one's views and maybe consider going to an optician because this view cannot be clear. When women* still earn significantely less than their male counterpart, there must be something wrong and justice...well, doesn't play a huge part. Elderly women* still face great struggles when reaching the time in their lives where they should have the opportunities to lay back a little and enjoy pension because in many, many cases there isn't any money at hand for them, since they "didn't work" throughout their lives. When household chores and looking after children isn't considered as real substant work, then, I strongly believe, something has to change. Everyone, every gender, is pushed in lables and is being pigeonholed. I, for one, want to breake these strict and uncomfortable boxes and I really want to live my life free from prejudices and consider every human-being as equal individuals, to be honest.
Which leads me to my next issue. I have to agree with bell hooks in this point that every disciminating structure is connected with each other. They can't be dealt seperately but must be understood as related and that they also interact with each other. So, I must stress that racism, sexism, fascism and so many other ideologies, way to treat people or way to deal with one's life are to be abolished. I already stated that I believe everyone should be considered equals so there can't be any space for sexist, antisemitic, ableistic or racist structures in any ways. To abandon these we definitely have to work together. Hand in hand. We need to overthink our everyday routine and also our words, as I wrote earlier, language creates reality, always, so I think that the debate about abolishing gender-neutrality in written formates should really, really be turned into discussions of how we can deal with a society which still does not see everyone equally and how we can smash that as a whole.
Maybe my words couldn't express what I wanted to say entirely, but maybe, to sum it up, I feel a great need to fight discrimination in every form. I want to change something, I just haven't figured out how to do that the best way.
Furthermore, I am quite concerned about how we, as the so-calles first world, deal with labour. I am highly interested in the conditions how the things I buy are produced and therefore, am very keen on only purchasing items created under fair circumstances. I only wear clothes from which I can be a hundret percent sure that they have been sewed and marketed in a fair and humane way, or, which is often due to the lack of money, seize second-hand options. I have watched so many documentaries about this issue that I just cannot tolerate buying clothes from H&M anymore. Of course, I only can talk for myself and have to accept that not everyone has the same way of thinking, but truly hope, that one day this will change. I know that there are so many great and amazing blogs writing about sustainable fashion, so there must be people out there, who share this way of thinking. We live in a throw-away-society and with the rise of fast fashion we only support the capitalistic structure of it. And I actually really try to purchase as less as possible, but if I do feel the need to own a new pair of anything I do try to find it on the second hand market or, as I have already mentioned, produced under fair conditions.
It really makes me sad that there are really people out there who believe that purchasing a shirt which only costs 5 Euro couldn't be produced unfairly. This shirt won't last long, for one, so it isn't that of a bargain at all, and well, I don't know if it is really so hard to spend like 20 Euro on a shirt, which was better produced.
I even was asked at my final exams in English to describe myself as a consumer. Well, what else could I have said than that I try to be a critical one? - And then I went on and on about labour and working-conditions and everything that my teacher had to interrupt me, she seemed a bit annoyed haha.
Well, I believe this covers probably all of human-related issues. Because, well, of course is payment somehow racist, when we as White people exploit people of colour only to be asured that the jean won't cost more that twenty bucks.
Now I'd like to move on to my animal-loving heart. Oh, how cheesy that sounds!
Okay, with age eleven I decided to quit eating meat as a whole for several reasons. This was quite hard, since I always kind of enjoyed eating chicken and so on, but I went through with this and eventually became a mostly-vegan eating human being a couple of years later. I read too much about that topic to still enjoy a bite of meat of a sip of milk from animals I, firstly, didn't know and that, secondly, were raised and treated extremely cruel. I came to terms with that kind of eating habits and aren't dependent on milk at all. Still, I am not radical in that kind of way that I really, really don't eat anything which is "just" vegetarian. If I know that the eggs I am eating are from the farm from Pleßberg, the village next to mine, where I can be absolutely sure that the chicken there are treated in the nicest possible way, I sometimes eat something with this ingredient in it when I'm at home. I also eat honey, provided I know how the bees where held.
I find it just... I don't know how... how we treat animals. It's similar to the point I elaborated a couple of lines earlier with the working-conditions of human beings. Of course, animals have a different way of feeling pain and of living in general, but still are living creatures which can't be handled like objects. This meat- and milk-industry is also highly connected with capitalism, I suppose. Everything must be cheap, how it was produced doesn't play a role anymore.
Another point, which is also in relation to my further standpoints, is environment and sustainability. I really care about that matter and try to eat in a way which affects our surroundings the least and also use my bycicle and the train and everything to help to conserve it. I am about to study biotechnology to elaborate on the matter of sustainability and to do some research in this area.
How we deal with our life and with the life of others is somehow absurd. We put ourself in the center. We put ourself first. No matter what. But this will eventually lead to something really, really horrible and will cause great damage. If we do not wake up and realise how everything is connected and how everything we do, we say, we purchase can affect the daily life of us or others and how this is a political matter, I don't want to think about the consequences we are going to have to face.
And, again, this makes me sad.
I have friends who have the same view as I do on politics. I also have friends who care about animals and are vegans. Well, I actually do not have friends that exclusively buy their clothes fair or second hand, but I know that there are people out there who do that. But yet, I don't know a single person who is that radical to carry it all out. I mean, of course, the people I like to surround myself with all understand the importancy of these matters, but, I don't know, seem to not care too much to use both pronouns.
I don't know and I really, really hope i don't do anybody any wrong but sometimes, I feel so alone with the way I think. But well, then again, I try to look on the brightside and realise how many amazing people are in my life who just get it. Who know that we live in a patriachy and in capitalism. That's amazing. That's so amazing. All I can do is try to make people realise the urgency of different issues. And I need to start with myself.
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