I've Been Thinking... - Easy Ways To Make The World A Better Place This Christmas.

Hi!!!

Welcome back, everyone. I hope you're all having a good week so far. It's Blogmas Day Six and today's post is all about some really simple ways to help others and make the world a better place this festive season (and beyond) - I think Christmas is definitely a time when we realise just how lucky we are and feel the urge to help those less fortunate than we are so hopefully you'll find some inspiration here.

Buy Charity Christmas Cards.

This is one of the simplest things because almost all of us will be sending Christmas cards this December. Buying Charity Christmas Cards means that some of the price that you'd already be paying goes to a charity to help them with the good work they do. They are also a great way to raise awareness for charities because all of  those who receive a card from you will also see the charity you have chosen to support. Paperchase offer twenty-four different designs which each see 50p go to one of twenty-four different charities - including Action on Addiction, Centre Point, the Alzheimer's Society, Autistica and Nordoff Robbins. Charity shops also sell their own cards - check out the British Heart Foundation, their cards are always beautiful.

Donate To Food Banks.

The Trussell Trust runs a network of more than 400 food banks, giving emergency food and support to people in crisis across the UK and with increasing disparities in wealth and the introduction of Universal Credit, more and more people are having to rely on them. There are collection points in Tesco stores up and down the country and their own collection points elsewhere - you can find your nearest collection points here. Something as simple as picking up an extra bag of rice or box of mince pies or tin of beans when you're doing your weekly shop could make the world of difference to a family that is struggling this Christmas.

Wear a Christmas Jumper.

I blogged about Save The Children's Christmas Jumper Day last year and I wanted to mention it again this year because it is such a fun way to make a difference this Christmas. This year, it takes place on the 15th of December. The idea is very simple - you wear a Christmas jumper and raise money and awareness for Save The Children. You could bring Christmas Jumper Day into your workplace, you could get all of your family to join you in sporting their best festive sweaters but even if you're a one man band, you can still proudly wear your jumper and donate (here).

Buy Gifts Mindfully.

Similarly to the Christmas cards, giving Christmas presents is something a lot of us will be doing this month. There are lots of ways that you can give mindful gifts which benefit more than just you and the person who receives it. Whether you choose to buy gifts from which a percentage of the profit goes to a good cause or buy from businesses that support small communities in developing countries or buy from businesses owned by women or PoC, there are plenty of options. I've listed some ideas below but there really are so many more options out there, too.

Feminist Apparel offer t-shirts (and more) which see a percentage of profit go to social justice causes (such as this pin which benefits Black Lives Matter and these lovely t-shirts for The Equality Institute).

 L'Occitane are offering this limited edition candle which sees all profits split between three charities - Rosa in the UK, Toutes a l'ecole in Cambodia and Entrepreneurs du Monde in Africa and would be a perfect and affordable gift for any fans of home-ware (it costs £9).

The entirety of the price of Lush's Charity Pot body lotion (minus taxes) goes to grassroots organisations which align with Lush's ethics in the areas of environmental conservation, human rights and animal welfare (and, as it is available in various sizes and at various price points, it has the potential to make a perfect Secret Santa gift or stocking filler).

There's also the option of buying items such as books, DVDs, board games and vinyl records in charity shops, too - I know Oxfam are particularly good for books, for instance, but there are plenty more options so it's worth keeping an eye out.

It's Not Just for Christmas, It's for Life.

As I said at the start of this post, I think we all feel a really strong desire to make the world a better place at Christmas because it is a time when we really see how fortunate we are. However, I think one of the best ways you can do this is, is to make a promise to yourself that you will try and take this spirit into the New Year and keep offering help in whatever way you can. Whether you decide to make a monthly donation to a charity or decide to donate to a food bank every fortnight or give spare change to homeless people on your way home from work or give blood - there are so many ways you can keep up the work you start doing this December. It really isn't that difficult and if we all do something, no matter how small it seems, we really do have the power to make a difference in our local and global communities.

I hope you liked this post and that you have found it helpful.

Do you have any ideas for how we can make a difference this Christmas? Do you have any other comments or suggestions for future posts? Leave a comment to let me know.

See you tomorrow for Blogmas Day Seven!

Enjoy today and let your joy fill the world,

GingerSnaps xxx

I've Been Thinking... - Women Are Not Prizes, Girlfriends Are Not Career Highlights.

Hi!!!

Today's post comes from my Thursday brain, which was intercepted by an article I read on Billboard yesterday morning, and that was whirring all day. My Friday brain hopes, I'll be able to do this topic justice and you'll find it interesting.

This morning, I clicked onto the Billboard website while I waited to get started with work. I was scrolling through the headlines, when one grabbed my attention. It read, 'Harry Styles Career Highlights (So Far), From Taylor Swift to SNL'. I wouldn't normally read an article about Harry Styles, I wouldn't normally read anything about any member of One Direction to be perfectly honest, but I couldn't help but read this particular one. I had an idea that the mention of Taylor Swift would be to do with their relationship but I hoped not. I clicked it partly to see if I was right, and partly because I wanted to find out why else she was mentioned if I was wrong.

As it happens, I was right. Harry Styles and Taylor Swift's relationship is classed by Billboard magazine as one of Harry's career highlights. If that wasn't bad enough, the next highlight of Harry's career is that there were rumours last year that he was dating Kendall Jenner.

In case you were wondering, other highlights are actual career highlights - his first Battle of the Bands win, securing his place in One Direction, launching his solo career. You can read the whole article here if you'd like to.

I must say, I was so very disappointed when I read the article, not least because I'm now running out of music magazines that I actually like - NME is off the list, find out why here. Of course that wasn't the main reason I was disappointed. I was disappointed because normally, traditional media outlets like newspapers, are the places I find this kind of sexism and while it still hurts my heart to see, I have sadly come to understand that that is their game. However, magazines like Billboard are supposed to be, I should think, more progressive, more aware of the voices of a wide range of people. Alas, no. Apparently, there are only a handful of media outlets that are not sexist, and I would therefore suggest against equality in other areas. That is ultimately what it boils down to - being against equality. Sexism, racism, homophobia and other such destructive societal viewpoints are evidence of someone being against equality.

There is a long standing view in society, that I would argue is diminishing as the years go on, that women are prizes, and winning over a woman is the same as winning an award. From the day dot, right up to the recently coined trophy wives, our patriarchal societies have propagated a belief that kissing girls, or having a girlfriend, or getting married are achievements for those of the male gender.

It is of course highly ironic that one of Harry Styles' career achievements, as written by Billboard, is his relationship with Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift, who is constantly torn down by the media for her romances, and has been since her career launched as a teenager. I have never heard, and can guarantee I will never hear, any of Taylor's relationships being described as a career achievements. When the relationships are discussed with Taylor in mind, they are failures, they are mistakes, they are yet another example of Taylor being something bad, like a jinx or a bore or a woman obsessed. This only emphasises the feminist issues surrounding this article. Why are their photographically documented matching necklaces and walks through Central Park the height of romance, and a win for Harry, when for Taylor they are signs that they were taking things to fast, and yet another relationship that she couldn't make work.

Then of course is the never confirmed romance with Kendall Jenner. I can see why people were interested in it at the time - one the most successful models in the world, from a highly influential family, potentially finding love with a hugely successful boy band member who also starred on a reality show. However, they never confirmed this romance, no matter how desperately some fans hoped they would. If it wasn't already awful that Billboard class one of Harry's relationships as an achievement, they also class his mere association with another beautiful girl to be one too, as if, even though it didn't quite match up, it was still a win that he managed to get close enough for the speculation to arise.

I obviously don't know the ins and outs of these relationships, and neither does the media, despite what they might like to think. However, the very notion if what may have been highly meaningful relationships being reduced to a success is, I think, rather hurtful, whether one takes into account the feminist issues that go along with it or not.

But of course, this behaviour is learnt from as early as school - the boys kiss multiple girls and are praised by their friends, but the girls get called names for similar behaviour. Males are not targeted in this aspect of life in the same way females are, and that is just how it is. Of course, males aren't free from scrutiny and criticism in this area, but I'd argue it is to a lesser extent than for their female counterparts.

Not only is this article destructive in its presentation of women, it also takes away from Harry Styles' actual career achievements. I'm not a One Direction fan, but even I don't mind saying that the band has been hugely popular, and that its members have achieved great things. According to Nick Gatfield, the chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment UK, One Direction represented a $50 million business empire by June 2012, just two years after their formation. Their solo careers are already flourishing - Harry's debut solo single was only released a few days ago and has already been viewed by millions of people. In the same way that Taylor and Kendall are talented and successful in their own right, Harry is too. I'm sure he has plenty of actual career achievements that could have been listed rather than the women he has been involved with.

That Billboard article is negative overall for everyone involved. If it had been an article documenting Harry Styles' life in the public eye in all aspects, or it had been, despite my dislike of such articles, about his relationship history, I think I could have understood the inclusion of Taylor Swift and Kendall Jenner. Standing the way it does now, the article is problematic in relation to the feminist cause, it reflects badly on Harry Styles (who I imagine knew nothing of the creation of this article before its publication) and it makes Billboard look foolish and insensitive to the causes that people

are involved with and want to stand up for.

Our perceptions are coloured by what we read and hear, and to put an article like this out there is to suggest that speaking of women as though they are prizes is acceptable - it is not.

This kind of content, no matter where it comes from, is destructive. Whether it is in a magazine, a newspaper, of out of the mouth of someone you know, don't be afraid to call it out for what it is, in this case sexism. Make your voice heard, and involve yourself in the on going battle for equality. Pull no punches and let everyone know, whether they are as influential as Billboard, or as unheard of as your next-door neighbour, that equality is important, and the way we communicate is one of the first and easiest steps we should take to get there.

And that brings this post to an end. I hope you enjoyed it.

Want to discuss this or similar issues with me? Drop a comment below and start a debate. I'd love to hear from you.

I'm off to the cinema this evening to watch new episodes of Peter Kay's Car Share as part of a Comic Relief event - you can find tickets for your local VUE cinema here if you want to see those and help a great cause, too.

Thank you for reading.

Have a fabulous day!

GingerSnaps xxx