Sikiliza

On #IWD I edited an info-graph that for me often reflects the subjugation of women's contribution in society because we angle it through a male lens for social ratification.... And so because someone ( a man) asked (twice) 'what was the harm' of the unedited version I toyed with the idea of saying google is your friend mate  and moving on but then decided to repost the graphic and a small blurb...please indulge me.... “....Language is deeply political. A lot of what you are “not getting” is also from a place where there are no perceptible “ill intentions” in the unedited version of this info-graph.....but that is the genius-ness of sexism and ageism in language and in its ability to be pervasive, trivialising and undermining in its delivery. “Language is a great carrie r of stereotyping and great place to assert socially sanction power of what is a ‘normalised standard’ of genius-ness and this is what makes this post extremely condescending. Ageism or more ...

There is a running joke with my friends that I am a magpie. From the myths of our colonizers,  magpies love (and steal) bright shiny objects and hoard them. I have never encountered or heard about these shine-loving thieving birds in the African savannah, so I can only draw references to European folklores. And so if the magpie’s occupation is anything to go by then we have a similar calling. I frequently like the things so called fashion gurus find shiny, tacky and averse. I love glitter, busy patterns, chunky mismatched jewellery, bold colours, sequins and big patterned prints and all manner of perceived fashion faux pas. I never take too seriously those who are scandalised by how people look and dress. I pretty much wear what I like and like what I wear and definitely I enjoy people who are as liberated from fashion faux pas.   And so this got me thinking a little bit about our bodies, adornments, appearances, body images and their significance.   I also t...

self portrait - some Sunday, 2017 I just realised today how immeasurable time is. There is simply never enough time it seems to exhaustively say or do something anything right these days really.... I feel like life has whizzed past and there have been many vivid moments I recall, but on the whole it is hard to imagine my life at the face of four decades ... where did time go? It went like a flash.... As I stop and take a moment to appreciate life; I feel my bare heels sink and dig into the ground a little more firmly now. I am more protective and deeply appreciative of everything around me; the colors, the textures, the moments, the feelings. I say to myself, wow awesome, I wish I could stop and pay more attention to this now that I see how valuable and beautiful life's experience can be. Most times though, there are so many competing pressures nudging or pulling me aside that I quickly snap out of the musing. Some of you may know that I psyche up for night school ...

As a feminist I believe in equality because ‘the boy child’ could really do without a skewered SYSTEM that sets him up for as much failure as it does ‘the girl child’….. and it starts when we have to explain to you that gender roles  are not set in stone but at the backyard of a effed up hierarchal SYSTEM that reduces people have to pick from two opposite sides. For instance the narrow gender roles of so called ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’… and we all know you cant be ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ enough its a perpetual aspiration!…. so this crazy SYSTEM keeps making you think and say crap things like "a REAL MAN does xxxx’ or ‘a TOTAL MAN does yyyy’ and effed up things like ‘AS A WOMAN’, you must be xxxx" or nonsense like ‘IMAGINE A WHOLE WOMAN, or as ‘A MOTHER(??)’ and she had the audacity to do yyyy.’ It is a system designed to make you feel inadequate and to make you feel you need to reassert yourself and your identity based on very narrow standards of what you can...

I must admit, I am at a low point right this minute; my body mind and soul are screaming exhaustion and its not even 10am. Most nights, I toss and turn at flashes of ideas, pending things in my to-do list that now haunt and occupy my dreams. I sleep late and wake up early, almost guilty for 'wasting time' resting when there is so so much to do and so little time. It sounds ridiculous and unsustainable but I am afraid that thats the current situation. I enjoy the work I do but as we all know it is not always easy. Also, new developments! I am so happy to be back in University doing part time night classes. Even at the tail end of a busy workday my brain is absorbing everything I can - I keep having to virtually pinch myself in class to remind myself that my 16 year hiatus of studies has finally ended! I am soo excited! More and more, into my journey of embracing feminist principles, I am in awe of how much I do not know. I have been transitioning from a default shrug...