He and She for Us

I figured I would take a break from my extremely stressful and test-filled few weeks to reward myself by writing a blog post. I remember a few months ago when Emma Watson was first appointed as the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and how excited everyone was to see the real-life Hermione Granger take a stand and fight for her beliefs like we all expect her to do. I remember thinking it was pretty cool, thinking reaffirmed how awesome Emma Watson is. But then she made this speech a few days ago and I actually realized how fantastic she is: 

So much truth in such an eloquent and powerful statement. People often think of women's rights and women's empowerment as an issue only in developing nations. There's this common sentiment of "Oh, we're Americans and we treat everyone equally." But do we really? This idea that we take for granted doesn't really seem to stand true. The United States (and Great Britain and Canada and any other developed country) faces many of the same problems when it comes to gender equality. In 2010, the female-to-male earnings ratio was .81, meaning women earned 19% less than men for the same work. On the bright side, this income gap is closing, but it is taking entirely too long. 

Another issue I've witnessed often is this idea of "feminism" and how unfortunately misinformed some people are. Feminism is not a reverse-discrimination targeting man. Feminism is not the idea that women are superior to men. One of my favorite articles responding to this misconception is actually by TSM (Total Sorority Move). Also major kudos to Emma Watson and her admirable strength in dealing with some of the incredibly mean-spirited responses her statement provoked (in the wise words of Taylor Swift, "haters gonna hate hate hate.") Also, I actually just read this article about some of the flaws in Emma Watson's message. I don't think I completely agree with it--for example, I think that some of the reasons we stress the abuse of men on women is because it occurs more often than women abusing men or family members, not because we are trying to ignore the problems of men. I do, on the other hand, agree with the idea that we should all be standing for the rest of mankind.  

Over the past year, I have come to realize that many of the problems we have in the world (whether it is low voter turnout or social pathologies) are a result of blissful ignorance. I truly do not believe that ignorance is bliss. Maybe it can be if you decide to completely shut yourself off to anything regarding topics you are uninformed of--but how realistic is that? This lack of knowledge or lack of education leads to misinformed decisions and uneducated proclamations that can only lead to further development of the conflict. There are so many aspects of the world that it's impossible to be professionally competent in each of them, but imagine how much more informed we would be if everyone took ten minutes out of their day to learn about something new. If every person had this natural inclination to inquisition and a desire to truly understand an empathize our family, our peers, and even strangers. How incredibly wishful and naive is that? I recognize that it is a ridiculous notion. But I think a part of me will always dream of an ideal world where every citizen makes decisions for the common good. 

This post kind of took an unexpected turn, but I think that's the beauty in writing. Personally, I am going to aim to educate myself on new topics and controversies every chance I get. And I think that's a pretty great place to start.