Social Stereotype #1: The Suit

My boyfriend has recently started at Deloittes, and I have recently started calling him a 'Suit'. Because he's a nice suit, I haven't been too scathing. But check out Urban Dictionary for its less gentle definitions. (Some made me laugh out loud with their accuracy).

Wisdom of the Young

I always knew my baby sister (six years my junior) was beyond her years. She is beautiful, intelligent and so wise, I am often the one asking her for advice rather than vice versa. However, when she read her English oral to me, I knew I had to post it on my blog, if only to serve as a reminder that there are courageous, strong-willed human beings in our midst, and they are often far younger than ourselves!

"The current event I will be speaking on today is that of the suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer, a fourteen year old boy from New York who was a heroic activist against homophobia and bullying.

Approximately of the 4500 teens that commit suicide every year, 450 of them are gay. That’s basically a third of our school.

Jamey was openly gay and blogged about the torment and hate he received every single day because of this. He was told that he was disgusting, that he was going to hell because being gay was a sin and that he must just die, everyone would be happier if he did. When he was at school, people would call him a fag and constantly abuse him. Throughout enduring all of this, Jamey still remained brave and supportive to the followers on his blogs.

Jamey committed suicide on September 18^th, 2011.

How many more teens should have to end their lives for people to realise that they need to do something about the bullying. At our own school, this form of bullying takes place every single day, it just shows what unintelligent, narrow-minded fools we have in our midst. So what if someone is homosexual, it’s not something they chose, just like you did not choose to be straight. So the next time one of you even dares to pass a comment, or act like it’s a contagious disease, remember, you’re just contributing to someone’s pain and suffering and you don’t know how long, or short a period of time it’ll take for them to break down. Hate speech is illegal and it is punishable by law. Remember that the next time you call someone a fag."

Another Sad Headline

Get the full story at Mail & Guardian.

Stoked!

One of our assignments in torture class last year (aka Design 4), was to design a 120 page magazine. The 120-pager, as it came to be known, was not the only reason I sweated blood when it came to portfolio time, but it owned a hefty chunk of it.

After being inspired by uber-cool NYC Surf Collective, I decided to create (design/ photograph and write) a surfing magazine for women. There are loads of trendy. die-for-those-flip-flops surfing magazines but I wanted to create a niche one for a South African female market, that, although based on surfing, offers a variety of other articles to a woman who makes surfing part of her life, but is a woman in her own right too.

The above are just a few spreads from the magazine. Enjoy x x x

Black is clearly [still] not the new black

Ifashion.co.za recently posted an article about the lack of black models at a fashion show in Rio (that's in Brazil for those of you from East London).

Read the rest of the article here.

Meanwhile, Charlize Theron's insensitive and patronising remarks to Viola Davis regarding her inability to find good acting jobs because she is a black woman, has sparked another race debate in Hollywood. (Remember the furor over Halle and her Oscar?) How long must the world wait for black women to play a dynamic role that isn't in a Tyler Perry film and that might actually be produced by a major, mainstream studio?

If you have philistine-like tendencies and have not been a privy to the latest race-row, check out indiwire.com for a scathing attack on Charlize. Check out The Washington Post if you'd like to hear the blonde beauty bathed in even more light.

We Are Sushi

For those of you who went to Rhodes, Saleem Badat is no stranger. For the plebs who missed out on the purple experience, Badat is Rhodes University's Vice-Chancellor. I will not attempt to provide a Wiki account of the guy because I don't know enough about him to do him justice, however, I will say that one of the things his presence at Rhodes impressed upon me during my four years there, was his determination to change the face of Rhodes from that of a white, liberal-arts institution for affluent lily-skinned, private-schooled kids to that of a place of acceptance for those of all races, sexual preferences and backgrounds.

Check out his input at the Dispatch Dialogues here, where he can be quoted as saying today's youth view politics as "as stepping stones to eat sushi".

PS. On a lighter note, I found an amusing (and pretty accurate) description of Rhodent.
Check it out here.

This week in headlines