Although not a particularly breathtaking piece of art, this quote from author R.S. Grey quickly became my motto. I am of the firm belief that you can achieve anything you set your mind to.
Towards the end of last year I became more aware of my increasing unhappiness in London, brought on by nothing in particular and everything in general. Common sense dictates that if you aren't happy with you life then you should change it. So that's what I sought out to do. One of/the only perk to not having a boyfriend is that I'm not restricted when considering possible job locations- I have no one else to consider in my decision making....selfish but true. In the spirit of this I applied for jobs in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, America, Australia- I was open to anything! I went to secret interviews on my days off work in a desperate attempt to satisfy my need for change(hence the lack of blogging). 2 months later and no news from the interviews. I gave up. I went for a freelance interview and decided I would move back to the North and freelance until I had found some balance in my life.
Apparently this was against some divine plan as 4 days after making this decision I received a phone call to say I had been offered the job in Germany!!!! So... on the 10th March I will be uprooting my life for the second time and moving to Dusseldorf to be Print designer for girlswear at C&A's Clockhouse brand. I AM SO EXCITED!!!! I speak no German and have never worked in childrenswear. This is such a challenging opportunity and I cannot wait.
Anyway...I wanted to focus this blog post on the new Sport England 'This Girl Can' campaign and the increase we are seeing in motivating and empowering women particularly through social media. Which I guess ties in to the piece of artwork at the beginning of this post.
 |
| 'I jiggle, therefore I am' sounds about right for me :) |
" This Girl Can is a national campaign developed by Sport England and a wide range of partnership organisations. It's a celebration of active women up and down the country who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets." (taken from the campaign website)
The campaign challenges the way the media has portrayed women over the years. It avoids airbrushed images and shows women as they are regardless of sweat dripping and fat jiggling. Finally a realistic and empowering image of women, one that we can actually relate to.
Back in September last year Emma Watson became the face of the #HeforShe campaign which brought the issue of gender discrimination to the forefront of the worlds attention. For so many years feminism has been associated with a negative stereotype, the heforshe campaign not only encourages women to be feminist, but also encourages men to speak on the behalf of women.
We seem to be experiencing a new wave of feminism, far removed from the days of fighting for women's suffrage. Over the recent years we have seen an increase in positive feminism- women standing up for their rights; for their education; for their freedom of speech. I have recently been reading 'I am Malala', an amazing account of how a young girl, Malala Yousafzai, made a stand for educating women in Afghanistan. Definitely worth a read if you haven't already.
With the mass kidnapping of 300 schoolgirls by Nigeria's Boko Haram in April last year and a resurgence of India's rape crisis in the headlines after the Badaun gang rape/murder, crimes against women constantly appeared in the headlines of 2014. It seems that, as a reaction to this, 2015 is a year of action; a year of motivating and empowering women; a year of encouraging feminism.
Recently I saw the below poster for the design museum in a tube station. I could not love this more. It is so relevant to the industry I work in and I will be making sure I see the exhibition before I move to Germany.
So....2015 A year of female empowerment.. a year where this girl can, and she will!
No comments:
Post a Comment