The Real Issue at Hand

It is heartbreaking that this whole hullabaloo of pre-marital sex has escalated into such a huge issue. This should not be the case. Instead, consider the real issue behind this prejudice anyway. To contextualize this, the issue lies herein mainly on the purity of the bride during marriage. From a very young age, she’s told to save herself for her husband because her purity is the greatest gift she can ever give her husband. It ingrains and instills into her a feeling of guilt and an extreme dislike of any form of sexual activities. There are cases that even after marriage, that guilt still lingers and it makes them feel dirty.

By teaching this view, society is basically telling women that all of their worth lies on whether or not they are virgins; that it is the responsibility of men to defile women like trophies. In fact, men are encouraged to. From a very young age, men are told to have a lot of sex, to collect women, so to say. But there’s a really big loophole there; men are encouraged to have a lot of sex, but women aren’t allowed to, gay sex is discouraged, bestiality is wrong, and masturbation is a sin… You get the deal. Because of the huge value society puts on virgin women, every young woman, probably starting from pre-teens (and isn’t that already a huge problem), is already objectified and hypersexualised. This whole concept of the value of virginity reduces women to how men should perceive them, as sexual creatures responsible for the sexual gratification of men.

Another problems lies, however, in what actually constitutes a virgin for women. If you define virginity as the penetration of a penis to the vagina, then majority of lesbians are probably still virgins. Seriously, this whole concept of virginity is heteronormative. It erases other forms of sexualities from homosexuality to asexuality. It reduces sex to male penetration to the vagina. Newsflash for everyone, just in case it isn’t already obvious, there are many forms of sexual acts and penetration is just one of them and is probably not the most sexually pleasing.

This creates power towards defiling women and making them impure through male penetration. It creates and reinforces rape culture which are practices majority think are normal. This poses a huge problem among victims of rape as well. They lost their virginity without their consent and are thus no longer of value to society. That’s such a harmful way to think!

On a related note, if sex is reduced to male penetration, then women should have a lot of sex with other women anyway and it wouldn’t be wrong.. But wait, according to the church, homosexuality is bad (even if Jesus never said so, and his whole sacrifice was meant to repeal the old testament anyway). This whole definition of sex is already, in itself, problematic. There is no clear distinction between what is good and what is bad, but one thing I know for certain is that it feels good, and if your God doesn’t want you to feel good, then I’m not sure I want to follow that God anyway.

Furthermore, society will still judge women anyway for whatever they choose or not choose to do. If women have sex before marriage, they’re called sluts. If they don’t, they’re a prude. And if they call you out on it, they’re a bitch. It doesn’t make sense but it’s the simplest of truths that women have to live with as long as patriarchal concepts are still rampant. That, I think, is the real issue at hand.

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Crossposted from FamiPOP Bloggers (original post)

Analysis on Chinese-North Korean Relations

It's currently finals week at school which is why I haven't had time to post anymore outfit shots. 

As many of you know, I major in International Studies and these are the types of things that we do. Do I regret it? Maybe just a little, there are definitely times when I have no idea what I'm reading about. This may be one of them but I'm posting this here because gdi Flowboard is pretty. 

This presentation is for our "China and the World" class. If you want a copy of our paper, just comment down below or email me at vveramare@gmail.com :D (Also I just realized that I mention USCHINA the most on this blog, I swear we have different classes!)

view on Flowboard here!

AMSTUD Field Trip

On March 21st, my fellow American Studies classmates and I went on a field trip to the US Embassy in Manila (follow them on twitter and facebook)and to the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

I would've taken pictures but because I knew we were going to the US Embassy, I figured that we weren't allowed to bring electronics. This is why I went to school with nothing--no phone, no iPad, and foolishly enough, no ID (it was a good thing they still let me inside). However, my classmates brought their fancy smartphones and just surrendered them upon entrance.

Which is why all the pictures here were from my classmates. Mostly by Justine, though because she was my bus buddy!

This is the whole gang. My friends and I all sat at the very far end of the bus because that's where the cool kids sit. It's kind of funny how we were all told to wear blue--the passers-by must have assumed we were from our rival university.

Me and Justine with Alaine's derpy face. It was also really cold in the bus. 

We were obviously not allowed to take pictures in the US Embassy but what I can say is that I learned so much from the speakers they brought in at the Thomas Jefferson Information Center and that the interior and exterior of the place was amazing and filled with so much history. I can't wait to work there someday.

For lunch, we ate at Kpub BBQ (also on Facebook). It's one of those restaurants where they bring you your food raw and you'd have to cook it yourself which was very unfortunate for us because we weren't sure if the meat we were eating was already cooked. 

Later on when the attendant came by to get more of our orders, she told us that the meat we were cooking were already burnt. All of the meat we ate were burnt. Oops.

Here's everyone again.

Once finished eating, we all went to the parking lot to wait for the bus. It took a long time but at least we weren't waiting for the bus in the rain.

While waiting for the bus everyone went wild and took a whole bunch of oscar selfies. This guy on the bottom right is as big as a moose with a longer reach so he can include waaaay more people on his selfies.

and more goofy shots. 

Before going to the cemetery, we were told off for taking goofy pictures and were warned to pay respects to the dead and not be too hyper.

The cemetery was beautiful. This picture doesn't give justice to the symmetry and order of the crosses (and some Stars of David).

The chapel.

The view of Taguig

Justine

The Star Spangled Banner

Taguig. You can see the straight white rows behind the trees.

The place was massive.

Behind Justine you can see names etched on the wall. These are the people who were Missing In Action.

I felt really bad wearing my High School National History Club shirt because I sincerely don't want History to Repeat itself, but it was the only blue shirt I own and we were told to wear jeans and I really hate jeans as well.

This place was so pretty, ok? It was well kept and very peaceful. I wish I can return here soon.

Fizzing Whizzbees

Wide sleeved shirt from Fad District, Pink skater skirt with suspenders from DJ chic Collezionne, Sneakers from Converse with Tokidoki laces, Tote shoulder bag from Aeropostale, Ring from H&M, necklace from Charlotte Russe, beaded bracelet from Kohl's, Gold bangle from a gift

Fizzing Whizzbees are a popular magical sweet sold in Honeydukes sweetshop in Hogsmeade. They are large sherbet balls that will cause a person who sucks on them to float a few inches off the ground. Rumor has it hat this phenomenon is due to the secret ingredient of dried Billywig stings because being stuck by a Billywig will make a person levitate for a few seconds. However this rumor might just be an inspiration from the urban legends about sweets, including Bubble Yum, the world's first non-hard chewing gum, which was softened through spider's eggs. (From the Harry Potter Wikia).

I named this outfit after Fizzing Whizzbees because it's color is primarily pink and it's very girly and light which makes you feel like you're floating--like you couldn't care less what other people thought. And that's probably one of my biggest new year resolutions (haha, three months in and I'm just now talking about my new year's resolutions).

What exactly are my New Year's resolutions? Honestly, I'm not quite sure. 

Maybe the first obvious one is to lessen my intake of inappropriate starches (what my sister calls bags of chips). I used to spend at least P200 per week over those--don't judge me, I love my cheap chips to bits especially if you're eating them while marathoning a whole bunch of TV shows (see list of current fandoms to the right of my blog, aka Hannibal, mmm that tends to get both me and my sister lose and gain our appetite). But this is as far as I go towards "healthy living". 

"Healthy Living"? Nope. Pancit Canton 4EVER!

Lately, I've spent my money on baking supplies. A new baking supply store just opened recently (if by recently you mean within six months) near our house and they're owned and staffed by the friendliest people ever. (I'm going to make a post about them this Saturday, if they let me!). And yes, this is another of my New Year's resolutions!

However, my real new year's resolution is this blog! I may be a month late in actually taking it seriously but hey, better late than pregnant never. I'm starting out to be more positive in my life. I've noticed that if you surround yourself with negative thoughts then you will always only perceive the world to be negative. It's finally time to stop being so pessimistic and to take pleasure in the little things. 

It could be watching a really heart breaking movie in one of your classes. 

I sat alone in the back and cried my heart out for Enjolras and sang along to the songs and told the guy in front of me to join me in barricading the classroom on Monday!

Maybe take joy in using your free period to browse the internet in the university computer lab? Time well spent.

Or really good notes you took in High School. These are my AP US Government notes that I studied again today because I took part 2 of my diagnostic test. So far, I feel really good about it---it could even be the fact that you tried your best in your academics. I mean, hey, you may not be the smartest or the brightest, but at least you know you put an effort into things.

Wilson Jones Binder from the Office Depot

It could even be as simple as a pretty binder that totally matches your outfit, really.

And that there are little pretty things. But honestly, this ring is so attention grabbing that I tend to keep the ribbon side inside my palm (and I may love wearing rings, but I love to fist bump more. Aaah problems).

Know that the ground you walk on is here because someone made it so. Know that the world exists because of the harmony of nature--inherent opposites.

Just, moral of the story? Don't let anyone stop you from doing anything. Don't let the fear of embarrassment hinder you from doing anything. Live life like crazy. and procrastinate doing your 10 page final paper due tomorrow because #YOLO

i am not a robot

Floral dress from Forever 21, White hooded jacket from my sister's closet, Gold airwalk sneakers from Payless Shoe Source, belt from H&M, satchel from Greenhills, robot necklace from Divisoria, Darth Vader ring from Precious Little Trinkets at FB

A good thing happened today, I got the results of our US-China Relations midterms back and i got highest in the class! This revelation surprised me greatly because whoa, I'm honestly not that great and I didn't really study all that much. Ah, but oh well—I still feel amazing.

Then five minutes later, I find out that our Spanish project/presentation was due in four hours. It was really a good thing that today happens to be a Thursday which meant that my Dad probably hasn't left the house yet. I called him up and asked him to take pictures of our living room, kitchen, and backyard and then email them to me. 

I skipped my US Foreign Policy analysis class to work in the library and when It was time for Spanish, our professor handed out our midterm exams as well, and i got highest too! This day just keeps getting better and better! Afterwards, I finally presented my house and hopefully got decent marks even if i spoke really slowly and then really quickly. Hopefully my professor understood what i was trying to say. 

While I was presenting in class, I kept remembering that one text post that's been circulating on my tumblr dash. It went something like how weird it is to have foreign language classes in an elementary level because in your native language, you probably speak articulately, but then in the foreign language, you're reduced to speaking in verses and short sentences for a grade (or something like that).

Before going home, I bumped into one of my influential professors and I told him about my future thesis. He gave me a fist bump and showed great enthusiasm and engaged me in intellectual and thought-provoking conversations which he ended with a list of useful references for my thesis. Which is why I urge all of you to become friends with your professors.