My 30th Post and Counting...=D

I had a great holiday in Nice with my partner - the sun was hot, the sky was blue and the food and wine was lovely. It was great to get away from the UK, although I couldn't say that France is perfect, it has its problems too. When you go on holiday somewhere, you don't necessarily get the true character of a place, although I still love the whole sitting outside in cafes people watching thing :)

I've been back for two weeks now, kind of still collecting my thoughts and figuring out what I'm doing. I'm definitely hoping to do an MA, I'll be looking at York Uni again and emailing people next week. If I don't do Women's Studies I'll do Sociology as you can do research on almost anything that you are interested in.

I've been reading a lot of books written by women recently - in particular, Alice Walker and Marge Piercy. I had already read The Color Purple and Woman on the Edge of Time, so I wanted to read other things they had written. I've read 'Now is the Time to Open Your Heart' (Alice Walker) and I'm now reading 'Sex Wars' by Marge Piercy. I've also got a book by Ursula K. Le Guin lined up to read next. Although I've got a lot of reading to do about feminism - in particular I want to read Andrea Dworkin and more of Sheila Jeffreys - I am actually feeling like I'm learning alot from reading literature written by women.

The particular thing about reading books by women who actually write full, important and real female characters in their books is that you learn to appreciate the richness and individuality of women, and feel inspired about what they are capable of. Women that write engaging and rich women characters really inspire me. I think literature is a great way of exploring the potential of women and how society could be or should be. Especially in feminist utopian writing, science fiction and feminist literature ('Sex Wars' is fantastic, I recommend it!).

I'm also getting into music like Le Tigre and Sleater Kinney, who are fab. Although not entirely a feminist 'action' as such, I think I'm trying to support pro-women bands and music. I feel uncomfortable about alot of the images and lyrics used in rock music, although I love a lot of it. I wish we could have music that didn't degrade women in some way, by treating them as sex objects.

It's hard not to feel betrayed by certain women in the music industry as they put their images across as sex objects (or the media/record company does) and often don't write or sing about anything worthwhile (the repertoir usually involves love, losing men, etc etc). It would be great if women in music had control and power over their image and didn't take any crap. I admire women who don't allow their images to be subverted by the expectations of the media. Janis Joplin, for example, was a true star, the original shouty woman of rock.

Anyway, sorry this post was so short..I'm really tired and I've been ill with a bug for the past few days. My family seem to have it too although my Dad doesn't. I'm feeling better though!