Check Your Privilege

So lately there's been this angry op/ed by a Princeton student called "Check Your Privilege" floating around the internet. Basically, this white male decides to post about how America is completely fair and how his hard work shouldn't be shrugged upon because he's a white male. Once upon a time, his familial ancestors also worked incredibly hard to help him gain the advantages he's had in life. When you get accepted to an Ivy League, there's not that much doubt that you are intelligent and were chosen based on merit (unless your family literally paid for you to be there..). I don't think anyone is questioning his hard work but at the same time, he's had it a bit easier than an ethnic minority who gained the same result. That's undeniable, and if you don't see that then you are an idiot. 

I posted a similar thing about this regarding the film industry and Rebecca Sugar. Literally everywhere you look in America is dominated by white males. Everything we read in English class is usually written from the narrow scope of a white male (Shakespeare, Heart of Darkness, EM Forster, etc). Last year was the first time I had read Asian poetry and this year we read Things Fall Apart. Our education system, history, and attitudes are geared toward white males. Can I just mention that Obama is OUR FIRST non-100% white male president? How many minorities or women are CEOs? 

Unless you regard minorities and the work they produce as subpar to that of white males, what other reason is there for a society with such hierarchy? Sure there may be laws in place to promote equality, but deep within all our psyche is a sense of racism and inequality. 

Privilege isn't something that you just give yourself. It's not that gold sticker a teacher gives you to reward you for good behavior. It's something that just exists in the system. There are little nuances that people rarely realize but hold you behind. 

Women have been living for years under the standards that MEN have built for them. Have you ever noticed that you never call female political figures by only their last name? Those little things are all setbacks that women and minority groups have to overcome. Non-white and/or non-males start the game with having something to prove while this extra hurdle does not exist for white males. 

At the end of the day, I understand that familial ancestry points to a hard past but that's not YOUR life right now. The challenges for white males began a long, long, long time ago and by now you no longer have to jump that hurdle. I think it absurd to say that America is based on solely meritocracy. 

xx stay lovely

Dot Patrol

Hello everyone! Perhaps you've noticed that there are some major changes on my blog. I'm back for real :) However with AP tests looming (literally at my nose), these two weeks will be tough to post anything insightful, inspirational, or even zany. I'm just going to be working on some of the minor design changes while waiting for the storm to pass.

Things I have accomplished thus far:
-new blog layout! do you guys like it? I went for the clean, easy, yet whimsical look. I got rid of the button and the chat box thing because I felt that they weren't that useful... comment your wonderful thoughts instead :3
-one photo thing. So I found a great way to integrate instagram into this blog. I have a brand new instagram meant solely for capturing one daily moment of every day. The app reloads every 30 mins so there should be a new little photo waiting for you :) It's a lot simpler for me to take a pic and have it upload straight instead of having a tab and a collage and what not. It also kills two birds with one stone, because I'll take pictures of my better outfits :) My fashion isn't developed enough to have a whole tab. If you click one photo, my profile comes up with all the photos I've taken so far with this new instagram. If you have a hankering to keep up with my daily moments follow at yawn1.
-I WILL update my reading and exercise tabs. I just don't have any new content yet..
-I'm still working on that schedule and a place to put it too.

So I also found a new url that represents this stage of my life better than pinkstoryofme. Dotpatrol seems my essence. It doesn't really make sense but it's quirky and adorable for reasons unexplainable. There's no larger story or deep message to it. You miss a lot of things when you overanalyze, as I've slowly been learning. I'm not a hipster in a sense that I like things from the 1970s or obscure movies and literature just to be anti-mainstream. I just get really excited by obscurity and the word quirky. This blog is simply dotpatrol. It's simply me.

xx see you soon

The Paradox of Bowling Shoes

I know this blog has been going on a downwards slump which reflects the state of my life. So I'm going to pick myself up and be back running for the month of May! I want to work on new blog designs, new stories, new rants about feminism, actual updates on my subpages, etc. So bear with me as I take a short break to get it back up to speed.

Things I want to accomplish:

-new blog layout . . . 

-one photo a month for a collective little moment (like a collage of 30 or so photos)

-posts for the happenings of my exercise and reading.. 

-a new updated schedule of the things I want to post: I have a tentative plan in mind. I want to continue writing fiction, start writing reviews/my own analysis of my favorite tv shows, feminism rants (most of the musings have been feminism related..), and probably some more stuff that I think of.. 

-fashion T.T (I don't have someone to take artsy photos in the background of beautiful nature)

In the next few months, I'm transitioning into a college student. I definitely want to continue blogging and document the growth of life. I'm not sure how being a college student will affect this blog yet. I'm guessing layout will be a large factor in the change. It's a bright, vibrant, chaotic time in my life. 

I'll leave you with a zany little thought though. I don't go bowling much but when I do, I revel in wearing bowling shoes. I have pretty small feet even in normal circumstances, but somehow my feet look even smaller and so cute in bowling shoes. Bowling shoes started my love of oxfords. Yet, for people with larger feet, bowling shoes can make your feet look extremely large like clown feet. I thought that was an interesting paradox. 

Haha, see you in May!