Carbon Tax Rant

The expected cost of living rise due to the carbon tax seems to be the only thing most anti-carbon tax warriors focus on. I can understand why people are concerned about this (I'm not thrilled about it myself), however there are a couple of much bigger issues that need to be considered. These are the economic impact, and the (lack of) environmental impact.

The economic impact is due to competitive disadvantage. Adding an extra cost to Australian producers is going to disadvantage them against producers of the same goods who are located in countries that do not have this additional cost. If our output suffers, Australian jobs can be lost due to decreased production. Since global demand will remain unchanged, the diminished supply of goods from Australian companies will simply be filled by foreign countries who will increase their production, leading to my second point.

My second point is that globally emissions may remain unchanged. As previously stated, if Australia's output reduces due to a decline in local production because of our competitive disadvantage, then a foreign country will simply increase their production to meet existing global demand. This foreign country may not have any carbon emissions scheme in place; they could in fact be a much worse polluter. So while Australia's carbon emissions may have been successfully reduced, globally emissions are likely to remain very much the same.

It's great that the Government is taking the initiative to do something about a concerning problem. Unfortunately, the approach they have chosen to take is one that I believe will have negligible impact on world-wide carbon emissions, and a significant (negative) impact on the Australian economy. The only way a system like this could work would be if the whole world was on board with exactly the same scheme.

Angry Mum on Breastfeeding

You may have heard about a recent episode of channel 7's Sunrise, where douche bag Kochie made a tool of himself by saying that breastfeeding mothers should be 'more discreet' and 'be a bit classy about it'.

Kochie, as an expert in the subject of breastfeeding, suggested a couple of ways mothers could be more classy and discreet: sitting in a corner and turning their backs to people, and/or putting a blanket over their baby and the (disgustingly offensive) boobage.

My question to David Koch is: Why the hell should they have to? As far as I'm concerned, as long as the mother isn't running around with her boob out squirting milk at random passers by (which is hilarious by the way), then it's fine. If she is simply feeding her baby, it's never inappropriate.

What he's really saying is that he's uncomfortable seeing a boob flopped out. That's cool, I get it. Sometimes I see someone breastfeeding in a public area and think 'whoa, that's a lot of boob! I'm a wee bit uncomfortable and don't know where to look.' I feel this way because it's simply not what I'm used to. Society tells us boobs are private and sexual.

But here's the the thing - If I see a breastfeeding mother and feel weird and uncomfortable, it's my problem. The fact that I'm not used to it doesn't make it wrong. It doesn't make the mother 'less classy'. She's doing what she needs to do in whatever way she feels comfortable. It's ridiculous, given the purpose of breasts, that someone should expect a mother to hide herself away in a corner or cover up with a blanket. She doesn't need to alter her behaviour - we need to alter our thought processes.

I think it's fantastic that society is slowly changing to be more accepting of breastfeeding mothers. I'm glad most women (and a lot of men) are standing up and calling Kochie the douche bag he is. It's a sign that we as a society are evolving.

Breasts exist to feed babies. Let's all deal with it.

If You're Not a Feminist, You're an Idiot.

What exactly is feminism, and why are many women so quick to repudiate it? According to Google (the fountain of all knowledge), the definitions are:

fem·i·nist

Noun

A person who supports feminism.

fem·i·nism

Noun
The advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men.

Based on its definition, I'm hoping I don't have too much faith in the human race when I say that I believe there would be very few people in this part of the world who would not support the advocacy of women's equality to men.

Many females these days will actually tell you that they are anti-feminism. I pertain that it's not feminism itself that so many women are against - it's society's perception of feminism. Often feminists are portrayed as loud, angry, hairy man-haters. Understandably, most females who actually are feminists (but may or may not know it) prefer not to be depicted in this way. Many women try to renounce feminism by making contradictory statements like 'I'm not a feminist, but...<insert comment relating to the need for gender equality here>'

As a feminist myself I don't hate men, I'm not (overly) loud, and am rarely hairy. I like to take pride in my appearance and (usually) try to dress nicely. If a man does complement me on my appearance, well then that's great. Feminism isn't about letting yourself go, not shaving your legs and hurling insults at every man who looks in your general direction. Most heterosexual feminists like to look nice to the opposite sex, we just don't want to be reduced solely to our appearance. No human does.

I probably do sometimes fit the 'angry' part of the feminist generalisation. However my anger is more to do with women than men. Men who make sexists comments aren't worth bothering about, it's just ignorance and I don't have time for it. My reaction is usually 'Meh...bogan'. What does piss me off is women who perpetuate sexist stereotypes by acting like twits around men as a way of flirting. Why reduce yourself to that?

We are still nowhere near where we need to be in regards to equality: men are still getting paid more than women for the same jobs, women are still judged more on their appearance than their abilities, and women who work the same hours as men are still expected to do most of the housework and child rearing. It doesn't make much sense, so of course I'd like to see change. That doesn't make me an obnoxious antisocial man-hater, it just makes me someone who likes to stand up for what's right.

There really shouldn't be such a negative connotation around feminism. Society's misconceptions about feminism can only be changed if more people (both men and women) aren't afraid to stand up and call themselves feminists.