Tag Archives: rant

The S-word… and what it means to me.

Sexism.

There. I’ve said it. It’s a nasty word, as are most “-ism”s, but it seems to be one of the current ones doing the rounds in the media spotlight for this month. Twitter, in between Assange and other asylum cases, is rife with stories of sexism against women and how women are made to feel inferior due to their appearance or other characteristics generally thought to be “female”…

A lot of these describe how making the choice to not dress in a provocative manner, or a socially accepted “womanly” way has led to gender based bias from colleages and superiors. I feel their pain. Really I do. By making the choice to not wear short skirts or wearing makeup and/or shiny hair, how is your work any less valuable than another’s? By choosing to look a certain way, do you automatically rate lower than someone who is towing the stereotypical line?

But this is not my gripe to give, per se. Mine is at the other end of the situation. What is you are one of the girls who actually likes to wear make up, have shiny hair and wear short skirts? Does that mean I am automatically buying in to the theory, undermining the last decades of feminist’s hard work?

Why can’t I wear my heels and short skirts and tight blouses, with makeup on and my hair looking lovely, without fear of being sexualised by my co-workers or hearing mutters behind me of other women in the workplace who think I’m sleeping with my superiors to get the good jobs?

I work hard. I do damned good work. Why do I choose to dress that way? Because it makes me feel good and when I feel good, I work better. When I work better, the company wins, When the company wins, I get paid! That should be as far as it goes. I am not performing sexual acts for the boss if I wear a tighter dress than you might feel comfortable in. I am, however, sleeping with the boss if I come out of the closed office with my lipstick awry and my hair a mess as I pull down my dress and remove a soiled condom from my stocking.

All I am saying is that women who suffer sexism on a daily basis should also give those of us who actually, genuinely feel better in our skirts and blouses a little lee-way. Don’t automatically assume we haven’t thought our decision through. Though, I will admit some of us clearly haven’t… and that’s why they don’t seem to get the promotions. Am I right? But that’s because they can’t do the work!

Gah! I am sick of the mentality that simply because I choose to look a way that is the opposite to how you see a feminist looking, that automatically means I must support misogynistic, sexist behaviour. I don’t. It’s uncalled for and yes, I have been the target of it. You know what? I have been the target of it when wearing my skirts AND when wearing my loose pants and a jumper, so arseholes are arseholes no matter what you’re wearing!

Money and value: the greatest concensual mass hallucination?

This article came across my tweet feed today, about the HSBC being under investigation for possible money laundering and other monetary woes. Needless to say, I was not shocked that this had been happening. What’s that you say? “Not shocked???!!!” Well, no. Not really.Okay, maybe a little bit. Outraged, most certainly, but not shocked. Disappointed, oh you bet, but not shocked.

Now, I am not about to go into the legal ins and outs, or the moral implications of taking money from known terrorist groups, suffice to say I think it stinks that one corporation will accept profit from sources that are murky at best (because yes, banks actually profit from the money that is being held in trust. They don’t just do it out of the goodness of their hearts – there’s something in it for them).

What I am about to go on about is the fact that this is a large bank, with ties all over the world. Most of us have either had ties with HSBC, or have ties with a company that does. What happens if this bank gets more than a little slap across the wrist? Well, apparently this sort of a thing is nothing new for the bank, who has ties to the cartels of Mexico, and has done for quite some time.

So, the ramifications of HSBC being prosecuted?

Not much really. Well, that is if you consider that this could go one of two ways. Either, those responsible get jailed and “shockwaves” go through the banking “community”, in which case, new people get employed in their positions and they either run the bank ethically and we all live in sunshine and happiness, or they go back and run the bank in exactly the same ways albeit a little more sneakily, in which case the same old cycle starts again. OR the whole bank gets fined a ludicrous amount of money. This, as an option, can one of two ways. Either the amount they are fined is equal to or less than the annual profit of the bank. If this is the case, then they pay the money, shareholders get angry, some jumping ship but ultimately they see the profit the company can make as what they’ll get on their ROI in the next financial year and so stay. On the other hand, the fines will amount to more than the annual projected profit. The shareholders will try to jump ship, but won’t be able to because the assets of the company will be frozen as it goes into administration, and one of the worlds banking giants falls.

And if all the cards come crashing down…?

Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. Or even the second. But it would be felt harder and further than any previous financial crisis. Why do I think this? American banks, from which the 2007-2012 crisis originated, had ties overseas. These were not so heavily intertwined with average Australians. HSBC is one of the largest lending banks across the world, with “…around 7,500 offices in over 80 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, North and Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. With assets of US$2,556 billion as at 31 December 2011…” Now do we see where this is heading?

I am not proposing that we step away from prosecuting these banks, or making them accountable for their interactions. What I propose is something entirely more radical and, potentially more anarchical (at least in the early days). How about we enact a shift in perceived value? It’s an odd concept, and some watching this video may not understand how it can work in the financial world. I am going to let you in on a little secret that few people have actually ever spoken: Money has no real value. Think about it. It’s little pieces of printed paper or alloyed metal stamped with images. In itself, there is no value, until we perceive it has value. The perceived value of money is, perhaps, one of the greatest ‘consensual mass hallucinations‘ we have in this world today.

And, with that, I will let you think about how you perceive the value of the things in your life.