A Woman's Education, A Woman's Body

Education, being a historically male privilege, had its bouts of serving women's fortunes: the 1500-1600's in Europe were a fruitful time for women, where the renaissance meant women could seize different powers in the forms of knowledge of the arts and sciences, literature and politics. The era brought with it a great many female rulers and a decline in mass violence, where kingdoms sought reforms of justice and increased education as higher goals. In this time, it was written, in The Instruction of a Christian Woman by Juan Vives in 1520:

"But she shall leave all such light and trifling pleasures, wherein the light fantasies of maids have delight, as songs, dances and other such wanton and peevish plays. A woman, saith Plutarch, given unto learning, will never delight in dancing. 

But here peradventure a man would ask, what learning a woman should be set unto, and what she shall study? I have told you: the study of wisdom, the which doth instruct their manners and inform their living, and teacheth them the way of good and holy life. As for eloquence, I have no great care, nor a woman needith it not, but she needeth goodness and wisdom.”

The 1600's in Western Europe saw the downfall of women's education and women's rule: violence accrued and royalty pushed their troops into battle. Military leaders were now only male, and as women were forced out of the public realms that previous education had enabled them access, they were now seen as unfit to rule over wars - quite the opposite of the previous century's powerful commanders including Mary Queen of Scots or Catherine de' Medici.

Reflecting on the degradation of female royalty in this era, it was Mary Wollstonecraft that wrote, in 1792, in A Vindication of the Rights of Women: 

"Women are in this deplorable state everywhere, because truth is hidden from them so as to preserve their ‘innocence’ (the polite name for ignorance), and they are made to take on an artificial character before their faculties have acquired any strength. Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman’s sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming around in its gilt cage it only seeks to adorn its prison.

The Way the Internet Looks at Women

Women's representation in the media goes beyond what we see on television or in magazines and billboards. It is in our every day use of that media, and specifically, the internet. Indeed, it is in these seemingly innocuous daily uses that we become immune to the ways these images influence our perception of a woman's value, position and role.

Check out some of these images when googling terms like 'woman' (all white and highly sexualized poses), or 'working woman' (mainly white and behind a computer, with some frustrated and anxious looks thrown in for good measure), or 'young girls' (again, mainly white, and frighteningly sexualized).

Can she have it all? Who knows!!

Getty Images, the largest online stockpile of useable photos (all those pictures you see on websites), has teamed up with LeanIn.org to change the way women are portrayed on the internet. Do you remember women laughing alone with salad? Or women sitting rather uncomfortably with computers? Or feminism according to Stock photography?

Fitness Competitions: A dissection of fitness, health and beauty ideals

It seemed farcical. An ardent women’s rights advocate, and outspoken feminist, especially on body issues, I would be entering a fitness competition where winning meant being judged solely on appearance, presence and onstage personality. 12 weeks later, I've rarely been so humbled. Stepping on stage for the first time, I took first place in the morning Open division against 30 other fantastic women, and then 1st overall in the Elite division at night, winning my pro card.