Monday, October 20, 2014

Beautiful as we are (II) : too beautiful to be smart?

This post has been in my blog as a draft for nearly five months by now, and there are so many things unsaid that I don't really know how to say. A few days ago I came across an article that did what I seemingly cannot. It viewed gender inequality in the job market objectively.
I don't have many front-row experiences of when a woman was denied a high position because of her appearance. However, I have minor stories, and I believe that they plant the very same seed in young and perspective women that grows to prevent them from high positions in their fields of expertise.
Compliments, when spoken out, have to be differentiated. Not all of them seek to flatter.
"What do you know about struggles for recognition, you are pretty and it's way easier for you" - I have been addressed one of these as well.
"I will shed all of this skin down to the very bone beneath it if that's what it will take for you to come to the realization that appearance is not what makes a human beautiful" - this quote basically says all I think of it better than I ever could put it in my own words (I've posted it in one of my older blog posts).
Beauty is a 'given' and intelligence is an 'achieved'. Why is it so hard for some people to see the distinction?
Self-confidence is not a 'given' as well, and not only the 'ugly' ones lack it. Many girls stay in lower positions, never daring to think of having more power and, instead, leaving it either to the 'hungry for power' women (in their opinion) or men. They keep all their ideas in and stay in low positions with their mouths shut.
A lot of damage has been done for the physically beautiful, but I won't blame men. Some things are done just because things 'have always been like this'. We all do it - through advertising, media, movies. Music videos are not even worth mentioning in this case, I guess - some of them are the perfect demonstration of beautiful women doing silly things and exposing themselves to be recognised. We need to make them realize - everybody has the equal and basic right to...be intelligent. There's just no other way to say it, really.

Here's a video from #LikeAGirl campaign that majorly inspired me to get back to this post:


The situation is starting to get better with Emma Watson and other famous women speaking out about gender inequality, but the change is slow and will take a lot of time to spread worldwide.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Is my Lithuanian me dead?

Constanly wondering. That's what I'm like not only in my mind, but physically as well.
Since I finished highschool, I've lived in four countries in two years. Four different cultures, nations. Four different worlds, basically.

I have met a few Lithuanians along my way and they all seemed so different from what I see around me now, living in the capital of my belved country.

Now, getting to the point, I must say that every - or nearly every - Lithuanian who's lived - or is living - abroad complains a lot about my country, in the most extreme manner.

'There's nothing good about this country anymore - the people never smile, the prices are high, the jobs are shitty and none of them pay you well', they say.

I don't mean to say it is not at all like that, but c'mon - why did they come back if it's so bad for them here? I see what they're saying, but I see good things, too.

People here do smile - if you smile to them first and you can get a well-paid job, if you are willing to go that extra mile it demands.

I just don't understand why people who are living abroad spread all this negativity through their impolite and rude comments in Lithuanian online media. If you hate it so much, why go back to it? This really frustrates me and I have no way of telling that to people who are living their happy lives in their miraculous countries yet proving to be the most negative of all in the comments sections.

Every time I come back from my adventure abroad, I try to contain myself and not speak badly of my country. Yes, in Sweden you earn ten times more than in Lithuania and pay almost the same price for your groceries, but do I really have to point out that you are welcomed when you are searching for a job here instead of being dismissed as a foreigner in nationalist Swedish job market?

Personally, my adventures abroad make me love my own country more and more. Since I moved to Sweden for the first time, I became incomparably more patriotic than I was before. I got my values sorted out and the fact really sunk in - I just could not speak badly of the country I grew up and live happily in. Surely, there are bad things and I am free to point them out, but I don't see why I should compare it to something totally different.

Am I really the rare type? Someone please back me up.