6 things I sometimes wonder but haven't looked up the answer

1. Do celebrities/politicians use social networks for their own private purposes? If so, do they do it under pseudonyms? I mean, can you imagine Julia Gillard using Facebook of her own accord, chatting with her friends from high school, updating her status? I think really high-profile people, when they become high-profile, might just have to sacrifice their private online identity in order to protect their privacy. On another note, imagine the contrasting status updates: Julia Gillard is facing the problems of Australia alongside John Smith is making homemade pizza for dinner. Poor John might feel a bit like his life doesn't matter so much.
   
2. Do my cats understand the concept of a 'bed'? In fact, do they understand the concept of furniture having different, specific purposes at all? I sometimes feel like, when they come into my room to wake me up in the morning, they stand there at look at me thinking 'why is she sleeping here every night? What about some variation! We sleep all over the place!' Also, I'm pretty sure they don't understand why they're allowed to stand on the desk but not the dining room table. Poor things. It must be hard to have a brain the size of a cherry tomato.
3. Why do storms almost always happen at 3.30 in the afternoon, when parents are trying to get their kids home from school? Do the clouds intentionally wait until parents are just about to leave to start their evil grumbling, just to make everything ten times harder with raincoats and umbrellas and wet school shoes everywhere?
4. Why do some colours look better together than others? Blue looks good with almost anything, but green and purple clash horribly, and so do some shades of red and pink. Why? On another note, why is it acceptable to not count denim as a colour? You wouldn't wear a bright purple shirt with bright blue pants, unless you were really daring and willing to risk looking like a clown, but when those pants are blue jeans, the problem doesn't exist!
5. Why make clocks tick? I took the batteries out of a ticking clock at a sleepover once, because I couldn't stand it. WHY WHY WHY. Perhaps once it was necessary, but NOT NOW. Now it's just irritating.
   
6. What makes us like some foods, but not others? I'm not talking about really out-there things like chilli, or overly sweet or sour foods, but why does my dad hate tuna? Why don't I like tarragon or pumpkin? What part of my brain determines what flavours I find appealing, and why?

Maybe I should look these things up instead of just wondering. Although in some ways, I sort of enjoy not knowing. It certainly helps my imagination!

The problem with gendered language

In Extension English, I study the elective 'Language and Gender'. Basically, it talks about how men and women are supposed to use certain types of language, because of their gender. We also talk about the difference between sex and gender, but let's not go there right now...

According to the 'Language and Gender theorists' that we study, and the way that we look at things, any language that does not comply to the expectations of the theorists is a subversion. I'm still deciding whether I think this is the best way to look at things. Actually no, I know I don't think this is the best way. I think there is one main problem with applying theories to something like gendered language.

If we state that something is 'typically male' or 'typically female', we automatically apply stereotypes. Stereotypes limit. So women apparently lack a sense of humour, according to Robin Lackoff... what about female comedians? What about all the hilarious girls I know who make me laugh everyday? Heck, sometimes I try and be funny on my blog... does that mean I've been really unfunny just because I'm a girl? And men apparently use more commands, according to Deborah Tannen. So does that mean women can't be commanding?

The most interesting theory states that language is a system that sustains the male as the norm - so basically, women can never get ahead because language upholds male power.

In the past, I definitely can see how this was relevant. But now that we've replaced chairman with chairperson, mankind with humankind etc., I don't really see how this can possibly be relevant, unless we accept the stereotypes that the L+G theorists create and which we surprisingly all seem to hold despite never having heard of Tannen or Lackoff or Keith and Shuttleworth...

The main point of my post today is that we are being taught this in Year 12, just before going out into the "real world". So this is one of those things that will probably stick with us after we leave school, given how much we are studying this course and memorising all the theories to use in our essays. When we first started this course, I was pretty affronted that every HSC student's best friend, the beloved Board of Studies, wished us to learn about what were basically, in their most basic forms, stereotypes. Sophisticated ones, sure, but stereotypes nonetheless.

Now I'm starting to think that perhaps the BoS might have manipulated us just a tiny bit... because none of us believe these theories. Maybe that was the intention all along? Maybe the BoS wants us to think about the truth in stereotypes and learn not to believe this theorists?

You sneaky Board of Studies...

One of the boys

I am a teenage girl. I imagine that all sorts of stereotypes have just jumped to your mind: makeup, One Direction, hopeless crushes, 3-hour long phone conversations... And apart from One Direction, yep, I am kind of like that. Also the hopeless crush morphed into a boyfriend about two and a half years ago.

So being such a girl, I have more male friends than female. I have a few very close female friends, but then the rest are all boys. I'm not really sure why it happened, but I find myself getting on really well with boys. I don't have any brothers, and I get on really well with girls too, but I know I would never cope in a girls-only school. Sleepovers with girls are fine, but I'm going on schoolies with a mixed group, mostly because we girls didn't know what we'd do for a week or so by ourselves!

Recently, my male friend called me a 'bro'. I took this as a massive compliment, as I hope it was intended. I'm delighted by the fact that I find it easy to relate to boys, because in the 'real world', I'm going to have to talk to all sorts of people, male and female.

I think that boys can teach girls a lot. My girl friends and I joke about 'typical boy behaviour', but then we turn around and realise that it is this behaviour that girls could benefit from. Caring a bit less and taking friendships lightly are things that boys are particularly good at. Girls, who tend to get caught up in the smallest details of who said what about who, could learn a lot from the way boys let things slide off them.

One thing that scares me about leaving school is leaving these boys behind. Or should I say men now? They've been such a big part of my life and I don't want to lose them now.

Sorry for being soppy, gentlemen. Remember I am a girl!

Technology >:(

Wrote a big long post the other day, which I was writing on Word because I don't trust websites to properly save text. Had almost finished when the computer did an automatic restart to install updates or somethinglikethat.............. ANYWAY it was a starter version of Word, so didn't save like Word normally does. Nothing to restore.

Which is why you did not get to read a post I slaved away on for nearly an hour the other night. I will rewrite it eventually but this week has been hectic.

Just a hint - it's about male/female friendships. FRIENDSHIPS.