demonstrative

I had a conversation last night about the creation of 'evil' within organisations. Is evil-doing part of the organisation's foundations or does it develop as they grow? Can evil-done be reversed with change? Obviously the Olympics exclusion of women came up, and we both agreed that with organisations that have a history of unethical or inequal standards, the only way to rectify the situation completely is to dissolve and re establish fresh and new. Yes women will be able to ski jump soon, as they are now allowed to compete in other previously denied areas of the games, however this does not help us. It is humiliating to beg to be allowed to join something everyone else is allowed to join, and to be grateful when they 'let you'.

This brings me to another point for anyone following the emergence of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is meant to be the new generation of the web, while the exact definition is left undefined, the foundation of the movement is open standards, low barriers to entry, and equal playing field. However the market has just shut down.  

The web 2.0 movement has a few key players, they got in early and control the airspace. These people have blogs that have readerships upwards of 10,000 a day, they are very knowledgeable. However time has passed and there are more and more people in the space, however, what you notice soon enough is that the same names crop up. Even names that don't have much more to add than their reputation, these 'A-listers' appear to be colluding to keep others out. This small group, founded on the basis of web freedom are tending towards web domination. I think a lot of people are beginning to talk about this, I just thought I'd mention now, while we are in the early stages, that this is how it happens. Good intentions, followed by excitement about success, followed by ambition to remain successful at all costs, followed by abandonment of initial intentions.

It's sad to see it happening again. 

""Ski jumping is just too dangerous for women. Don't forget, [the landing] it's like jumping down from, let's say, about two meters to the ground about a thousand times a year, which seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view."

Sometimes it comes up in conversation when I do something like claim that something is 'female only' and my boyfriend takes issue with it being a type of reverse sexism, that girls having time alone will not fix anything or be an answer. What I always maintain, while knowing that is the case, is that you guys have NO IDEA WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE A GIRL. I wish I could explain just how different my life is because I was born with certain chromosomes, so you would undertsand how it feels to live like this, the tiny little things you never even have to notice that boil my blood, the way that our world is still run by men, the way we can never escape their decisions and have to live by their rules every single day, except for those moments we can say 'ha! you like this? you want to do this? well tough, YOU'RE NOT INVITED'.

Petty maybe, but from what I have learned in this life, you never truely know how something feels until you've experienced it yourself. And the reaction I always get from men about the miniscule number of times they are excluded is like it is the most immense human rights violation they have ever experienced. That is when I realise, it is and that is why it's important to feel it so you have some slight notion of the endless frustration and tiny little irritants that we feel every single day.

This anger all stemmed from this article, I'll finish with a final quote:

"Tiresome is the word. Many American women over the age of 45 can remember when girls who wanted to play Little League baseball were told the same excuses. The women's marathon wasn't added to the Summer Olympics until 1984 because it was supposedly bad for their health."