Women in Politics

I have been wanting to write this particular post for a while. The reluctance originated from my fear of possibly offending a female acquaintance, who is undoubtedly brilliant and capable, yet highly indecisive. You may wonder why I would make such a big fuzz about someone's indecisiveness. Everyone has flaws. To satisfy your potential curiosity, I admit that my biggest flaw is that I am either extremely insecure or extremely arrogant -- no middle ground. However, in this case, this lady's indecisiveness may play a vital role in how women in politics are perceived in the eyes of the masses. Her name is Xenia Menzies, who ran for SFSS President this year and lost by merely 30 votes.

Xenia ran for the SFSS President three times in the past. I absolutely admire her determination. I know that I would not have the courage to do the same if I were her. Before she decided that she was to run for the last time, she seemed to have some struggles. Her uncertainty was normal. Most people would have shared the same agony. She initially thought that it was time to move on. Nothing wrong with that. Later on she decided to run for real.

While Joe, a personal friend of mine, claimed that Xenia was too indecisive to be a President, I, on the other hand, was concerned with something different. Imagine this election went beyond the SFU campus. Imagine this was a real life election in a city, province, nation, you name it. Could you imagine how the media would have portrayed Xenia? Her indecisiveness would have been the one and only characteristic that the media projected onto her. It would have been entirely linked to her sex. Nothing else would have mattered. Her capability, intelligence, active involvement with so many wonderful, rewarding projects would not have mattered. It would have all come down to one thing -- her indecisiveness. They would have said it was because she was a woman. If Joe had been the indecisive one, he would have totally been able to get away with it.

Quit the racial and gender stereotypes. Women deserve to be portrayed and reflected fairly in the mainstream media without bias and ideology.

As much as I am happy for Joe, I believe that Xenia truly would have deserved the position.

Discrimination Against Single Women

Carrie Bradshaw from the television show "Sex and the City" attends a friend's baby shower and is forced to take off her shoes at the door because the family likes to keep their floor clean. "But...." Carrie attempts to bargain, timidly, "This is an outfit," as she eyes herself from head to toe. Still, a guest is a guest, gotta abide the house rule. At the end of the party, another size-seven shoe-aholic with undoubtedly impeccable taste has apparently stolen her shoes. The Manolo is nowhere to be found and remains mysteriously vanished for weeks. Carrie's friend then offers to pay for them until she learns the price and gasps, "I don't think we should pay for your extravagant lifestyle, Carrie." in her own defense, Carrie claims that her friend used to wear Manolo herself. She admits, and yet she insists that is only before she has a life.

As "romantically challenged" as Carrie Bradshaw, I can't help it but wonder -- what is considered "having a life"? Having a husband? A ring that lives on your second last finger? Baby showers? Clean floor? And what is considered "not having a life"? Having seventeen pairs of shoes and twenty two bags? Having three closets in the house? Having a cat instead of children? Having a ridiculously busy, packed schedule instead of a male companion? Carrie then announces that she is getting married to herself. Her friend receives an invitation and is advised to pick up her registered gift -- at a Manolo shop -- she already knows the price beforehand, of course. So, who says we can't get married to ourselves? True love seems to be an idea that exists legitimately only in Jane Austen’s nineteenth century novels. Romance can only be played out by actors on stage with scripts and props and Shakespeare’s fourteen-lined sonnets that make sense merely in the context of Renaissance period. It's twenty-first century and some of us will reach our mid/late twenties. What do we have besides Manolo and martini? He’s Just Not that Into You?

I am against discrimination against single women.

Student Faces Expulsion for Facebook Study Group

University of Western Ontario has accepted me as a candidate for their Master of Journalism program!


I have always been exceptionally interested in news stories concerning relationships between media and the society. I blame it on my background in communications. Please see Student faces expulsion for Facebook study group.

Education in the virtual world has altered the conventional concept of what an education is supposed to be for years. Distance education and WebCT are only the beginning. Even Second Life is being used for purposes of business management, medical practices, and so much more. Who would have thought? Establishing study groups on Facebook should be an accepted norm. How ironic that we let Facebook applications that indirectly promote pornography and illegal activities run wild among users, yet Ryerson University is kicking a student out of school for a cause that's actually worth praising.

In a way, educational institutions are like a form of government. The students, or citizens, rather, must abide to certain rules regardless whether they want to or not. These rules are not laws. Rather, they are preferences established by the educational institutions or the government. Even if a student/citizen participates in a good cause, the University/government would still try to impose regulations on it. Perhaps Ryerson University students could have a system that allows students to vote for their teaching methods. After all, they do pay a ridiculous amount of money for tuition fees.