wake up with purpose

19 | Washington | learning to love the journey to health | learning to love this life | trying to inspire a few along the way <3 <3 <3 Horses | Fitness | Food

[just-call-me-ella]

We have to stop acting like dogs are angels

Okay so here’s the thing. I love dogs. Dogs are amazing wonderful creatures. But we have to stop acting like dogs are perfect, or safe to be around every one and every thing.

I just watched a gif of a man walking his dog when they came upon kittens. The dog immediately lunged - only to have the mother cat barrel in and scare the dog off. I was furious, because the owner sat and watched as his dog lunged at a kitten - and had to be beaten off of it by its mother.

In the comments people were discussing it, saying “That dog just wanted to play! He wasn’t going to actually *hurt* the kitten!”

And I’d really like us to stop this. 

“He just wants to say hi,”

“he’s just trying to play”

are two phrases commonly said by people who do not understand their dogs behavior, and make excuses for them.

That dog did not want to play. When dogs want to play, they change their body language and start using different behavior - most obviously the play bow. They sniff first, and get introductions out of the way. If your dog lunges for something the moment they set its eyes on it - they do not want to play. Just imagine, if you were a kid who had never met someone before and they just straight up attacked you. That would be different from someone walking up and saying “hey, do you wanna play/wrestle?”

And here’s the thing. There’s nothing wrong with that dog, it just should not be allowed around animals smaller than it. Cats, hamsters, rabbits, hedgehogs, even toy breeds of dogs, I wouldn’t consider safe. And thats OK! You can have a perfectly happy life with your dog never harming any animals as long as you know this and make sure to pay attention. But if that dog harms a kitten or other small animal, I blame the owner, who should have known better.

We have to be responsible owners and know our dogs. And as people, we need to stop making excuses for other animals and instead do our best to make sure everyone in the situation is safe, not just the dog who “just wants to play” or “was just trying to say hi”, while barreling straight for something.

Just because you love your dog doesn’t mean its not aggressive in specific situations. Doesn’t mean its safe for all to be around. Doesn’t mean its incapable of fault. 

[quasi-normalcy]

No, I’m serious, if women all got together and went into electrical engineering or automotive repair en masse, then ten years later people would be talking about how it was a “soft field” and it would pay proportionately less than other fields.

Likewise, if men moved en masse to bedeck themselves in sparkles and make-up, then suddenly you’d get a bunch of editorials talking about how classy they look.

None of these things are inherently masculine or feminine; none of these things inherently elevate you or drag you down. But whatever women are seen to do is automatically seen as being inherently more frivolous than anything men do. And shaming women for not pigeonholing themselves into a narrow range of acceptable “masculine” behaviours is just going to result in the goalposts getting moved once again.

[an-gremlin-deactivated20160222]

This is literally what happened to basically every field women have entered. The opposite happens when men enter. Computers used to be a “woman thing” until the guys who did it got really mad about how badly their job was viewed and realized they could fix it by forcing out women.

[meariver]

Also happened/ is happening with the fields of biology and psychology….

[quasi-normalcy]

I honestly wonder how much of the backlash against public education in the last generation has been due to teaching becoming a woman-dominated profession.

[warpedellipsis]

Fashion used to be a men’s thing. Then women got involved in the late 17/1800’s, so men went the other way because it came to be seen as “frivolous” and “anti-intellectual” to care about how you looked. Add in the homophobia that arose around that time, bam, staid bland dress. Ditto leggings/tights, that are now called attention-whoring when on men they were required to show you cared about your figure and had the money to pay for such a fitted item. 

People want to say misogyny doesn’t exist, that male privilege doesn’t exist. Look beyond “living memory” and you’ll find that’s what drives the “inexplicable reversals” society seems to make on many things. Hell, just look beyond your own society, and you’ll find out that what’s considered “for men” elsewhere is held in high esteem while here it’s scoffed at purely because it’s “for women”: 

Skinny jeans are the height of masculinity in several east Asian societies, rather than being seen as “gay” in the USA because of their association with femininity. 

Medical fields in Russia are valued like kindergarten teachers are here, because it’s women who are the doctors instead of men.

Love and romance are highly valued in eastern countries, because men are interested in it too—of course they would be, surely you want to share your life with someone? Here, it’s strictly a women’s subject.

[darksnowfalling-deactivated2020]

The field of anthropology as a whole illustrates this.

Significantly higher proportions of females compared to males are currently entering the fields of archaeology and biological anthropology, and as this occurs, the prestige, funding, acceptance as valid kinds of science, etc, are fading quickly.

This has already occurred with linguistic anthropology and cultural anthropology. Cultural anthropology in particular went VERY quickly from being seen as a manly, scientific discipline (e.g., Franz Boas, Bronisław Malinowski) to being seen as a touchy-feely female thing.

[maxofs2d]

Let’s examine a traditionally male-dominated role that is very well-respected, and well-paid, in many parts of the world — that of a doctor. In the UK, it is listed as one of the top ten lucrative careers, and the average annual income of a family doctor in the US is well into six figures. It also confers on you significant social status, and a common stereotype in Asian communities is of parents encouraging their children to become doctors.

One of my lecturers at university once presented us with this thought exercise: why are doctors so highly paid, and so well-respected? Our answers were predictable. Because they save lives, their skills are extremely important, and it takes years and years of education to become one. All sound, logical reasons. But these traits that doctors possess are universal. So why is it, she asked, that doctors in Russia are so lowly paid? Making less than £7,500 a year, it is one of the lowest paid professions in Russia, and poorly respected at that. Why is this?

The answer is crushingly, breathtakingly simple. In Russia, the majority of doctors are women. Here’s a quote from Carol Schmidt, a geriatric nurse practitioner who toured medical facilities in Moscow: “Their status and pay are more like our blue-collar workers, even though they require about the same amount of training as the American doctor… medical practice is stereotyped as a caring vocation ‘naturally suited‘ to women, [which puts it at] a second-class level in the Soviet psyche.”

What this illustrates perfectly is this — women are not devalued in the job market because women’s work is seen to have little value. It is the other way round. Women’s work is devalued in the job market because women are seen to have little value. This means that anything a woman does, be it childcare, teaching, or doctoring, or rocket science, will be seen to be of less value simply because it is done mainly by women. It isn’t that women choose jobs that are in lower-paid industries, it is that any industry that women dominate automatically becomes less respected and less well-paid.

http://cratesandribbons.com/2013/12/13/patriarchys-magic-trick-how-anything-perceived-as-womens-work-immediately-sheds-its-value/

[bons-sonos]

“Men may cook or weave, or dress dolls or hunt humming birds, but if such activities are appropriate occupations of men, then the whole society, men and women alike, votes them as important. When the same occupations are performed by women, they are regarded as less important (Mead, 1949, p. 159).” https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-19279160/in-a-complex-voice-the-contradictions-of-male-elementary

[tk-tako]

“The wage gap is a myth”

[drferox]

The entire field of veterinary medicine says hello.

[4gifs]

[thefrogman]

[video]

[rockees-deactivated20210616]

a ferocious beast

[naamahdarling]

i will reblog these everytime i see them because she is just such a precious little ball of predatory fury

[raychillster]

i hope you always have enough money to pay your rent on time, to buy your favorite groceries, and to invest in your art.

[lady-billi-deactivated20180104]

I receive that blessing & send it to everyone that follows me

[misguided-ghost21-deactivated20]

And So It Is.

[swampstress]

and so it is.

[jimi-thegentleman]

&. So it is.

[lovemori]

madisonvvogt

[lidia-valdivia-deactivated20150]

My photo, follow for more! xx

[myriad-galaxies]

[therunninglifechoseme]

"In the first half of the race, don’t be an idiot. In the second half, don’t be a wimp" -Scott Douglas

^^my alltime favorite running quote. 

[bernadettelogue]

Be so busy loving your life that you have no time for hate, regret or fear.

TheDailyPositive.com (via thedailypozitive)

[thecalminside]

Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.

Eckhart Tolle (via thecalminside)

[lovemori]

He wanted my breakfast:)

[ms-c33-deactivated20180825]

[lovemori]

This smoothie deserved a closeup it was so good!

[lovemori]

Green dinner :) endamame • avocado/banana/spinach/mango smoothie with almond milk, a scoop of Life's Basics protein powder, and two teaspoons matcha green tea powder :) with chia seeds mixed in and topped with cacao nibs!

[myafit]

[albeeats]

Spinach nana ice cream topped with toasted/caramelized buckwheat groats and more fruit

[excusesdontburnfat]

Give 110% or even more. So the world how bad you want this!