An odd type of fundraising...

Hey there,
So i've spent a wee bit of time thinking about fundraising and charities in the last couple of days. First off a group of guys that I know are shaving their heads next week as a fundraiser for leukemia. After visiting my Granddad the other day during his chemo, I thought it would be rather fitting if I donated some money to support their cause. I admit, it was only $10, but hey, I call that a student donation.
Yesterday at uni there was a volunteer expo with heaps of different stalls set up with information about different charities and how you could help as a volunteer. I love the idea of volunteering and support all most all forms of fundraising. There was one fundraising event that I heard of today though, that I actually didn't believe could possible be true. After I heard it mentioned today, (in another one of my lectures, odd topics they talk about...), I had to come home and google it, just to see if this is actually a legitimate thing. And yes, it is.
I'm talking about an annual masturbathon. It really is what you're thinking of. Once a year people get together and all masturbate at the same time, in order to raise money for charity.
....
Weird, right?! Apparently the first one was held in London in 2006, and although a couple of hundred people were expected, only a couple dozen people actually turned up. ...No surprises there.
Since then it's happened in a number of different countries. I can't help but think more about how this actually happens. Like, do they have a massive screen set up for which they play porn off? Or are all the participants expected to just find the whole situation of a a group masturbation arousing enough to not need anything else? Is it in a public area? Can people go watch??? Not that I would want to watch... just saying. And do people actually sponsor them? Like I see someone shaving their head as a worthy thing to sponsor, but sponsoring someone for masturbating? Really??? I don't really see how someone orgasming is a sacrifice on their part... apart from the whole lack of self pride aspect that could come from doing that in public. But hey, if doing it in public is what gets these people off...
Don't get me wrong, if money is actually raised for charities by people doing this, then that's great, I just find the whole idea frankly quite hilarious.

So that's pretty much the only thing I got out of my classes today. Also my lecturer said the word c**t in class today, found that pretty amusing. And yes, it was the same lecturer who also mentioned the masurbathon. Interesting guy.

There you go, I managed to get through this whole thing with out having a massive rant about something! Top marks.

First attempt at a blog.

Hi, so i'm Moana.
I'm attempting to study communications at uni and am planning in majoring in journalism. I decided that writing a blog might be a good way for me to get in to the habit of writing regularly, so here it goes.

I suck at university. Like really, I’m not cut out for the whole study thing. I’m a primo procrastinator and leave everything to the last minute, if I get round to doing it at all. That’s not to say that I don’t like it though. Well I don’t like all of it, like MIS for example, I fucking hate that. But anyway, that’s not the point. I had my Media studies tutorial today and I found the topic we were discussing really interesting. We were talking about gender portrayal in the media, gender inequalities and feminism. My tutor was talking about how in the last media lecture (which I skipped…), the lecturer asked the class how many of them considered themselves to be a feminist. What was fascinating about this was that out of the 150 people who generally fill up a lecture theatre, only four people raised their hand to this question. So out of 150 people, who are by far the majority females, only four people considered themselves feminist. What my tutor then went on to say, is that the media and society have placed such a negative stigma on the idea of feminism, that no one really wants to be associated with it. Just think about it, what first springs to mind when you think of feminism? Man hating extremists? Yeah, that’s what most of us thought of too. I remember a couple of year’s back I mentioned to my dad that I was thinking of studying women or gender studies at university. His response was something along the lines of “oh god, you’re not going to turn in to some feminist and shave your head are you?” And what did I think about this response at the ripe age of 16? I though oh god, no, I don’t want to be like that. So would I have called my self a feminist? No. But then, you need to stop for one moment and consider what a feminist actually is - someone who believes in and wants equal rights for men and women. And do I agree with that? Hell yes I do. So really, I guess I am a feminist. But am I going to shave my hair? And do I hate males? Hell no. I guess I’ve never really thought as myself as a feminist as I’ve never really had to face or deal with any of the inequalities that so many women do come across. I like to think of myself as being part of the new age, confident and powerful female. Gender barriers and identities are being changed all the time. Males aren’t required to be the beer drinking, sports loving kiwi blokes who don’t know a thing about emotions anymore. Males are being encouraged to get in touch with their sensitive side, just as many females aren’t accepting being the submissive gender anymore. I’m a female who’s in touch with her sexuality, and I’m not ashamed of it. When I want something I go after it. And with my personal experience with relationships, I don’t think females are necessarily the emotional sex. In my case, often I’ve found that in the end, I am the less emotional one in a relationship. Some of my girl mates even joke with me and say I always play the guy in a relationship. So do I love males? Yes. Am I afraid to use my sexuality? No. Am I a feminist? Yes. 

Right that's enough of that for today. So I tend to go off on tangents a bit when I write and i'm absolutely terrible at having massive rants. I'll try make my next one a bit lighter and avoid jumping on my pedestal for once haha.