Story, ish

Kayla Clark is not the sort of girl you would employ at a sophisticated and snooty bar for the upper classes. So it is no surprise that on her first day on the job she has found herself in front of a very angry boss and a customer with a bleeding nose. The boss gestures for her to follow him and, with no other option, she does.  Kayla is not like her co-workers; for a start she has green hair and a nose ring. She dresses like she’s pulled rags out of a dumpster and sewn them back together. Her fellow employees are all dressed in designer labels with shiny soft hair and impeccable taste- much like the patrons of the bar. They’re all watching her and have been from the moment she turned up for work. Their distrust radiates from them. They don’t like her because she stands out. She is practically a different species in their eyes. She is uneducated, small and scrawny. She boasts no nose job or fake chest. She is young, too young to be working in a bar. She is alien and unreadable and that scares them. But Kayla doesn’t care, all her life standing out has been the one way to survive and defend herself. If they knew who her father was they wouldn’t look at her with disgust; they would be crawling over hot coals to be her friend, but that is exactly why she doesn’t promote the fact that her father is a star. She spent her childhood having false friends that only wanted her for her money and her father’s power and now she would rather have no friends than fake ones. She doesn’t even count herself to have a father anymore.  She makes her way through the bar following The Boss Man she looks at his back with interest. It is broad and covered in a sharp, grey suit. This is the first time she has met him and she can only wish it was under better circumstances, perhaps an award for employee of the month, but no. She is two hours into her first shift and she is in trouble. Deep trouble. Bottom-of-the-sea-deep trouble. The Boss walks briskly to the other side of the room and Kayla struggles to keep up with his pace. She feels like a prisoner making her way to her execution. They arrive in front of a metal door with a name plate reading “Jim Beam”. She can’t help but laugh, the man owns a bar and has the same name as a brand of whisky. Jim Beam turns sharply and glares at her. Kayla immediately shuts her mouth, biting her tongue to stop the bubbles of laughter threatening to emerge. He unlocks his office and struts inside, like a Peacock making its way into a room full of Peafowl. This is his domain and she should make sure she remembers it. Kayla shuffles into the office all the while wishing the ground would swallow her up. She can feel everyone’s eyes on her and this makes her mad. What she did was a perfectly reasonable reaction for the situation.
“Shut the door and sit down.” Her boss snaps, taking a seat behind a desk that seems to take up most of the room. As Kayla turns to shut the door, she shoots the finger at the onlookers tittering away at her. That shut them up. She sees a sea of horrified public school faces staring back at her as she slams the metal door. Taking the seat opposite her boss she tries for a petulant face, crossing her hands meekly on her lap. Jim Beam looks her up and down with a blank face. Only the fire in his eyes reminds Kayla that he is angry.
“Would you care to tell me what happened out there?” He asks, but it isn’t really a question. He stares at her with such fury that a lesser woman would have dissolved into a puddle of tears. Kayla doesn’t. She cocks her head to the side and blows air out of her mouth; with arrogance only a young person had in front of their elders. Suddenly she is raring for a fight.
“I punched that man in the face for commenting on my breasts.” She snarls. There is a long moment of silence whilst Jim reaches into his desk to find a white form and a pen. Kayla takes this time to look at him more closely. She would guess that he was in his thirties, and well kept. There was a wedding band on his desk- not on his finger. Maybe he was estranged from his wife… no. She noticed that he had three mobile phones on a table in the corner. A phone for family, a phone for business, a phone for pleasure. He had a wife and multiple girlfriends. The wife didn’t know, hence the separate phones. What a dirtbag she thought. She resumed her once over, Jim had blonde hair swept back from his forehead in an almost quiff and a strong jaw. He would have been attractive if it were not for the icy coldness in his eyes. Kayla hates herself for noticing how strong his forearms look as he writes down what she has said. He looks up at her.
“The customer back there is an Arabian prince. He is a valued customer. He claims the attack was unprovoked and I am inclined to believe him.” All this is said with surgical precision, no emotion. He is a walking talking robot. Kayla feels words on her tongue. She swallows them back to be destroyed by the fire in her belly. She needs this job.
“I wouldn’t lie.” She says matter of factly, once she has regained her composure. “That man made an unwanted comment and when I asked him to leave me alone he continued to pursue me. I was scared of what he might to and of what was expected from me and I panicked. I’m very sorry.” Kayla tried her best to look apologetic. Her boss continued to write on the form. Suddenly, Kayla was terrified of what was going to happen to her, she needed this job. She had a history of violence and what if… what if this was it. Tears sprung to her eyes as she imagined what might happen to her if the prince pressed charges. She was sure she would be incarcerated, he past criminal offences made it impossible for her not to be. Jim looked up as he heard her sob and ceased writing. Struggling not to tell the stupid girl to pull herself together he paused. He didn’t have time for nutjobs like her. He needed to get her out of his office. He needed Candy to relieve his stress, just another dumb barmaid but he had taken a liking to her. Oh yes, a special liking to. An idea sprung to mind, another business venture he was opening up. This freak in front of him would be perfect.
“Now now, there’s no need for that.” He said soothingly, trying to win her trust. “It’s all okay, everything is fine.” Kayla looked up hopefully:
“I’m not losing my job?” She asked brightly, relief visible on her face. Jim Beam tipped his head forward slightly.
“Alas, my dear. You can’t work here anymore. But, I am opening a club on the other side of town that I think would be better suited for. I will write to you with the details soon. Please leave your apron on the bar.”

            And with that, Kayla found herself thrown out of one world and into another.

Women With Tattoos

Personally, I love tattoos. I think that, when done well, they can look beautiful. They're just art for the skin. I have no problem with people with tattoos (unless they're offensive, duh) whether they're men or women and there seems to be a growing population of women who are getting inked, heavily inked.
Tattoos are commonly seen as something found on people who are part of an 'alternative' scene and although many women who get inked are not part of this scene, take actress Angelina Jolie or pop-singer Rihanna; heavy inking (I'm talking sleeves etc) do seem to be found predominantly on women who are 'alternative'. In the picture is Hannah Snowdon, model and tattoo artist. She's absolutely beautiful and personally I think her tattoos only add to her quirky image. But, some people would say that it's too much and that she's ruined her good looks (I would say that they are wrong). But why does society ignore the fact that many men, both in white and blue collar jobs, have tattoos? Why is it just such a big thing for women to have tattoos when tattoos on men are largely ignored? Why are tattoos seen as unprofessional in the workplace? I really don't know. If I had a business, small or large, and a woman (or bloke) with tattoos applied for a job, I wouldn't give the way they decorated their skin a second glance as long as it was appropriate (ie, no cursing or unfavorable comments). I would see if they had the right qualifications and attitude and the only thing about personal appearance that I would take into account was whether or not they were dressed appropriately for the job. I don't undertand why body art is such a big no no in working environments. Can anyone tell me?

I also don't understand why women with tattoos are seen as 'trampy'. I don't get the concept of the 'tramp-stamp'. The lower back and upper arm a common places for women to have tattoos, largely because they're comfortable (apparently) places to get tattoos and they can be hidden and shown off as you please. Why does it make you a tramp?

I don't know, sometimes I think that society needs a real kick up the ass. I just hold onto the fact that one day my generation will be the one that sets the standards, and those standards will be freakin fantastic. 

3 People Who Saved the Day (While Dressed as Superheroes)

I will warn you that I've basically stolen this from cracked.com but my version will be much better. 

1) A woman dressed as Wonder Woman is attacked by a tramp. What the hell? What mad person would take on Wonder Woman for heaven's sake? Well, a lady tramp in cowboy boots first punched Wonder Woman in the face, before attacking her with previously mentioned cowboy boots. Amazingly, guess who turns up? None other that Superman! Wow. Superman scared the lady tramp away and presumably he and Wonder Woman ran/flew/whatever into the sunset.

2) Security guard Luke Junior was wearing his Superman costume as part of a charity event outside of a mall in Sheffield, and I give him man points for that to start with and even more man points are being sent his way as whilst wearing said Superman costume he spotted a shoplifter running from a shop. Cape billowing behind him, he leapt into action and foiled the shoplifter's evil plan by performing a citizens arrest on him until the police arrived. Go Superman!

3) Captain American and Batman save a cat from a burning building whilst entertaining a load of kids. Good deed for the day done.

If more people dressed up as superheroes and did wonderful things then undoubtedly the world would be a much more appealing place. 

Blurred Lines (Not Really That Blurry)

So, I was sat in the cafe in college (I was in a free, not bunking) when I started really thinking about what feminism in the modern day is. To me, it's women taking control of their life and their choices and being treated and respected at the same level as men are. Fairly simple really. But to some people, feminism has taken some strange twist, as to where women are not allowed to what they want with their lives because it sets women back eons. Hm. I OBJECT. Women can do what they want with their lives; whether it's becoming a lawyer, a doctor, a waitress, a mechanic or even a glamour model (oh yeah, I said it). Because in all of these jobs, they are in control of what they are doing. They have chosen to be there and are being paid for what they have chosen to do. So why are so many women up in arms about a certain music video in which three women prance about topless? (If you don't know that I'm talking about Blurred Lines- under which rock have you been hiding?) Honestly, I don't have a problem with the video. These women have chosen to do the job and are showing that they are proud of their bodies and really, that they have utter control of the situation. If they didn't want to do the job they would have said no. So why are people saying that they are giving modern day feminism a bad name? Purely; because women are jealous creatures. If we don't have the confidence to strip off and prance about they no one should. Frankly, if I looked like any of the models in the video I'd be walking around naked most of the time. Another key point is that they're models- they are paid for their bodies and therefore to show them off. 

However, I do have a problem with the lyrics of the song, which are all about taking a seemingly "good girl" and persuading her that she really does want some wild, crazy sex. Or maybe you should just accept that no is no? In fact I think that the lyrics are pretty disgusting; Just take T.I.'s line of "I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two." Um, sorry, what? No thank you, my behind is happy as it is. If you think that I'm complaining over nothing then just take a look at these statistics:

• Approximately 85,000 women are raped on average in England and Wales every year
• Over 400,000 women are sexually assaulted each year
• 1 in 5 women (aged 16 - 59) has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16.

And those are purely to do with rape and sexual assault. Think about the amount of women sexually blackmailed, verbally assaulted or given other unwanted attentions. Songs like this promote the 'rape culture' in which we live in, a culture that sees rape as something that just happens. Something fairly common. Something that some people joke about. In fact a friend of mine said (I stress that eh said this when he was much more ignorant of the issue) that if he didn't have sex by the time he left school, then he would rape someone. He know sees that it was a highly inappropriate comment and has apologised. Anyway, we live in a culture that accepts rape and sexual assault for what it is and many cases go unreported. I do blame songs like this for normalizing what is a truly heinous and hideous crime. If you have been affected by any form of unwanted sexual attention, please don't hesitate to get help:
http://www.rapecrisis.org.uk/Statistics2.php
http://www.rasasc.org.uk/

If you want to read some more about the issue, check out this article: 
http://www.policymic.com/articles/56069/a-feminist-takedown-of-robin-thicke-and-anyone-who-thinks-there-s-something-blurry-about-sexism

Apologies for the heavy topic but I think that it is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.
Love, Em x

Lived A Lie

AND IF I LIVED A LIE... etc. This is You Me At Six's (superbly amazing) new song. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about... Honesty. Honesty with ourselves. How many of you are living a lie? I don't just mean having a hidden wife and kids in a cave somewhere, I mean little things. Saying to yourself that one more biscuit won't hurt... That you think your bum looks great in trackie bottoms (newsflash, it doesn't)... That a Soggy Bottom on your cake isn't the end of the world (sorry, the great British bake off is on). Really, we lie to ourselves all the time, every day in fact. And these lies spread so we're lying to friends, families, romantic partners. So, today, you should give yourself one home truth and tell your friends and family as well.
Mine was: I have to go to chemistry learning support. I owned up to myself that I need to work harder and when I told my mum about my special class she just laughed, I don't know why I was so worried about her disowning me.

Just to say.. HELLO

Just a quick little note to say hello! I'm Emily *waves*. I'm here to put my thoughts and feeling on the screen. You may love me, hate me or even want to be me (kidding, kidding) but I hope that what I write interests you and you keep coming back for more (like when you can't have just one chocolate from the box)!

Emily out.