between the rock and the cold, cold sea

(This was suposed to get posted yesterday, but LJ was b0rked.)

Being an outraged feminist is tiring.

The Irish government refuses to fund or support the HPV vaccine. Many young women are getting it anyway, and many mothers are going into debt to give it to their daughters. The HPV vaccine has been shown in testing to reduce the rate of cervical cancer by 80%, but if you're Irish and want it, you're going to have to shell out around six hundred (600) euro.

(insert rant about how if this was a vaccine for penile cancer in men, the government would be bending over backwards to ensure its provision.)

The latest Health Services Executive anti-STD advertisement campaign, from what I've seen of it, places all the responsibility for preventing the transmission of STDs on women. Sample advertisement: picture of a woman and a man kissing. Thought bubble above the woman's head: "I'm too embarrassed to suggest a condom." Thought bubble underneath the woman's feet: "But how embarrassed would I be if I got clamydia?".

Men and women are equally responsible for their sexual hygiene and the safety of themselves and their partners. But, pray tell, how often are men made to feel ashamed of asking their partners to take basic health precautions? How often are men pressured into having sex with their partners because they're part of a culture that assumes that if they're dating, there's something wrong with them if they're not fucking? How often are men made to feel ashamed of sex, full stop?

(insert rant about living in a patriarchal, bishops'-rings-kissing country that still, no still hasn't thrown off all of its Victorian prejudices, much less replaced them with something sane.)

The Irish Independent ran an article today about how women have overtaken men in nearly all levels of education (the exception is education that leads to well-paid trades, such as apprenticeships) and how we need to think of ways to encourage the poor boys to hang in there and not let the girls outdo them. This, when studies have shown that the gender gap in wages in Ireland starts immediately after college graduation, and men are consistently paid more than women for the exact same work. Not to mention the fact that the trades are booming, and in many trades companies simply won't employ women, however qualified. (One of my uncles-by-marriage is an electrician. I've heard him laugh about this.)

Yeah, the poor boys really need hand-holding through their education. I don't think.

You know, when I was still a student at an all-girls school, I didn't think that sexism was a problem. We were taught to believe we could do anything, be anything, that we wanted to be; that we could go anywhere that we wanted to go. That we were on equal footing - no, better, because we were getting a better education - with the entire world.

Thank you, world, for disillusioning me.

*

I will not feel guilty about not writing when I've written (including deletions and revisions) over 2K worth of college assignment this week. I will not feel guilty about not writing when I have over 7K worth of college assignments to do before next Friday, and some eating, sleeping and exercise to throw in there as well.

I will not feel guilty. I will feel accomplished.