It's day three of my Australian adventure, and I am finally realizing that this is real and not just some trip over the rainbow cooked up in my dreams. There are so many amazing things about Australia, but I have already noticed a lot of the sexism that occurs here. One small thing I saw was a candy bar wrapper that stated "it's NOT for girls!" (you know i'm going to be buying that, right? Oh hell yeah i'm buying that...not for girls...pfft).
Women are certainly held to high standard of femininity here, much like in the U.S., but the men are also more "feminine" in appearance than would be considered appropriate by U.S. standards. They are very high fashion here in Sydney, and in meeting a few aussie boys they were quite vocal about how they think American men particularly are poor dressers.
The most alarming and bracing part of today's adventure was definitely talking to those australian boys some of us met here at the hostel. Many of the people we've met so far have been so nice, but these boys were loud and, well, quite vulgar. I'm sure not all the men here are like this, but these guys were throwing out the word "cunt" left and right. I had heard this is common in the OZ, but you can't honestly brace yourself for just how quickly you feel offended by this. I know that here it's more of a common curse word to use (by both men and women), but dear lord it is just so blatantly a product of the sexism here. The girls and I were NOT amused. Let's hope we don't have many more encounters like this...
On another note, a happier note, I got to meet two amazing Australian female surfers today! Some of the girls and I were lucky enough to have been walking down to the Opera house for breakfast today when we were stopped by a Public Relations Rep. for Vegemite. She gave us raffle tickets and directed us to the "Toast of a Nation" Van nearby, where we could sample Vegemite for the first time. We got our toast, got out of line, and just as we were about to take the bite a news anchor and camera man came over to our group and did a spot with all of us in it, filming each of us as we took our first bite. It was salty, but not bad. Afterwards, we were urged to go to the cinema nextdoor to watch the premiere of Vegemite's new ad campaign (I promise i'm getting to the point).
The new ads featured everyday Aussie's doing amazing (and sometimes just amusing) things. Among the people featured were two female surfers,Fran & Clare, just about to launch their own film production company called Just 'Cause. They talked about wanting to change the pecking order of the surfing world and promoting the girl power of female surfers everywhere. They were so intelligent, driven, and truly passionate...which was so wonderfully refreshing to see after all the sexism and ultra-femininity running around here. After the screening, we found out they were there, and we each got a photo taken with them! I just love all of the amazing women there are out there, and I promise to post that pic once I get home.
Next time, I'll be talking about building new friendships here on the trip. All I can say for now is, I am so delighted by how people and other women constantly surprise me. I am so happy to be getting to know everyone.
Until next time,
Cheers!
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