Female Light Signals in Victoria: Equal Lights

I think that while it's quite easy to sit there and criticize a new implementation that has been introduced in Melbourne, it's worthwhile to have a think about it overnight, and wake up the next morning and say, hey, Melbourne, good on you for introducing that new implementation: an additional gendered silhouette:

For those of you who do not know Melbourne, those internationally residing or nationally residing and who have no geographical inclination whatsoever, Melbourne is the New York of Australia, nestled neatly at the bottom of the Land Down-Under, overrun with easygoing cafes and lovely bearded men. And now this lovely urban cesspool of hipsters and blue-collar workers who despise greenies (for those of you who don't know who the 'greenies' are, they are a government party who care for... a lot. They just care so much that others have chosen not to care about them) have another reason to despise greenies, because of this so-called 'embarrassing' attempt at gender equality. The greenie in particular being Misha Coleman, pictured below, the white lady who fell for the 'Green Lady':

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The irony. A greenie lady fighting for a green lady. She justified her support of the green lady by saying that, “from when kids are young enough to walk they are given an instruction by a man and it has never occurred to any of us that that is inherently so bias. [...] I’m a mother of two young children and we always talk about waiting for the ‘green man’." So perhaps it is time for kids to wait for 'green woman' too?

One would think that people would be impartial to the adding of a different light. However, much like the whole pushing-forth-gender-equality movement, adding a dress to an otherwise undressed crossing figure has sparked outrage. I have heard the most preposterous reactions to this light, particularly from one fellow who claimed that you have to be dressed like Mary Poppins to cross the road. Well, prior to the installation that light, did you have to be a buff, nude and bald man to cross the road? And if this fellow wishes to further argue, I can argue that he cannot cross regardless, lest he had no toes nor fingers nor a nose because hose are the features that the lit up green and red man lacks. And this 'Mary Poppins' light is not representing Mary Poppins at all, though I do appreciate the fellow's sense of humour: it is a silhouette of Mary indeed, but Mary Rogers, the first female elected to local government. But that is beside the point - that light was added to a suburb in Melbourne, Richmond, in May 2016. It was to commemorate her contributions to council including Victoria's first maternal and child health service - that is to say that this fellow's argument is a year old, redundant, and highly inconsiderate:

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And all that fuss over one light - ONE light. Look how happy the fellows above are, why can't this fellow be, too? I mean, really, if that light is so difficult for you to accept, perhaps you should have your social equality epilepsy diagnosed before it grows out of control.

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I digress. Back to the topic at hand: Misha Coleman has pushed the idea that gender equality may be accessed through the adding of more female figures in the little boxes that help colour-identifying humans cross the roads as safe and civilized pedestrians. Thankfully for Cr Coleman, the Committee for Melbourne has answered her social prayers, however, much to the dismay of the community of Melbourne.

And, to think, that all the fuss is about an adding to a triangular shape to a male-figure shape in order to entice one's mind to believe in the difference in genders. Behold; from this:

... to this!

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If anything, I am outraged that society still expects to represent through semiotics, the presumption that if one were to wear a dress, one is considered a 'female' as opposed to a male who would not, presumably, wear such attire. THAT is something to be outraged over. And one cannot be outraged over that through the adding of these 'female lights' because it would be unwise, as our toilet signs also use the same silhouette to express gender differences when it comes to the public relieving of bowels. So, really, all of the outrage coming from people who think this act does not encourage gender equality is decades too late.

These lights, albeit with their constraining representations of both men and women, bring forth some positive change: "well," said the 'female' light to the 'male' light, "if they expect you to look like that, then I'll sit here because they expect me to look like this, so let's sit here together in harmony and direct these directionless citizens with two colours and hope they don't fuck up the simple task of crossing the road as much as they have fucked up gender equality already. And if they want to call this gender equality, then so be it!"

In that sense, gender equality has certainly been achieved. Both males and females are now suppressed in that they are represented by inadequately dressed (or in the case of the male light, undressed) lit up silhouettes. Now, we should try to help our children listen to both men and women in terms of road-crossing safety, as well as subliminally condition them to believe that a female should look like so, and a male should look like so. 

We are, like the gentleman below, affixing the conditioning of our society to our society. We are restricting ourselves from the freedom of self and expression. While it may have looked as though assigning both female and male lights is a solution to gender equality, we have, paradoxically, added a new negative ingredient to the concoction, instead ensnaring ourselves in a realm which wishes to control.

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So, my fellow Melbournians, before you light the fire of outrage, think of what it is that outrages you. Is it the fact that you don't want a female light because adding a female light doesn't really add to gender equality? Or is is the fact that you are distinguishing between a 'female' and 'male' light in the first place?

Maybe, to put both of the above problems at ease, we should instead have LED stick-figures representing us.

Or better yet, a big green and red silhouette of Uncle Sam, to remind us how Orwell predicted the degrading of our society through technology. Not to mention the continued suppression by our government. 1984, people.

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Or better yet, a big green and red silhouette of Uncle Sam, to remind us how Orwell predicted the degrading of our society through technology. Not to mention the continued suppression by our government. 1984, people.

But do not hate the initiative. Initiative can bring change. Hate the initiator, because the initiator initiated the wrong initiative. A greater initiative which would have pushed forth gender equality would be equal marriage rights. But we can't do that, because gendered lights at pedestrian crossings are more important to Melbourne and their greenies. Stop caring so much, greenies! Look at what your caring has caused! Social equality epilepsy!

On the Discussion of Saving Mr. Banks

Today I viewed a movie based on the author of Mary Poppins, Pamela L. Travers, and how she came to turn Mary Poppins into a feature film with the aid and attempted direction of Walt Disney himself.

I write today making claims based on the allegations of the film and its contents and the portrayal of Pamela and Walt’s handling of the Mary Poppins adaptation. For, seeing as I am an aspiring novelist, my potential to firstly write a novel, then to have it become popular enough for it to be adapted into a screenplay has driven me to express my feelings about my connection with each piece of writing I have created, and how highly I place them in contrast to how others see them.

The first story which comes to mind that I have written was when I was in sixth grade. I was asked to write a creative piece, so I wrote it about a young boy who was visited by a winged creature similar to a unicorn and would fly away with it on adventures, nightly, and would safely return the next morning. It was like the Harry Potter series, and I could not finish it in the duration that I was required to, so I had to end it abruptly. The second piece I recall came after that, and had a similar storyline to Pirates of the Caribbean, except it was not as dramatic. Both pieces I took seriously, and both pieces remain in my memory to this day. Even though they probably are not as great as my mind makes them out to be, I know that for a person of my age in that time, they were quite grand. From that point on, I kept on writing and drawing without keeping track because of all the reading that I prioritized and because of the overflowing of ideas I kept acquiring. The receiving of my first Game Boy Colour might have also contributed to this.

This Christmas, to avoid weeping from the loss of our things from a potential theft, seeing as though we celebrated Christmas at my grandmother’s home, my mum suggested that we all took our valuables with us. My sister brought her laptop, my dad brought the money and mum brought her jewelry. As for me, I grabbed my big box of writing ideas, contemplated taking along the rarest of my book collection, and brought my latest sketchbook and diary and poem book. Upon seeing what I had brought along, my mum projected a look on her face which questioned whether I was serious or not. And I was very, very serious. I told her that people, especially those who write, acquire their ideas from anywhere. This box, labeled ‘writing’, is the holy grail of ideas. It contains ideas which have sprung from my very mind, that I keep adding to depending on post formation ideas. I treasure this box because when the time comes where I will actually attempt, and finish writing my first novel, that box will be the feeder of my mind. It will be my muse, my motivation, and my fuel.

All of these things flung to my mind as I was watching Saving Mr. Banks, particularly when none of those who were assigned to work on different aspects of the Mary Poppins screenplay had taken Pamela seriously. She had rejected Walt’s proposal to go on with the screenplay several times, yet had finally accepted due to her need of money. Disregarding her dire need of it, she still cared deeply about each character in Mary Poppins, and how they dressed, how they acted, what they looked like, where they lived and how they spoke, to a point where she gave the crew working on it a horrible time. She rejected most things that they came up with, and whenever she did they thought horribly of her. My connection to this is that I can understand how she feels. If I had to sit down and watch other people interpret those who I had designed, I would be metaphorically pulling my hair out. I would not stand it, especially if these people continued veering away from the essential characters at hand.

People who do not write stories need to appreciate those who do. They need to appreciate the time and effort it takes to create these almost-beings, and how attached writers get to them. We writers conjure up these characters in our psyches and continue to develop them until they become more real to us than our realities. Their lives become our realities, and until you can appreciate that, you will never understand how deep of a connection we hold with our writing, no matter how small or lacking it sometimes may be. An idea is still an idea, nonetheless, whether it consists of one word or a million.