Underneath my header....

Ok, so my blog header has underneath it a small statement regarding my love of flowers and my occasional compulsion for feminist rants.  I have a confession to make about this. Actually I have two. 
But before I make them I should say to any of my followers that this isn't about cross stitch.
The first is that the rants aren't exclusively feminist rants and they often digress into rants about society and the media's treatment, representation, manipulation and expectation of young girls and women. Is that feminism?
I suppose it is. But growing up I was under the impression that if you were a feminist then you were a shaven haired dungaree wearing lesbian man bashing political harpee! How many stereotypes are in that? And it was always something that you were made to feel embarrassed about. Suffice to say none of my friends ever outed themselves as feminists. If you are wondering, I am not a shaven haired dungaree wearing lesbian man bashing political harpee and I would go as far to say that neither are most feminists. I hate to say this but could this image have been  created by men (not all men)? 
The second thing is that it was only about 6 months ago that I was able to say out loud (via an email) that I considered myself to be a feminist. When I said this I did feel a great deal of relief and was surprised when my friends said that they too were feminists and one even subscribed to a particular feminist blog.  Why were we so embarrassed to say that as women we supported equal rights for women? I don't hate men.  I just believe that everyone should be treated equally. 
A few months ago I was reading an article about a woman in California who had advocated for the women's vote, Susan B Anthony. She had tirelessly campaigned for it and believed strongly in equality. When women were given the vote she was so disappointed....why? because women voted for who their husbands told them to vote for.   I think she was right to be disappointed, women had laid down their lives, gone on hunger strike, been arrested and ostracised and all so that women could have a voice and stand up and be counted and we blew it. I think I can forgive us for doing that, after all it was all so new and we had never had to make decisions before, everything was consulted with the Mr.for generations. 
But here we are in the 21st century (over 100 years since the Suffragette movement) and we still do not have equality. It seems crazy that women are responsible for populating the earth but often don't realise how influential they could be in bringing about change.  If you are brave enough and your blood pressure can handle it, enter the search term feminist/feminism into google/YouTube and see how your views compare to others.  What do you think is acceptable sexism? Are women making a big deal about nothing? Do you think we are equal...enough?
I apologise if this is all a bit too serious and honestly, my rants tend to veer towards the treatment of women and female characters in TV shows, usually TV shows that I love and hate in equal measure. But I do believe in gender equality and it all starts with how we treat ourselves and expect to be treated. 
p.s Sorry if this isn't a post you wanted to read, If you want to avoid posts like this in the future then remember that any rants at all will have this font :)   
p.p.s I don't know what I am apologising for!