Untitled

High
School
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Editor-in-chief
Graphic editor
Hania Sagan
Writers
Aleksandra Szulowska
Małgorzata Duluk
Kuba Orliński
Hania Sagan
Kasia Skoneczna
Zuzia Nawrotek
Supervisors
Justyna Deja
Artur Nowaczyk
Printed and sponsored by
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www.readymade.pl/
Table of contents
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Feminism – what does it
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REALLY mean?
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What the hell is: Gender
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He Said & She Said:
power is bigger than power of
love
14
What is beauty? XXI
century point of view
Homosexuality
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Ukraine – when love for
Suicides – “If I die young…”
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Patriarchy is a social system in which males are the primary authority figures central to social organization,
occupying roles of political leadership, moral authority, and control of property, and where fathers hold
authority over women and children. [source: Wikipedia]
Yes, this might sound medieval to you, but I can
assure you that this is still (surprisingly) a thing. It’s
men deciding for women, on what they have to do
with their bodies. It’s politicians who make laws
about abortion, not letting women have say in it.
Girls get the message from very early on, that what's
most important is how they look - that their value,
their worth, depends on that, and boys get the
message that it's the thing they should look for in
girls. So, no matter what they do or what they
achieve – girls are still valued based on their looks.
What I would really want to write about is what
feminism is supposed to be about, and not what it
turned out to be. I believe in the word ‘feminism’ as
in all the things I’m going to write about below
(equality in general), and not a kind of a... political
party that some people make it out to be, because
that’s not being a feminist – that’s being an idiot. So,
below I’m going to use that word to express fairness
and not the hate-spitting women who just claim to
be feminists.
There's no easy way to be a woman today. Adopt
the life of a traditional wife and mother and you're
taking a very real risk by making yourself financially
vulnerable; you'll also find yourself being assumed
to be an uninteresting childlike twit. Try to be a
having-it-all supermom and you're stressed-out,
exhausted and frustrated, not to mention regularly
pointed out for being insufficiently dedicated to your
children. Skip or delay the kids and you're a selfish
narcissist flitting through life with no real purpose,
while when a man is doing the same thing, he’s
being dedicated to his job. The same thing goes for
being a boss. A woman can’t take things in her
hands, because suddenly, she’s bossy. When a man
is taking proper care of himself, he’s neat. When a
woman does the same thing, she’s vain.
A few weeks ago was the last straw. After one of my
teachers made fun of feminists, I decided to start my
research. If the media continue to have their way,
we’ll all be convinced that feminists are hate-spitting
women who don’t respect their bodies, cut their hair
short and are lesbians, but that is a very broad
generalisation with no valid basis. The saddest thing
is that most of the stereotypes came from women
who claim to be feminists, but aren’t.
Some women are still treated as something you can
own and throw away, and that’s not right. I’m not
talking about well-developed countries anymore.
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Women all over the world are still treated as things
you can trade for a flock of camels, chickens or
goats. They’re treated as objects that have to work
in the kitchen and be there for the husband when he
needs them. They don’t get the luxury of going to
school. They don’t get the luxury of deciding about
their own lives. Men are still made to believe that
they own their wives. Women who get raped are
still getting stoned (quit the jokes guys). In lots of
countries women are still getting raped, while being
told that it’s their fault. They provoked the poor
man, who couldn’t look at her legs without getting
aroused. Her ‘no’ must be a ‘yes’, if she’s wearing a
skirt that short, am I right? (*hint hint* massive
sarcasm there) The biggest problem is that we teach
girls how not to get raped, instead of teaching boys
not to rape.
The last situation I can think of right now is what our
editor-in-chief had said a few days back. She meant
it as an exaggeration, so no hard feelings there Han,
but she actually had the point. A huge, stereotypical
one. We were talking about the Academy Awards
articles and she decided (or joked, it doesn’t
matter), that guys should write about everything
that mattered (e.g. who won and for what), while
girls should write about dresses and hairdos that
appeared on the red carpet. Honestly? It made me
feel dumb. Maybe that’s yet another exaggeration,
but it made me feel like that’s all we’re capable of.
That women are just supposed to sit there and look
pretty, while men take care of the important stuff.
Some women, along with some men, might like that
sort of thing , but I don’t take pleasure in gossiping
about who slept with whom or what Jennifer
Lawrence was wearing at the Oscars and that does
not make me a lesser woman, nor am I less
feminine than the ones who do.
Another reason why I got motivated to write this
article, was another clever ‘joke’ by some guys from
our school about the movie Gravity. They said that
hey, haha, who would ever send a woman into
space? They understand, a dog, yes, that makes
sense, but a woman? You simply have to be out of
your mind to send a stupid woman into space (and
they were not talking about one woman being
stupid). And the girls that were with them, laughed.
It wasn’t funny to them, you could tell, but they felt
that they had to laugh. They had to applaud such a
witty joke that came from their peers. If we switched
the roles, having a bunch of women make a remark
about men, it would not be funny anymore.
Long story short:
Feminism is the radical notion that women are
people. It’s a notion that wants everyone to know
that women do not belong to anyone.
Feminists are not women who want to work in
mines (although some might want to do that, and if
they’re suited for the job, then no one can stop
them from being badass mine workers).
Feminist DO NOT hate men.
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Feminism is – women making their own choices;
women having the choice opportunities/
treatment/rights as men (and please, don’t start the
whole dumb war on feminists working in mines –
we’re not in elementary school anymore); women
being comfortable with who they are and who they
want to be; women of all sizes, shapes, colors,
professions, religions and backgrounds.
The only thing I don’t like about feminism is the label
it turned out to be. It was supposed to be about
equality, but it became a movement against men. I
think we should try everything we can to bring back
the original meaning of that word, because it’s
important to stop the hate and keep changing the
world to be a better place.
Feminism is NOT – anyone, including feminists,
telling women how they should behave/what they
should do; women hating men; women being
ashamed for who they are and what they want to
be.
”Girls can wear jeans
And cut their hair short
Wear shirts and boots
Feminists can be cool and fight with swords, but
others can be cool by being lovely and liking to bake,
and that’s okay . Just because women shouldn't be
confined to traditional female roles doesn't mean
they can't fill them if they want to. Different women
want different things out of life, have different
dreams and show their strengths in different ways.
The only thing that matters is being a good human
being.
'Cause it's OK to be a boy
But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading
'Cause you think that being a girl is degrading”
-Madonna, ‘What It feels Like For A Girl’
Zuzia Nawrotek
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- You believe that your gender doesn’t define who
- You believe that everyone has a certain gender
assigned to him/her the minute he/she comes to
life
you are
- You think that people should be able to change
their gender freely
- No one should be able to change his/her gender
- You think that women and men should be equal
- You are pro sexual, legal and political equality
- You raise your children in accordance with the
gender they were biologically given
- You let your children experiment with opposite
gender oriented toys and clothes
- You are against the LGBT community
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my parents, who think that God loves us equally and
claim that no matter what, you should respect others.
After all this quote is also from the Bible: ‘This is my
commandment, that you love one another as I have
loved you.’
This „High” issue is very important and kind of special,
because we’re writing about well-known and
somehow popular problems in these days. I think we
all felt like “homosexuality” should be the topic of
one of our articles:. To be honest I was never really
for or against gay people. Of course I respected them,
but I've never felt like I have something to say on the
matter. My 'breakthrough', if I can call it like that,
came about a year ago, when scrolling through
YouTube page I found this video called ‘Imagine A
World Where Being "Gay" is The Norm'. I pressed
play... and in the end my eyes where all red because
of crying. This movie made me realize that people can
be so harsh and they can so easily destroy someone's
life.
Teenagers react to homosexuality.
When I asked my friends how they feel about
homosexuality, most of them just gave me the names
of people they ship and tried to discuss if John and
Sherlock are actually gays or not, which makes me
think we’re more open and understanding than
previous generations. I think it’s because lots of celebs
like John Scot Barrowman and Youtubers (Troyler,
people!)are coming out. I really admire how they
encourage others to be themselves and I think they’re
the reason why our friends are coming out too. As you
can see for most teenagers homosexuality is not a
taboo. There are pictures of gay couples, songs and
movies about it all over the Internet! And what’s more
important there are plenty of people who really accept
you for who you are. It’s not just Tumblr, guys, you can
also find people who know that you shouldn’t be
afraid or ashamed of who you are in real life. I mean,
of course there are teenagers who are totally against
gay people. I won’t even try to explain their reasons to
you, because when I ask them, they have simple
answer for me: (imagine creepy minutes of silence). If
they can’t find the reason, maybe there just isn’t one,
huh? If so, why don’t you overcome your prejudice
and admit that everybody deserves to love and be
loved. It’s the most important thing I’ve learned in my
life so far.
What do older people say?
Basically, lots of older people are against gays. Not just
against them getting married or having kids. They’re
against them existing. They just can’t believe that you
can like person of the same gender. I tried to ask them
why that is so. Most of them had the same answer for
me: the Bible. And I can’t feel anything else but
sadness. It’s killing me that what I believe in is used to
justify hatred and bullying others. To check if all
Christians are like that, I opened the browser and as I
read the first sentence, I could feel I’m smiling, you
know? ‘Some Christians have come to the conclusion
that gay relationships which are faithful and loving are
blessed by God.’ But then, my smile faded as I read
those sentences from the Bible that are clearly stating
that homosexuality is a sin and we should never agree
to it. I think it’s time to move on from ancient times to
XXI century. I’m glad that there are still people like
Ola Szulowska
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"Live and let live" – it’s my motto and probably my
favorite quote of like… ever. But unfortunately we,
the generation with seemingly no boundaries, turns
out to be not as tolerant as we like to believe.
"You’re gay!" seems to be the worst thing you
could call someone else these days. It's absurd,
guys! Homosexuality is just a part of nature and yet
it's still the reason of hatred and bullying in the
21st century.
make is that only YOU can decide who to love and
how to express that feeling. Don't ever think that
someone else can decide this for you. Not
politicians, teachers, adults, priests, not anyone, but
YOU.
The most often used argument against gay couples is
that they aren't natural. Let me just say this: what a
freaking bunch of absolute nonsense. Homosexual
relationships between animals are just as common
as heterosexual ones. It more than proves it's
nothing unnatural and that it's not something to get
discriminated over! The only
people I could
understand to suffer from homophobia would be
the elderly, because they were born and raised in
another, more conservative society. But why is it
that I see teenagers harassing others just because
they are "different"? Calling them names and
lobbying others to join in? I think it's mostly because
we can’t overcome prejudice. We really have to
change the way we look at homosexuality.
There’s also the issue with adopting kids. There is an
enormous debate whether giving gay people the
right to adopt children is a good move, which surely
creates a lot of controversy. I've asked some of my
friends what they think about it. Most said that they
don't mind it at all. Some even liked this idea - why
should those kids be deprived of a loving home just
because their parents might be of the same gender?
Homophobia, the plague of our times, should never
be the basis of denying people this right. And while
we are on the subject of kids there is a question that
a lot of conservative parents ask: how should I
explain to my children what gay relationships are?
Well, how is it harder to explain that two people
love each other than telling your kid there is a big,
fat man in a red suit who goes around the world
squeezing through every chimney he can find and
leaving presents for the children, which, frankly,
would require either the use of magic or the 6th
dimension? I mean, come on! Do you mean to tell
me that every Christmas you sing "Love is all we
need” and don't really mean that? :(
A lot of people say that gay people just haven't "met
the right man/woman yet". It's frankly a ridiculous
argument to which I recently found a really good
response. If someone tells you that, you just ask
them if they are attracted by llamas. When they
deny tell them "you just haven't found the right
llama yet"(and then spam their mailbox with
pictures of cute llamas, duh). The point I’m trying to
Kuba Orliński
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I’ve recently finished a book entitled “Looking for
Alaska” by John Green. Overrated though it may
be, it gave beginning to my personal
contemplations about deaths of people my age.
Why do young people choose death over thousand
other possible solutions? The answer is simple - the
world we are living in bears so many things that
can bring us down.
committed suicide. The thing that so accurately
linked the situation with the book was that both of
the people who died were young and that even their
closest friends did not have any reason to suspect
what was coming. It clearly shows that even
seemingly content people, who display lots of
positivity and confidence in front of their friends,
can actually be unhappy inside. Things we bury deep
inside can literally eat us alive. Instead of confiding
in people, they either just don’t or they confide in
drugs. Like in “Watercolors” (2008) by David Oliveras
- a heartbreaking movie which shows a gradual
destruction of a seemingly mentally strong guy. The
film has lots of strong morals, but I believe that we
would have to figure out by ourselves what we want
to take out of it. All I can say is that the movie could
have ended differently. If only.
Society is merciless, and in this day and time it does
its damage so undercover that we can hardly
prevent all those harsh, intolerant and hopeless
things from getting into young people’s minds.
Adults say that problems of the youth are so
frivolous, that they are certainly not worth dying for,
that the youth nowadays are too stupid to even
think of suicide. But guess what – everyone has their
own tragedy, regardless of age, and if someone is
hurt, they are hurt no lesser than any other.
The problems that we, as a population, have seemed
to overcome so long ago such as homophobia (if you
care to see a heartbreaking story about suicide
committed due to homophobia, watch “Prayers for
Oddly, just around a week after my reading Looking
for Alaska, a close friend of one of my best friends
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Bobby” (2009) by Russell Mulcahy – I cried ), racism,
domestic violence, poverty are still shining as
brightly as they once did. In addition to all that, our
society has created more problems – peer pressure,
the definition of “beauty”, popularity, parents’
divorce or parents ‘ ambitions for their children,
which they cannot fulfil and so many more unique
individual problems – all those things are stronger
killers than a gun. A gun will make you die, sure,
maybe suffer for a few seconds. The problems all
these young people are dealing with destroy them
from inside out till they can’t stand them anymore.
observe a day in the life of a man who wanted to
commit suicide, throughout which he transitioned
from wanting to die to taking out his polished gun
and putting it back into the cupboard without doing
anything with it. What I wanted to say all along is BE
SOMEBODY’S REASON TO SMILE and maybe, just
maybe, with that one smile you will be able to save
someone’s life. If you know you cannot bear this
vicious and cruel world without someone, let them
know that. Let them know that no matter how bad
things are, there will always be at least that one
person who will always care if there is a smile on
their face.
I seem to use this quote a lot, but there’s really no
other one that can sum this up as accurately– „Let
us hurry to love people, they depart so quickly”.
They do depart so quickly and suddenly, whether it’s
on purpose or not. There’s no way we can help it
and we certainly cannot prevent fate or desire so
the next best thing is to be the best people and
friends we can be. Please do watch “A Single Man”
(2009) by Tom Ford, a movie where we get to
observe
Hania Sagan
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1.Story of boy in a blue helmet
Stalin's ghost appears to Putin in his dream,
and Putin asks for his help with running the
country. Stalin says,
"Round up and shoot all the democrats,
and then paint the inside of the Kremlin blue."
"Why blue?" Putin asks.
"Ha!" says Stalin.
"I knew you wouldn't ask me about the first part."
None of us really knows what the people who came
out on the streets in Ukraine to fight for their rights
felt. Nevertheless, without any doubts, we can
describe their attitude as brave and determined,
ready for the final combat. Among those determined
adults were also kids in their teens, no less brave or
determined, but probably not fully expecting the
consequences that followed. One day a boy in a blue
helmet appeared. He thought that wearing that blue
helmet would protect him, as ‘blue’ is a colour
commonly associated with the UN and peace.
However, it turned out to be something totally
different – it became an easy target for a sniper.
Sadly, the kid died from a bullet. Some high school
friends of the dead boy were helping to remove the
shot people form the center of the city. They were
carrying his body as well, not knowing who it was
until they removed the blue helmet….
Through my entire life I’ve always thought I have this
unique ability to use black humor when it’s not
appropriate to joke at all. Surprisingly, it always
helped in a way. And though some people looked at
me with disrespect hidden in their eyes, others
around me laughed and it made the atmosphere a
bit…easier. However, no matter which of those two
reactions is closer to you, you can’t deny one thing –
there is a striking truth coming from this joke, that’s
simply not funny, but tragic.
Any time we turn on the TV, read the news or listen
to the radio this truth hits us. However, there are
things we can’t hear or see in the usual evening
news summing up the day. Those are the stories of
individuals, ordinary people coming to fight for
democracy and justice in the world they live in. This
short piece of mine consists of three such stories,
both heard from people whose names won’t be
mentioned here. I can’t guarantee they’re true
because I’ve never checked that myself. However, I
can easily imagine they had actually happened.
2.The Story of a volunteer from Euromaidan.
A girl in her twenties was standing at the railway
station in Kyiv, waiting for the train to take her
home. She was a volunteer with the medical service
of Maidan. It so happened, that militia
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checked her documents and noticed the badge
from Maidan. As a result, she was driven out of
the city, straight into the woods. Her documents
were taken as well as her asthma meds, but that
wasn’t the worst part. She was so badly beaten
she barely could get out of the forest as she was
choking with asthma...
3. Helping Ukrainians
This is a story of a man who was a member of
Ukrainian self-defense units, a little bit before
the final protests on Maidan started.
He had a wife and a small kid at home, never did
anything against his country. However, his life
and the life of his family had slowly started to
turn into a nightmare. The state forces, which
were most probably sent by the President , had
already known who was in the self-defense units.
They tried to scare him off and they tried to
scare his family as well. Unfortunately, they
succeeded. While the man was not in the house,
some strange people started to visit his wife.
They were threatening her, telling that her
husband would be killed, saying she wouldn’t see
him again and that his body would never be
found. Soon, it became too much for the family.
They decided to run away and fled straight to
Poland. Their situation was hopeless as they
didn’t have much.
Luckily, this world didn’t turn out to be entirely
devoid of people with big hearts. Not far away
from Warsaw, somewhere near Michałowice
lives a man who decided to help them. He gave
them an apartment, saying that once he also had
a hard life situation. Back then someone helped
him out, now it was his turn to do so…
Kasia Skoneczna
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The subject of the contemporary perception of
beauty is becoming more and more common. The
popularization of extremely thin young women and
men is a serious problem, not only in the fashion
industry but also in society. Haven’t you ever
thought about all these beautiful models and
wondered why they seem so perfect? The problem
is that everybody would like to be perfect and
everybody has complexes, especially girls. So,
automatically we want to try to swallow our
imperfections, by giving our best to change them. Of
course, this isn’t the case of every girl or boy in the
world. But let’s be honest – it is getting scarily
common.
Girls often talk about being on all kinds of diets.
Sometimes it can be just a fad which doesn’t last
long - just a week or two of dieting before prom or a
month of “no carbs” before the dream vacation to
Barbados. But unfortunately, it’s not always the
case. Some of them are feeling really bad in their
bodies and are very determined to lose weight. It
starts with innocent diets, then changes into a big
limitation of food, starvation diets and then it occurs
to them, that they cannot stop it. This can cause
serious problems in our body and in our mental
health. We can’t forget that anorexia and bulimia
are mainly mental illnesses, which are way easier to
get than to overcome.
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The facts are saying that 1 out of 250 women suffers
from anorexia and almost 10% of cases end with the
death of patients. One of the worst effects of
anorexia and bulimia is that you are never satisfied
with your weight. It’s like a kind of an addiction; it’s
just too hard to stop. Remember that people having
an eating disorder always need help, even when
they think they don’t. Another thing to remember is
that anorexia and bulimia can touch ANYONE seemingly female illnesses, they are also popular in
the man’s world. So don’t neglect the symptoms!
cancer. Also your teeth and nails become yellow,
which isn’t very attractive. Believe me, there are a
lot of healthy ways to achieve the body of your
dreams! Just search for it, google is always eager to
help.
The popular size 0 shouldn’t in any case entice you!
It’s way too dangerous for your health. All these
models and celebrities wearing this size are
popularizing something that isn’t even beautiful. Just
look at the 50’s when the beauty icon was Marilyn
Monroe, who is still considered one of the most
beautiful women in history and she didn’t wear size
0! The same with Beyonce – I dare you to find a
single person who doesn’t think she has a killer
body.
A healthy lifestyle is way much better than cutting
short on food. Why not throw away from your diet
all the trash food that your body doesn’t need?
Fitness and gym is also a good idea. Your body will
be more pert and I’m sure you’ll be satisfied with it.
It’s also important to limit the intake of alcohol (for
adults) that is very calorific (!) and bad for your
health. Another popular but bad way of reducing
hunger are cigarettes, which is only an illusion. Why
reduce hunger by destroying your wellness? It
doesn’t make sense. Cigarettes are only increasing
the risk of heart attack and of course the risk of lung
So, before going on a diet, think about all the bad
sides and the consequences that can be the results
of foolish dieting. Don’t let the media, celebrities
and the fashion industry entice you into something
that isn’t good for your health. Remember that you
can lose it easily and that you have to always take
care of it.
Gosia Duluk
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