Thoughts on Gender - Originally posted on personal FB page.

Okay, so i'd finally like to put into words what I think on the matter of gender and society:

Gender is a social construct built upon past representations of history. Gender is not biologically inherent (that is, the terms gender and sex being two completely different things). Perhaps this can be demonstrated through the depiction of women through time, and their growing equality. However, one could argue that this is the change of gender roles, and not gender. What discredits this idea, in my eyes, is that like it or not, the way we interact with anyone is based upon preconceived ideas of gender. Unintentionally, we will treat and surround children in a certain way which will influence them to act a certain way. Thus, the cycle is ongoing.
Moreover, people cannot be simply "male" or "female". Indeed, women tend to have more motherly instincts than men, but what about those women who can't fathom the idea of having a child, lack motherly-instinct, and yet are in all other cases "womanly"? This does not make them an anomaly, but shows the difference in attitudes of people within the same sex. People may hold a "primitive" argument, that back in the prehistoric era of cavemen and the lot the men went out to hunt mammoths while mother's fed their babes. This is hard to discredit, but the fact that female's aren't as strong as men does not link to gender in my eyes. In my world, gender is a mindset, an identity: what it is to be female or male, and what it is to be a man or woman, is two completely different things.
Secondly, like any other idea in the world, everything is created. Art, or autobiographies for example, can never be true of reality because its creator is subjective, however objectively they try to create or write or feel. Thus, if categories and preconceived ideas and gender roles were abolished, people would date back to an imagined (what I have titled) "Adam and Eve" complex. If we went back to the beginning and were bare human beings, what would constitute being "male" or "female" in the modern sense? Women hold the ability of reproduction, this is true. However, this cannot naturally be done without a man. Likewise, men are just as needed for reproduction. What is to say, that men and women are naturally meant to be together? Indeed, they may create a life, but the concept of "love" is a feeling not as strong as carnal lust.. In terms of nature, had people been free to love whomever they want, that is, a normality of heterosexuality and homosexuality alike, only certain "heterosexual" couples would hold the ability to procreate. In other words, reproduction may have been meant merely to populate, to to join two people together.
Moreover, homosexuality used to be the epitome of "pure" love in Ancient Greek times. How it has changed overtime I need not write. Thus, ideas and attitudes are clearly changeable over time. As Religion infiltrated Western Society, the concept was eradicated in favour of preconceived religious ideals, which it is my personal belief is constructed by mankind to control society.

(Finally, in terms of transgender-ism, perhaps this is a psychological extremity where the person feels off-the-spectrum in terms of fitting into their "gender role" and share more characteristics with the modern "male" or "female" gender that they feel the need to switch to fit into a category.)

Let it Flow--On Writing

So, here's my problem:

  When writing my fantasy novel, I usually struggle to find the words when writing. I mean, I really do struggle. It takes me about an hour to write 300 words, most the time my eyes are just scrutinising over word-choices and the flowing of sentences, et cetera.
  I recently wrote a story which explained my entire back story to me, in order for me to drop hints along the way and to ensure I know exactly what is going on for certain characters, and I blasted out a couple of hundred words in a few minutes. Not because I knew what I was doing or where I was going, on the contrary, I needed to plan a lot of what was happening and how it came to affect my current work.
  It was because, no matter what I was doing, I did not care for the words. I knew nobody would ever see this, and that only I, and nobody else would see its content. It did not need to be perfect, like I would like my project to be.

So what I'm trying to get at--I'm trying to convince of this, too-- is that stressing over your work is not going to get you anywhere. It's not going to get me anywhere. That is what a first draft is for, it is OKAY to not be okay.

Thanks, and happy writing!

-Charlie

The importance of a back-up: experienced edition.

I am going mad.
My mind is twisting itself into knots and tangles just because it is so confused as to why I would do such a stupid thing.
I am going mad.

Long strong short: I went to Malta to visit my parents during my summer off from school. With me there I packed an assortment of clothes, mostly things I did not end up wearing as I lived off my brother's attire. In my luggage, I also took with me several books to read, and my notebook, in which I  doodled the many ways my characters would handle situations, different plots, new character names, random journalings and wonderings.
However, I left it in one of the beach bags and forgot to re-pack it.
Anger. Blood clotting. Frustration running through my veins.
My entire life, I left behind.
THIS IS THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A BACK-UP, PEOPLE.
Whether it be an extra copy of a file, or even a friend you agree to be with just in case you are alone at the age of forty (That one friends episode.)
Back-up is everything.
Now excuse me, as I fretfully urge my mother to skype-call me and read out everything I had written down.

Until next time,
-Charlie

50 Shades of Charlie--'s hair.

This year, I came out to the world. Out of the closet.

  Besides finding myself a very lovely boyfriend who I have been with for nearly six months now, I have also found a new love. Hair dye.

  Oh, hair dye. How many times I have used it this year.

  4 Bleaches

  8 Dyes

  It is needless to say I am overdoing it with my hair, but I am in love. This little act pleases me. I can change myself. 

  "When there's something you want to change about yourself but can't, change the things you can."

  That is a line from my GBT themed novel, my GBP, and is also one I live by.

My hair, through the year:

The Original masterpiece:

Professionally, bleached and dyed:

 

Dyed a dark Brown by yours truly:


Dyed Red (twice as I'm stubborn) on top of Brown, myself:

Oh my, the awful haircut in which I showed my skills with scissors, self inflicted:


Bleached for Reddening, myself:


Dyed Red, myself:


And then cut professionally:


Bleached myself:


And then bleached again, myself:


And then dyed a warm blonde myself, which is its current state:

And just for fun, in which I fashioned my cousins hair extensions:


  Thank you!
  -Charlie

In which I say hello and admit to failure.

  Although at this very moment I am most likely typing to nobody but myself, I think it is still best to open with a proper greeting:
         Hello!
  This is another, I want to say hopeful, but probably hopeless attempt at starting and maintaining a blog. This blog will be about books--reading and writing them, my life, and all it entails.
Here I will post my struggle at writing a book, my struggle with being a teenager, my struggle with life in general.

  Until next time,
  -Charlie