Chivalry or Sexism?

The other day, I was on the bus home from college, and was chatting to a few friends about this and that, and the topic of sex came up. I jokingly made comments about purchasing condoms from Amazon (which may lead to another point later)**. A girl who I don't know, who was sat behind my friends and I, piped up and said "Well, why do you have to buy condoms? Why doesn't he?" (By 'he', I assume she meant my boyfriend.) I simply replied that I don't have to, I choose to.

I don't understand why it is in our expectations that the man has to buy the condoms, and why in supermarkets and pharmacies, condoms are often found in the "Men's Health" aisle. Yes, I understand that men are the one's who wear them, but most of the time it is for having sex with a woman - although obviously gay couples practice safe sex too. But the point is, is that sex is (should be) a mutual thing, so why shouldn't the woman purchase condoms?

Don't get me wrong, I don't always buy them, my boyfriend does too. But it works exactly the same way as, sometimes I'll pay for a food bill, sometimes he will, and other times we'll split it. I don't have a problem with buying them, and neither does he. It just confuses me as to why people expect men to have to buy them, women have sex, so why is it 'weird' for us to purchase contraception? This girl also asked why I don't "just go on the pill", well: Condoms are more effective, protect you from STIs (not a problem with me, but for others, a reasonable factor), they don't affect your body in any way (as the Pill does, as it is a hormone pill) and also, for some people, The Pill doesn't work. But her reason was that it "Saved embarrassment from you buying them." (condoms). I just wondered why it's perfectly plausible for my boyfriend to buy them, but me buying them would obviously cause embarrassment?

** Another quick one, why are there barely any differences in the sizing of condoms available in pharmacies and supermarkets etc.,? It would be like only having shoes available in the two or three most common sizes, unless you went on the internet. We need a bigger range of condom sizes more widely available, to cater for everyone.

Discrimination?

Is it a real thing to be discriminated for having larger breasts? Because I'm fairly sure it has happened to me, a few months ago (I think around August). At my place of work, I was told I was not allowed to wear a vest top and to 'cover up', as I was 'showing too much off'. However, other girls who also worked there could wear vest tops, some of which were exposing more than I was (as in the top was pulled down lower). I feel like I was picked up on because I have bigger breasts than the other girls (I'm not showing off etc., here, simply stating a fact). I wore the vest as shown, with this cardigan.

I could have worn it a lot lower/pulled down, but I didn't, I also kept my cardigan on until I was made to change into another shirt (which had never happened with other employees, who I feel have shown off more than I have at certain times). I also only wore this outfit because it was what I was wearing when I was called into work to help out as they needed me earlier than expected and needed me asap, so I left the house in the clothes I was wearing, not feeling there were inappropriate.

This is not a complaint or dig at my workplace, but simply a question I was wondering about.

David Cameron

So, David Cameron wants to ban websites with extremist views, as well as pornography websites. Surely it's better to explain why things can be damaging or unhealthy, why things may give you the wrong idea about reality.

Extremists and their views can give an unrealistic idea of what actually happens, and therefore can cause a moral panic. In the UK we are currently facing a problem with this; Islamaphobia. Certain people see a Muslim on the street and instantly think 'terrorist', contrastingly strongly with these people's views; more terrorist attacks have been committed by white people, than any other race or religion. We should not instantly associate a person with a negative aspect of the culture, we don't even know them, and we don't know their history, every single Muslim I have spoken to on the matter, feels as strongly negative about terrorists (Muslim or otherwise), as I do. "Don't tar everyone with the same brush." is a phrase that springs to mind. 

Although many people, especially feminists, may view pornography as being damaging and immoral, I feel that if a woman is fully consenting then there is no reason to instantly dismiss and demoralise her choice. It's 2013, everyone should have the right to explore their sexuality, it's just that some people may choose to broadcast it online. People can argue that this is damaging to young teenagers, especially males, however this is why age limits are put in place to view pornography, and perhaps there should be more of a lockdown on the access to these sort of films. Rather than crushing a woman's choice of what to do with her own body (which is what feminism is all about: choice), we should teach more males to respect women, and that just because some women choose to do certain things, doesn't mean all women will.

If you take away something, without explaining the reasons why, more people are likely to explore it, the effects are then worsened, because they then feel it is a 'taboo' subject and are unable to talk about it. We need to be more open about these issues, rather than letting people pull the wool over our eyes and being told things are bad, and when asked why, answered with 'just because'...