A Dream for a Better World

Compared with the social status of women in the past, women nowadays have more and more rights and they can compete with men in many fields. However, the fact is that women are not as equal as men in the society in the world and the situation in developed countries is not the exception.
The inequalities between women and men can be found in the following aspects. Firstly, compared with men, women have less chance and rights to receive education. Receiving education is the basic rights for everyone in the modern society and it can change one’s fate. In the past decade, women can get more chance to go to school and learn knowledge but many women in rural areas do not have the chance to go to school. According to some data, 70% illiterate people of 37 million are women and most are from rural areas. In recent years, some “Hope Project” has shown that 80% children are girls of more than 4000 children who are assisted to go to school by them. Secondly, the proportion of women who have the chance to participate in politics is still very small. Women’s participation is the symbol of a civilized and progressive society. Our government has taken some pressures to offer more chance to women to participate in politics but there are still some problems. Most female officials are not young and most of them are at the position of a deputy to a chief in the government. In addition, most of them are designated into departments related with the masses. Government also sets kinds of criterions for women who want to participate in politics so they have more challenges. Thirdly, women do not have more chance to obtain enough rights for job and social security. Income is the important condition for women to get equal status as men. Under the situation of globalization, industrial structure has been adjusted and job hunting is more difficult for women. More and more women have to engage in work with low income and long working time. As for female college students, according to a report, they can get a job after 8 to 10 interviews but male college students can obtain a job after 2 to 3 interviews. In addition, when companies lay off employees, they would fire the female staff first. Fourthly, some media issue some views which are ideas of discrimination for women and they also commercialized the image of women. Fifthly, women have to act different roles in companies and families. After they work from the company, they have to do housework at home. Many men think that women have the unshirkable duty to do housework and they never help their wives to do that.
Equality between women and men is very important for the social harmony. Otherwise, the social development will be hampered. In order to improve women’s social status, women should struggle for their rights all the time and government and media should also provide favorable environment for women’s development.

As the society moves advanced day by day, people also have changed their ideas towards various phenomenons. Diversification is the sign of the social progress. However, as for some phenomena, people still can not consider them as natural things; for example, cross-dressing is a topic dispute in our society. The Chinese public is abuzz about the recent cross-dressing contestant, Liuzhu, on the Super Boy reality show.
What is cross-dressing? The word originates from Japan and it refers that some men who are similar with women in outlook, voice, behavior and clothes etc. It also means newhalf which describes a man who has made the mental or physical transition to being a woman. Cross-dressing runs significantly counter to social norms and ,therefore, can be considered as a type of transgender behavior. However, it does not necessarily indicate transgender identity, a person who cross-dresses does not always identify as being of the opposite gender. Referring to a person as a cross-dresser suggests that their cross-dressing behavior is habitual. There many different kinds of cross-dressing and many different reasons why an individual might engage in cross-dressing behavior. Some people cross-dress as a matter of comfort or style. They prefer clothing associated with opposite sex.
Liuzhu, a student in Sichuan Music school, caught people’s attention because of his cosmetics, high-heel sandal and blue stockings. Even the judge asked he was a boy or a girl. When journalists interviewed Liu Zhu, he said that he was a boy physically but a girl mentally. His father also told journalists that when he was young, he did not like short hair and as he went to middle school, he started to remain his long hair. People like Liu Zhu do not like their physical body and wear women’s clothes. They have the awareness to change the gender. Journalists found that although Liu Zhu said that he did not want to accept sex change operations, he just worried about the risk of the operation. Actually, he wanted to become a girl. Some people say that Liu Zhu should go to the psychiatrist and a professor says that at present, cross-dressing is considered as psychological illness in China but in western countries, cross-dressing is normal in people’s mind. In February, cross-dressing has been deleted from psychological illness list in France. Generally speaking, cross-dressing is not a kind of psychological illness and those people also rarely turn to psychiatrists for help. At present, sex change operation is the only way to cure cross-dressing. However, experts also point out that cross-dressing is quite different from homosexual love and they just want to meet the mental need.
As for reasons of cross-dressing occurrence, people can not get accurate answers. But people think it is related with experience when they are young. Some parents provide girls’ clothes for their boys when they are young and their kids may become cross-dressers gradually. Some expert abroad also thinks that cross-dressing is congenital. Anyhow, cross-dressing is still considered abnormal in people’s mind. Therefore, people should pay much attention to kids’ growth. In addition, people should not discriminate cross-dressers because they are also human beings and they have basic human rights.

Five years ago, I interviewed a man.  This guy brought a bottle of water on the train, which costs 1.5 yuan. And then he asked fapiao for the cost from the train attendant. The train attendant laughed and said: “There is no fapiao for the cost on the train ever.”

The guy sent the Ministry of Railway to court afterwards.

He said people always choose to accept when they are facing strong and powerful rules.  But if we give up the right to ask fapiao for 1.5 yuan today, tomorrow we may have to give up the landright, property rights, and even the right to live… If we don’t fight for our rights, these rights will just be a piece of paper.

He won the case at last.  I thought him and the Ministry of Railway will be angry from then on.   However, when next time he ate in the restaurant car on the train, the chief conductor deliver his food in person, and asked him if he wants the fapiao right away or after meal.

I asked him, how you win the respect?

“By the perseverance to fight for my rights.” He said.

His name is Hao Jinsong, a 34 years old lawyer.

I heard the story from a journalist in her speech competition yesterday.  I appreciate Hao Jinsong’s courage to go against the powerful government branch for his legal right.   I also appreciate the journalist’s work to record the small but powerful stories like this and broadcast them.

A nation consist of different idividuals. They create and define the nation.  Only if a nation have the people who has independent thinking, who strives for the truth, who filghts for their constitutioanal right, who knows the world is not perfect but never gives up trying, the nation can have its future, a better one.

Ps: Fapiao is an official receipt. It used for calculating the in-comes, so that the government would know how much that one earns, and then easy for tax.