Don't Say It But Explain It

Happy Halloween!

I hope you had a spooky day. I can't believe we only have two months left of the year!??! For me, as soon as Halloween is over it is 100% Christmas. I will be dropping the greeting ‘hello’ and replacing it with ‘Merry Christmas’ starting tomorrow. But for now, October. I have caught up with many friends this month, which has been hilarious and fab, but special love to friends I haven't seen, of which there are many. I have so many special people in my life, which I am so grateful for. I think I will do a soppy post about friendship one day hahaha. Uni has also been super busy, I feel swamped, I feel my tweet below best sums up my month. (For anyone that doesn't have twitter this is a quote tweet, like sharing something on facebook, also fucking get twitter)

Overall it has been another jam-packed month and as I am typing this I am in bed completely and utterly ready for sleep. So I will pass you over to witty Queen, someone who I adore and was gagging to have as a NO1GB, it's Olivia!

October's No1GuestBlogger - Olivia

One time in Year 8 somebody said to me “Olivia, you’re really funny. Did you know that?”. From then I just kind of went with it. I can only imagine where I would be now if somebody had told me I was smart.

No1 Food: I love a good Chicken Wrap at all times of the day

No1 Quote: “What other people think of me is none of my business” - RuPaul

What annoys you the most: When people speak on matters they don’t know about, and concern themselves with the lifestyle of others

What would your 15 minutes of fame be for: If I could literally stand on a stage and make an audience laugh for 15 minutes, that would be enough for me

No1 Song of All Time: Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now – The Smiths

No1 Song at the moment/this month/right now: Sunday Candy – Chance The Rapper/ Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment

Social Media Usernames: Instagram- Olive.rt, Twitter- Olivia_TM, Portfolio- clippings.me/oliviatmaden

No1 Moment of this Month:

This month my favourite moment was watching Blade Runner 2049 in the cinema. It was really the most beautifully made film I had seen in a long time, with a tremendous amount of care going into every moment to make it extremely immersive both visually and aurally. Due to my mental health, I have been going through a creative slump lately, but seeing this film really inspired me and reminded me that art in all forms must connect to it’s audience. It made me want to get off my arse and make my art to reconnect me to the world, by writing something that people can read and share and connect with.

Something I HAVE to talk about;

One thing that I have always felt but have never been able to articulate is my hatred to people of colour being referred to as ‘White inside’. When I was younger somebody called my black father a ‘Bounty’. At the time I didn’t understand the implications of it and laughed it off as the adults did. It wasn’t until I realised that people were very often saying that I was ‘not black enough’, and ‘actually a white girl’ that I realised how hurtful it was. Now I don’t think being called a white girl is an insult, but I do find it insulting, especially on my dads behalf. Apparently being well-spoken, hard working, successful, and having a wide range of interests are not attributes a black person has? To me, people who claim that I am ‘White inside’ have a caricature of how people of colour should act like in their heads (a most likely negative depiction) and can’t comprehend anything beyond that. As a mixed-raced person, I struggled with my identity for so long. I am tired of being told I’m not ‘black enough’. Why does my creativity, my charisma, and my drive not coincide with my identity as a black woman? It is simply a way for white people to claim our positive attributes for themselves, and not being willing to comprehend that they do not have a monopoly on success.

Thanks for reading, back over to Harry!

No1 Unpopular Opinion of the Month

After discussing important matters in this section from the battle of the sexes to freedom of speech, it’s time to continue my unpopular opinions. I fucking hate the B word. Yes, I’m talking about banter. The physical equivalent is dabbing which makes me feel SICK. I have proudly never dabbed and never will. But back to the B word, I can’t believe it’s still here alive and well at the end of 2017. As soon as this word cropped up I hated it but like all trends I expected it to go soon, but it hasn’t, it remains haunting my life. It has become less popular and less used thankfully but it is still far too popular. I hate everything about the word but my least favourite thing about it, is it’s use when someone says something disrespectful or out of line and their excuse is, “it’s just banter”. The word excuses discriminatory behaviour and that just aint my aesthetic.

No1GuestBlogger Olivia's Opinion of my Opinion;

Honestly, I think that ‘Banter’ culture is the death of comedy. Though the definition of banter is good-humoured, light hearted, and friendly exchanges, it dissolved into pure stupidity, like your mate who dares you to stand on a table or break something because it will be ‘mental’. It’s an excuse for rubbish behaviour, which sometimes includes vandalism, harassment and derogatory comments. Now, a joke is a joke is a joke. There is a way to deliver jokes about race, gender, sexuality, mental health, that can all land if properly executed. Calling ‘Banter’ is a way to justify an unfunny joke that was poorly done.

What did you guys have to say?

Each month I do a twitter poll to see what you guys think, I hashtag with #NO1UO. This is the first ever 50/50 result, my readers are truly split. Big love to 50% of you;) And now after telling you what not to say, I'm now going to tell you what to say hahaha.

No1 Lesson of the Month

Explanation. Although I love to say, I don’t owe anyone an explanation, sometimes it helps. Recently there have been several situations where something has happened, and I have reacted to that for what it is but later when the full situation/reasoning for a person’s behaviour has been explained I have felt differently about the situation. I think in life miscommunication/misunderstanding is common and can be avoided if you explain why you did something. Because things look different from different angels/perspectives. Only you know your intentions at the end of the day, unless you tell them to others. And I’ve learnt this month that most of the time there is a good reason behind a person’s actions and we’ve all be through shit and have our own issues and maybe we can’t fully understand someone’s reason because we haven’t been there and lived their life but we can be educated and show compassion.

Byeeee

Thank you so much for reading and thank you to Olivia, love ya! I hope you had a great October (couldn’t think of a good adjective beginning with O fml) And my mission for you next month is to make November the month you’ve danced the most in. I will be posting snapchat and Instagram stories of me dancing to encourage you, dance out all the negative in ya and bring out your sass. If you’re out tonight have a fab Halloween or if like me you celebrated on the weekend and are still recovering, sleep well, until next time, be number one, not one xo

NO1SOTP

Bob The Drag Queen ft Alaska Thunderfuck – Yet Another Dig

Beyoncé ft Frank Ocean – Superpower

Britney Spears – Hold It Against Me

Listen to all the No1 Songs on the 2017 Playlist here

Shoutout again to No1Editor aka Kira for making me look literate