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January 06, 2014

Worthwhile + The Trifecta

January 06, 2014
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This has been sitting in my drafts for a couple of days, and I decided to hit publish"Feminism isn't about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It's about changing the way the world perceives that strength" and things I'd like to talk about. First up, the trifecta. There have been all sorts of New Years posts popping up around blog land this week. But my three favorite bloggers brought their a-game and trumped them all. When reading them I thought to myself YES. Yes yes yes. Would you like to read them?

1. Natalie Holbrook - formerly and lovingly known as Nat the Fat Rat duh. Natalie (kindred name spirits) addresses her recently diagnosed PMDD and even references Frozen so it's a win win. You might remember when I was super emo and depressive in my blog writing? Guess why. PMDD. It's misjudged and often easily dismissed, but I cannot stress enough how debilitating it is and can be. Luckily I have a nice mother who saw my symptoms, jumped on it and now my hormone hell is managed. Hormones are crazy and they suck. I feel you Natalie, I feel you.

2. Meg Fee - The Wild and Wily Ways of  Brunette Bombshell. I will love her writing always and forever. After reading hoards of resolution posts, this was a nice break from the usual. And while this post is a deviation from her normal style, she is on point. "Bloom" and "Ask for what you need" are my favorite. Simple. Dreamy. and Strong.

3. Kelli Larson - Kelli Murray. She is what I aspire to be, a beautiful illustrator and graphic designer with kick ajax style. Her writing is graceful and forgiving and she's one of those people who puts herself out there solely for the creativity of it. After I leave her site I always feel uplifted.

Is this post weird and preachy yet? No? Well I am back in Utah, appreciating the crisp weather and feeling good. Mostly due to having one of the better road trips of my life. There was good company, golden light, and it was way relaxed. Plus forgiveness for multiple pit stops, abused walkie talkies (well, voxer), and knowing I had loaded up with the citrus in the back was all sorts of happiness. On the leg from Phoenix to Vegas Coby and I split from the group in our (their) other car. It was nighttime and somehow feminism and well, the extremities of feminism along the spectrum became the topic of conversation and I thought of this commentary on Beyonce and her recent album drop. If you didn't know, Beyonce sampled a portion of this TED talk in a song.

"And that brings us into the messy reality that often someone's politics and their kinks can be at odds. Does that make casual references to violent men and domestic abuse okay? No. But you'd be hard pressed to find anyone with feminist values who ascribes to them in every aspect of their lives. In fact, feminist theory is rife with internal conflicts over what attire, what jobs, what relationships, even what kind of political party affiliations are feminist. Like anyone else, Beyonce's feminism is tailored to suit her upbringing, her experiences, and her life. None of us are The Ultimate Feminist - in fact there is no such thing. So why do we expect a pop star to be a model of an impossible concept? Beyonce is a human being with a messy complicated view of herself, her life, and society. In turn, our perspectives on her work and her feminism are complicated by our own biases and expectations. Beyonce isn't the only one whose life and body of work both embraces conventional feminism and flies in the face of it; that is true of all of us and it's time we just accept us."  from Mikki Kendall, Why Beyonce's Feminism is the same as yours: Unconventional and Flawed

There are the graphic nudists to the modesty purists and it kind of sucks that we focus on who is right and who is Miley and who has a thigh gap when the reality of gender inequality is really harsh and really horrible things are happening. All I know is, you go girls! Go you! If you can express yourself and come to terms with your own gender driven experiences without harming yourself or anyone else you should do it.

To quote Lorde and Tavi Gevinson from this interview, "L: Often there's a set of rules, and people will be like, 'Oh, this person isn't a true feminist because they don't embody this one thing,' and I don't know, often there is a lot of gray area that can be hard to navigate. It's just something that I'd assumed was natural for a long time... T: Ultimately, I think we are all here for the same reason. It's so personal though, for each person who identifies as a feminist, and it can be related to the hardest sh*t that they've had to put up with in their lives and all of these different ways in which they've been oppressed and marginalized. It can be so delicate and hard to navigate that sometimes I just feel like, 'I never want to write about this again, because how can you ever know enough?'

End rant.

Now to undermine this entire post, knee high socks.
Edgy and cute or scandalous? Discuss.
Also, my new favorite artist, Tyler Spanger.
And illustration by Raquel GO!

3 comments :

  1. Love this post! Like first-pump love it. And yes to knee-high socks. Edgy and cute.

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  2. WOW. i loooooove the quote about beyonce's feminism. LOVE.

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  3. gotta love queen b. and everything about this post really. i think we are on the same page with the whole feminism thing. oh, and i'm excited to be real-life-class friends this semester! :)

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