You are what you wear... apparently...

David Cameron has been getting a lot of stick recently for not donning a 'this is what a feminist looks like' t-shirt, unlike Nick Clegg and Ed Milliband and a whole bunch of celebrities proudly declaring themselves feminists... or at least feminist lookalikes.

I never thought that I would find myself criticising criticism of Cameron (enemy of an enemy is my friend and all that) BUT I really do think that all this 'just put the t-shirt on, you fucker' stuff isn't getting to the heart of the issue. While I'll admit that trying to defend his decision by saying that he hasn't got time to put a t-shirt on (it takes approximately 5 seconds) is a bit pathetic and that, by rights, the Uk PM really should be glad to proclaim himself a feminist, I actually don't think we should be condemning him for not wearing a grey slogan t-shirt... after all there are (admittedly, very few) more important things in life than t-shirts... 

If I am honest I am relieved that I don't have to look at a photograph of "a C3PO made of ham" (couldn't have said it better myself, Caitlin Moran) wearing a feminist slogan t-shirt for Elle Magazine. I am retching just thinking about it. And it isn't just because i don't think it would a wise style choice for him.

Had David Cameron worn the t-shirt, we would have been presented with an oxymoronic image- David Cameron should not be depicted as an image of feminism. Lest we forget that this is the man that told Angela Eagle to 'calm down, dear'. It would have been disastrous if those deciding whether to consider themselves feminists or not, were told that this...

....is what a feminist looks like?

Because it isn't. David Cameron in a feminist t-shirt would be wrong, confusing and downright disturbing. *shudder*

It is worrying that our Prime Minister is one of the few people that I would actively discourage from labelling themselves a feminist... because i think it undermines the cause. It renders the word meaningless. It turns feminism into something that you can label yourself without actually supporting the cause- anyone can wear one of these t-shirts but they only mean something if you are actually what a feminist looks like. 

And, i'm afraid to say, Cameron is not. 

I say thank fuck he didn't wear one. I wish we had a prime minister that could wear one and genuinely be a feminist, but, as yet, that is still a wish not a reality. We should stop chastising him for not wearing a t-shirt and start admonishing him for not being a feminist. 

This t-shirt campaign is all about raising awareness of the cause and making it accessible and inclusive. It is about revealing to the general public that feminists do not have to be women, do not have to be a certain type of woman, do not have to be something that you don't identify with. The people wearing the t-shirts need have only one thing in common- that they are feminists. And Cameron simply does not make the cut.

The campaign is well intentioned and I am glad that efforts are being made to make feminism a more accessible and inclusive movement. I am glad that the new mission of feminism is now to make it universal. I am glad that so many public figures in our society have happily pulled on their t-shirts to support the cause. BUT I am somewhat perturbed by the fact that in our society it is necessary for the emphasis to be on what a feminist "looks like" and not what a feminist thinks or believes or does. I would gladly don a t-shirt that read "I think all people are equal regardless of gender" on the front and "I am a feminist" on the back because i think you need both the belief and the label for the term to carry any weight. 'Feminist' is a convenient word to sum up the ideas we are striving for but if we continue to dissociate it from the actions and beliefs that it represents then we risk turning it into nothing more than 8 letters that can be printed on a t-shirt. Feminism belongs in people's minds, their words and their actions, NOT on their clothes. Feminism is not a fashion statement.

Feminist is what you are, not what you wear. Cameron would still be sexist whether he wore the t-shirt or not so I have to give him a little credit for being honest because, of course, it would be far, far easier to yank on the t-shirt in 5 seconds, take a picture and pretend. But that is what it would be: pretending. After all, you've got to admit, that a feminist t-shirt would make an excellent disguise for a blushing misogynist.

-Vida 

RuPaul's Drag Race and Feminist Little Comets

Hello! I'm currently taking a break from seemingly incessant revision for the last of my GCSEs to catch up with you guys about my most recent feminism/sexuality/gender-portrayal related ponderings- and in doing so, tell you all about my new favourite ever show on TV. Exciting stuff.
I have just realised that the title of this post probably makes no sense to any sane person who may be reading this, but don't worry, all will become clear.

First things first- RuPaul's Drag Race is the name of the programme I cannot seem to get enough of as of late. Basically, if America's Next Top Model and Project Runway had a child, this is the show they would birth. Except it's infinitely more funny. And replace the almost-models with drag queens. I know. Amazing. If you can't quite picture it, I'll insert some promotional pictures for some of the series here:

 (If you aren't thinking this is the best thing you've ever seen, or you aren't wondering WHERE this programme has been your entire life, then you may as well stop reading this entry now, as we probably won't agree on anything. Alternatively, if you are anywhere in your right mind, I'm pretty sure there are 6 series available for you to watch on Netflix. So get on it now.)

Put simply, the show begins with a group of drag queens from a surprisingly large range of backgrounds, and as the weeks go on, they have to 'battle it out to become America's next drag superstar', competing in an array of tasks including decorating a pair of platform heels to reflect a given cocktail, and dressing up puppets to create the most catty and inherently hilarious caricatures of their fellow contestants. Each week the two queens who, according to RuPaul, have not performed fabulously enough, risk elimination and must 'lipsync for their life (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)' in order to stay in the competition. Those who are sent home are told by RuPaul to 'sachay away'. It's so tense. Real edge of your seat stuff. If I'm not portraying the drama well enough, here's a video of some of the best bits:

It's witty and outrageous, but there is a real rapport created with the contestants. Unsurprisingly, under all the drama and sass, the girls had faced harsh amounts of prejudice not only from people they didn't know- ignorant arseholes, basically, who have little or no knowledge or understanding of the drag community and would outrightly abuse them verbally and physically in public, but most sadly from their own families. There were countless stories of parents who had disowned their biological sons because they enjoyed dressing and expressing themselves as women, and some accounts were genuinely heartbreaking. At many points I was made to question and criticise my own society for its general lack of acceptance and tolerance for a community that was completely harmless, and that I percieved as genuinely beautiful.  Honestly and genuinely it was difficult for me not to cry a little bit when Latrice Royale was sent home. The show embraced and celebrated the exploration of gender and femininity which is such an unexplainably important thing to do, but it also revealed a lot of the sickeningly negative attitudes towards anything that shows itself to be remotely different from the excepted norms of society, from many members of the public.

What I loved most about the programme was, to paraphrase the band  Little Comets, the 'atypical portrayal of the feminine role'- I'll come back to them later. I adored that RuPaul's drag race was an excellent example of how femininity can be celebrated by anybody at all. It conveyed perfectly that anybody can be a feminist! We aren't all insane and extreme. And we aren't all biologically women.

Furthermore, within the seasons themselves, the drag race conveyed the equality and shared beauty of all kinds of women. That is, the women in each series were all entirely different and not at all alike, but each of them were equally beautiful. Specifically, one of my all time favourite contestants that I have watched so far was called Sharon Needles. She portrayed a character who dressed as though it were always halloween and constantly looked like she had stepped out of a horror film, wearing white contact lenses and having fake blood spilling from her mouth at one of her runway looks. I loved it. She was so outgoing, in fact, that her performances were a shock even to the most experienced in the drag community on the show, and she went on to win her respective series (she definitely deserved it). Conversely, but equally as beautiful, was another of my favourites, Chad Michaels. She sported plastic surgery that she had undergone in order to look like Cher, who she admitted was her idol; and of course, Latrice Royal was completely different again. She was definitely plus-sized where the others in the final four were considerably more petite, but never was this conveyed as a negative aspect of her appearance. It was always fully embraced and used to her own advantage.

In these ways I kind of wished while watching the show that my life was more like RuPaul's drag race. I wish that in my own society, what was different was celebrated rather than abused, and that feminism was recognised as something not exclusive to biological females themselves.

Here is where I link this whole anecdote back to the aforementioned lyric, and explain 'Feminist Little Comets', the second component to the title of this post. Little Comets are a band who I first discovered at a very small music festival in Canterbury, and I really think their song The Blur, the Line, and the Thickest of Onions relates to my views surrounding RuPaul's Drag Race flawlessly. I considered writing two separate posts about the show and the song, but later decided they are much more effectively discussed in unison as the song highlights perfectly the more serious connotations of the otherwise lighthearted and fabulously bitchy Drag Race.

Luckily, Rob Coles, singer of Little Comets frequently writes his own blog posts about the lyrics to their songs and what they mean. Here is what he has said about The Blur, the Line, and the Thickest of Onions:

'It is with great sadness that every other song either purrs with a bland fecundity or proffers an image of society that I don’t want to recognise – and the chief irritant in a sea of misogynist bile was plain for all to see.

That’s what this song is a reaction against: the incoherent lack of effort to connect with a lyric. The type of laziness which at the same time suggests that all is ok in society – we can recline, we can produce meaningless music, debase women, promote violence all because we’ve cracked it. Parliaments are full with democratic agendas, with all ethnicities, genders, sexualities and regions well represented, business is not an entirely brigand based masculine affair, whilst mass media is of course populated by positive role models for young women, typical gender roles aren’t constantly reinforced and the workplace is not a sexist wasteland of ignorant design.'

In the song, Coles and the rest of the band speak out about many of the corrupt features of our own society, including the minimum wage and the more relevantly, the portrayal of women in the media. Overall the song conveys the importance of writing and discussing what is important and what needs to change, rather than using music and the media for 'the typical portrayal of the feminine role. I have never been more appalled'. I'm not sure if these were intentional, but I did notice the repetition of the use of 'blurred vision', and 'you write about a non-existent blurred line, but not about abortion rights'. I thought these might be references to the infamous Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines which caused so much controvosy earlier on this year.

Coles asks 'why empower misogyny when violence towards women grows?' and acknowledges that body image is used 'as a form of control'.

So both Little Comets and RuPaul's Drag Race challenge typical and accepted gender roles. I don't think the more poignant messages in the Drag Race about the importance of self expression and the truth about the range of people who can be feminist that are hidden in the humour and drama of the competition could be more eloquently presented than the song by Little Comets.

Admittedly, I doubt RuPaul's Drag Race was intended to be particularly political- it really is that kind of light and rubbish entertainment that is purely addictive. But some of the women on the show were genuinely some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. And I can't ignore that it is important to celebrate the beauty of femininity in ALL forms, (and to simultaneously give an empowered 'fuck you' to society).

I have recently discovered that RuPaul does have a follow up to his Drag Race series. It's called RuPaul's Drag U and will be the source of my entertainment for many weeks to come.

Daisy

Sam: Chelsea's New Resident Sexist

So I was just watching series 7 of Made in Chelsea (i can feel your judging eyes. give me time.) and a thought suddenly struck me: who the fuck does Sam think he is?!

Now bare with me- for those of you (wise, intelligent, strong people who i bow down before) who don't watch made in chelsea, Sam is this little twerp who is only in the programme because his big sister is princess Louise, who had a, shall we say, rocky relationship with Spencer Matthews, who can't keep it in his pants. So Sam is only there because Spencer has the horn. basically.

This is Sam:

He even looks annoying! But that is beside the point. 

The fact is that over the last few episodes i have become increasingly aware that Sam really does believe that if he sleeps with a woman, she becomes his property. This delusional fool seems to think that if he has slept with one of chelsea's lovely ladies, then aforementioned lady can't sleep with any one else and, while i am aware that Made In Chelsea is designed to milk every (fake) situation for as much drama as possible, i think this says something important about how we as a society think about women's sexuality. 

Firstly, Sam only ever seems to be angry with the guys that sleep with his exes. I mean, i don't want him to be angry with the girl- although i think that would make entertaining viewing, but i do think he appears to feel as if these other men have taken his property without permission. News flash: They may seem mutant to you, but these girls really aren't the same as that ninja turtle ruler that bad old Spenny took from your pencil case in year 2... ("i don't like people taking my things" said Sam to Stevie, who wanted to dance with his ex-girlfriend.) Grow up. If he really has a problem with the situation, he should try approaching the girl herself and saying how he feels rather than just grumbling in the corner and assuming that she can't communicate- they are not inanimate objects; it is just you hanging on them that makes them all go into premature rigamortis, it isn't their natural state.

Secondly, why does he have a problem? It is not for him to dictate someone else's love (or lust) life. Did he really expect all of his ex-girlfriends to mourn the end of their relationship for eternity and remain celibate for the remainder of their lives? Come on.  Women are not commodities- you can't put a stamp on them saying 'property of Sam'. They are just as entitled to a sex life as you are and, luckily for them, it doesn't have to involve you because.. eww...

Thirdly, "if i wanted to get her back, i'd probably get her back anyway". Lol. no.

Finally, i know that this is just a characteristic of the show and that the whole of this fantasy Chelsea are really perpetrators of this crime BUT sam is going to take the brunt of my abuse. STOP DISCUSSING IT, YOU IDIOT. No one cares that you have pulled a couple of blonde chicks and now someone else has pulled them away from you... or whatever you think has happened... WE, the viewers, are all too absorbed in the Binky/Alex drama to be busying ourselves with listening to you moan. 

sub point: throwing a drink in Spencer's face? really? soooo predictable.

So basically: shut up, Sam.

vida
xx

please can everyone stop telling me i'm beautiful?

(wow. we are really bad at this regular posting thing... sorry about that.)

I have my own fair share of qualms about my appearance from the fact that the bridge of my nose in verging on the aquiline to my short blonde eyelashes that sometimes appear to be playing hide and seek to my lack of that much sought after (pffff. whateverrrr.) 3 finger thigh gap. If i am honest, sometimes i can look at my reflection and sometimes i can't bring myself to. Sometimes i pinch and squeeze my body, scrutinising every inch, looking for another imperfection to add to the list. Sometimes i make lists of things i could do to change how i look. But sometimes i just don't give a shit.

It comes in waves, this self-criticism. The intensity of it fluctuates between overwhelming and negligible. Sometimes it thumps me in the stomach like a stone and sometimes it just tugs at my wrist like an impatient child, willing its parent to stop gossiping in the middle of the street (in my experience, usually just 'good morning' is enough- why people insist on recounting their entire life story on the pavement will never cease to amaze me!). 

Unfortunately i am more than aware that this experience is not uncommon. That there are hundreds of thousands of people (male and female alike) who feel this way, some more violently than me and some less. I am pretty much certain that almost everyone has felt their body is inadequate at some point in their lives- even if it was just for a split second. And it is in the name of all of these people and their self esteem that every day i encounter hundreds of examples of "every one is beautiful" propaganda...

I don't want to sound bitter BUT personally i can't wait for this fad to simmer down. I'm sure it does bolster some people's self confidence and really, truly make them feel wonderful again, empowered and gorgeous. But, honestly, is that what we want? 

I don't mean to say that i don't want everyone to be confident and content with their bodies, because i do, but i do also feel that this gets so much exposure and is given so much importance over other, more valuable, things. 

I read so many things discussing how we should feel about our bodies, what we should do with them and how we should use them, when a) it really is nobody's business and b) i'd rather read about how i should use my mind and my voice and my words. I am so bored of listening to people ramble on about how feminism is about loving how i look and appreciating that i am beautiful. It's not. It's much bigger than that. 

Dove shouldn't be telling you that you are beautiful and that is why you should be happy. The online articles shouldn't be proclaiming that they have found a 'shocking 15 sexy celebrities that prove the thigh gap is overrated' (because, shock horror, some guys still want to shag them even though their thighs touch- thank fuck for that). People should not be told that being thin doesn't matter because you can still be beautiful without it (phew.), they should be being told that being thin doesn't matter because there are much more important things to be thinking about. Where is the motivational post that says "acne? who cares? You're the next Frida Kahlo.", "flat chested? fuck it. you need somewhere to stack your books!" or even something as simple as "having a thigh gap does not affect your IQ." 

Shouldn't we be telling teenagers (and adults too) that their biggest assets are not their figure, face or clothes, but rather their potential? Shouldn't we be promoting confidence across the board rather than just about the body? 

Being proud and happy with your body IS important but so are so many other things that are overlooked by the media as well as by friends and family. Maybe if we stop paying so much attention to the body and how it should/shouldn't look/be perceived, we might encourage others to do the same. Recognising other qualities other than appearance and nurturing a prevalence of these over 'beauty', is, to me, what feminism should be about. Every one is beautiful. But they also tend to be funny, clever, interesting, talented, musical, inspiring, angry, political, creative, good at crosswords, brilliant bakers, clean, organised, messy, have good balance, sporty, lively, sassy, witty, aware etc etc... you get the idea. 

But don't get me wrong! I don't mean to belittle lacking in body-confidence! What i am saying is that surely taking the emphasis off beauty, making it not seem to matter so much, making it into just something that you are rather than something that you must strive for, could help people recognise that they are more than just the sum of their parts and value their bodies as the vessels for all their other qualities? Every time someone tells me that i am still beautiful without a thigh gap, all i can think is "still?". All that i hear is that being "beautiful" is still the important thing and should still be my focus. That it is the fact that i am a "beautiful" that gives me my worth, that should inspire my confidence. That i should be happy to walk along in public because "don't worry, you are beautiful" not because i am a human being, or because i am intelligent, or because i have as much right to the pavement as any one else. It can be lovely when someone tells you you are beautiful, as long as it doesn't feel like that is all you are- that your beauty is the be all and end all of your existence. 

All we need to do is make sure that there is as much a focus on reminding people of all of their other qualities as there is on their physical appearance, if not more. 

If i am honest, i'd rather be told that i'm interesting or funny or clever, than that i am pretty. it's boring, it's predictable and it makes me feel like everything else that i am is nothing in comparison to the size of my thighs. 

vida

x