This image shows a girl wearing the lolita style of fashion. She’s wearing pink and white with ruffles, bows and petticoats. Her pink skirt has the writing ‘this is what a feminist looks like’ on it; with white symbols representing women. Her white socks have the same symbols in pink.
Beside her there is a quote by Betty Friedan saying “And we had considered ourselves the vanguard of the working class revolution, feeling only contempt for dreary bourgeois capatalists like our fathers - though we still read Vogue under the hair dryer and spent all our money on clothes.”
I’m on a bit of a creative bender. Been doing a lot of programming at university. Hard cold logical stuff. I come home and I find I just want to make things.
This piece here is me critisizing myself for not really acting out on my thoughts that femininity is harmful. Like the last post I made was in no way deep. I really do like lace, hearts and ruffles and I really do hate femininity and it causes me to have these weird conflicting feelings.
I don’t know how other people will read this and I’d be happy for people to take their own meanings out of it, but I want to clarify that whilst I’m taking a jab at myself for claiming a radical label whilst surrounding myself in gendered things, I don’t mean to take a jab at any other woman for her choices.
I’m just exploring what I think of my own choices.
The girl in the picture is a representation of me.
Here’s the real me, for reference:
I love that image. It is fantastic. Oh and I love that skirt and top of your real outfit too.
Heh. I say that I am a hairy, unattractive, dykey woman, which I am, most of the time. But I still love dresses and miniskirts and knee high boots. I still wear them occassionally.
I buy all of my clothes second hand though. So I feel like I am not hurting anyone but myself.
I think that feminists are the most aware of the discrepancies between their politics and their lifestyles. And in reality, there are always going to be discrepacies. We are human after all. I say, if you like Lolita fashion then be aware of the contradictions but if it makes you happy and expresses how you feel then go for it. It is the same with my miniskirts and knee highs. I know the the porno outfit is in complete opposistion to my politics but I like them sometimes and I don’t feel guilty for wearing them.
Comment by allecto — May 22, 2008 @ 2:59 am
I think it seems almost entirely impossible to get by without the discrepancies, we live in a gendered world and have all grown up in and immersed ourselves in it.
Breaking away isn’t really easy, especially when going along with it makes things temporarily comfortable.
It’s not that I feel guilty about wearing them. I just feel… odd. I don’t know, I guess its because I am a pretty logical/rational person generally and having those internal inconsistancies bug me because it isn’t logical, or consistant.
But life isn’t logical or consistant I s’pose.
I reminds me of that old XKCD comic.
http://www.xkcd.com/55/
I’m not good at maths, but its a similar sort of thing. It bugs me sometimes when life doesn’t fit into things logically and it bugs me even more when _I_ do things that don’t seem logical.
Ehh. I’ll get over it I’m sure. Its just weird.
Comment by Cellycel — May 22, 2008 @ 4:00 am