thoughts: the feminist fashion blogosphere

art by julia pott

lately i've been thinking long and hard about how and why i blog. this is mainly due to some major changes in my life that came about this fall. due to the fact that i've been working full-time for the past month now, beginning renovations in my apartment (inspiration tumblr here), on top of all the normal things life throws at you, i've found my "free" time in short shrift these days. i've had to give up volunteering at the thrift store around the corner after a year of doing so, and really have to focus on how to manage that "free" time. as of this fall, i've decided to let my etsy store close up quietly, letting the listings expire without any kerfuffle or big sale or anything. i've been changing little habits here and there in an attempt to cut back on bad time wasting habits, and have been constantly trying to remind myself what situations are not worth my time. there are simply not enough hours in the day.

"Rheinmetall / Victoria 8" by Rodney Graham. 2003, (Detail) 35-mm Film

but one thing i simply can't put aside, however, is my writing. i've decided, over the past few weeks, that i absolutely must find a way to radical restructure the way i spend my time so that i can write. having a partner who is a part-time poet helps; suggestions of putting aside x amount of time a week to sit down with a cup of tea and setting (realistic) deadlines for myself have been much appreciated. coming from someone who has published a few books, i'm hoping these changes work for me too. i know my biggest problem is that i simply try to juggle too many things all at once: my friendships, my photography, my love of vegan recipes, affection for vintage clothing, passion for my politics, and then coming in last and sadly often least, my writing (about those aforementioned things).

i love writing. i have a huge passion for trying to express my (often overly complicated and elaborate) ideas in an accessible, online space, which is why this blog is here. but the thing is, i don't do enough of it and don't have the time to do my ideas justice. right now, i have 39 files in my "drafts" folder for this blog. THIRTY-NINE. i tend to feel so overwhelmed about where i should even begin, trying to write for a bit, feel anxious and get no joy out of it, and then i end up not writing anything at all. no good. however, last week at work, i sat at an absent co-workers desk (whose work i greatly admire) and saw this quote taped to her computer monitor:

Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do.

those soothing words of reason come from William Zinsser (who, ironically, i have never read). this is something very few people remind me of and that i need to remind myself of more often. writing is work. it is valuable, but it is also difficult. lots of people in my "real" life view my blogging (whether it be the more personal stuff, the absurd stuff, or the very public stuff that you are reading here) as optional and relatively unimportant, and definitely not as what one would qualify as work. and as an anarchist, this is something i struggle with: the search for redemption in the very classic 9 to 5 grind (which, might i add, when you are a journalist feels more like a 24/7 grind) is an endless one simply because it does not exist. it all depends on how and why you work, in my opinion. in the past, i've been let go/pushed out of jobs because i am an independent worker/thinker, which in the employment world means "issues with authority figures" and "insubordinance."

ni dieu, ni maître (self-portrait) november 2010

here at my blog, and in a lot of my favourite kinds of work, i am the one who calls all the punches which has its advantages (i get all the credit!) and disadvantages (very few people but me see it as actual/valuable work!). writing (and by extension, blogging) is work, and i'm going to try to treat it as such. find satisfaction in it as work, feel satisfaction when i accomplish goals i set for myself... even if they are as small as "post a picture the same month/year you took it."

clearly i've talked about these issues with friends who read blogs and read mine. here is a wise piece of advice from iris:

Re: blogging and real work - it totally is (real work). I think you should do only as much of it as you can handle. I really was feeling like I had to keep track of thousands of things at once, my whole life was being processed through this blog filter, like, I need to write about this! This person would love it if I linked to that! It was tiring and you're right, there is no credit in it. I like the tiger beatdown model of "oh shit it's asking for money time again, pay us or we won't post".

this leads me to another point: lately i've been thinking that the simple act of valuing and viewing critical fashion blogging as "work" in and of itself is a feminist act. a close friend of mine asked me why i call my blog a "feminist fashion blog" because i very rarely talk about feminism/feminist issues. i beg to differ. i could ramble on ad nauseum about why i find this space a feminist one, why if you take any of my articles i could give you reasons why i think they are feminist... but i think most of my readers get the point without me having to spell it out. but again, the blogosphere itself is ripe for criticism. the fact that, yes, "anyone can create/have a blog," does not negate that fact that some blogs are deemed more important, reputable, serious, and worthwhile than others... and that these things are constructed through a gendered, race, class, etc. lens.

think about it for a minute: almost all of the most popular blogs (whether or not we discredit gossip blogs) are written and run by men. most of them write about typically gendered "manly" content, such as business and technology. it would be hard to argue against the fact that when men blog, more people tend to take note and more people take them seriously. pair the fact that most fashion bloggers are women, on top of the fact that fashion is hardly seen as a worthwhile or serious enough topic to merit actual critical thought... and here we have what i think is a perfect formula for dismissing fashion blogs as unimportant and frivolous.

art by j. bee

but i am getting off-topic and wandering into unresearched territory. i am writing about the very politics of writing in this space because even though i might be posting less and less, i don't have any plans of retiring this platform. but! i do feel like my readers aren't getting the attention they deserve. i don't have the time to respond to all of the comments and emails i receive, and do justice to the thoughtful, beautiful, and complicated questions so many of my readers ask me. this does not mean they are not valuable or important; rather it means that the world often spins too fast and the bank account too empty to allow me the time to show you that i care.

i just wanted to very quickly acknowledge the most common inquiry i receive: how do feminists who are interested in fashion marry their politics with their critical minds? i don't have a simple answer to that, other than the fact that it is possible to be a feminist and love fashion (i would just encourage you to love it critically).

as long as women will be judged, by their peers, by their families, and even by a court of law, by how they dress, fashion will be a feminist issue. as long as women are told they are what they wear, what brands they wear, how much money they spend on their clothing, etc....fashion will be a feminist issue. as long as fashion advertisers objectify women in order to sell their clothing and products, fashion will be a feminist issue. and basically every time someone asks me "is x a feminist fashion issue?" the answer tends to be yes.

so in the end, i suppose this post is just a really long-winded thank you to all of those who read what i write, who link to my articles, who leave comments, who send me thoughtful emails and curious questions. it's really wonderful to know there is an audience out there who not only wants to read what i write, but engage with it.

2011 will bring big changes to à l'allure garçonnière, and i hope you will be along for the ride, with all its ups and downs. thanks for being along for the ride.

in the meantime, seeing as i have surprisingly never done this before, here are some of my favourite blogs which present themselves as feminist take on fashion.

threadbared
fashion for writers
good morning midnight
fashion abecedaire
fat fashion feminist: whatever the f i feel like
definatalie
nicolette mason
i feel pretty
worn journal
dapperq

if you have any other suggestions, or feel like your blog fits the bill, feel free to leave them in the comments!

LINKS:
F bombs at Threadbared
Is a Feminist & Queer Interest in Fashion Possible? at Good Morning Midnight
Why I feel guilty when I don't blog at Threadbared
Post Feminist Fashion Guilt (i take issue with the term "post" feminist...)
Retail: It's Complicated (the rise of "fast fashion") at Feministe
Feminist Frequency YouTube channel

vag magazine: laughing with or at feminists?

a question i get asked a lot when i mention this blog in conversations with friends and strangers is, "well, what is feminist fashion anyway?" and in some ways, that question is an unanswerable one. i like to think that my take on "feminist fashion" is an analysis of fashion from a critical perspective, trying to see ways in which the fashion industry impacts women involved in all levels, from the people who work in sweatshops to the anna wintour's of the world. but i'll stop myself there: while i'm not quite ready to put down a lot of my ideas in writing, this video piqued my interest and reminded me of why the idea of "feminist fashion" is so interesting:

Vag Magazine Teaser 1 from Vag Magazine on Vimeo.

Vag Magazine Teaser 2 from Vag Magazine on Vimeo.

those are the two teasers for a new web series:

VAG MAGAZINE is not your grandma's feminist magazine, though we support her as a woman. Go behind the scenes at this hipster third-wave feminist magazine with founders FENNEL, SYLVIE, and BETHANY, staffers HEAVY FLO (a hero on the roller derby circuit), REBA (truly a legend of gonzo feminist pop culture journalism), and MEGHAN (the lone holdover from fashion magazine Gemma, which the Vag founders bought out with the proceeds from their Etsy shop), as well as enthusiastic intern KIT, as they teach you how to be a better woman.

This six-part web series stars and was created, written, directed, and produced by comedians from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

even after watching the teasers, and reading this description, the anticipation is killing me. i can't help but wonder... will it be my new favourite thing in the pop culture universe? or just another way of laughing at feminists, another reason why i'll have to defend why i choose to identify as feminist? if you couldn't tell, i feel conflicted. part of me is like "yeah! awesome! great! discussions about feminism's relationship to fashion! and hilarity!" and then another part is like "will this be another liz lemon brand of feminism, about thin able-bodied middle class straight white women who make jokes about how fat they are when in reality they are probably a size 6?" (for the record i do not completely loathe 30 rock, even though based on that statement you may be lead to believe otherwise)

i really like the jokes about what makes something a "feminist" garment, and it's hilarious for me to hear jokes friends of mine have definitely made before, about ourselves, and about other feminist-identified folks. what third-waver hasn't made jokes about hippies playing with moonblood and mocking "sisterhood" and universally supporting other women simply based solely the fact that they are women (insert debates about sarah palin here)? part of the humour fellow feminists and i have shared about this has definitely been a defense mechanism, and as a way of blowing off steam when confronted with shitty attitudes and politics. there is a lot of infighting within any anti-oppressive community, feminism included, but how can we address those problems in effective and healthy ways? one of my favourite ways of addressing fucked up and problematic things in pop culture is with humour.

lately it seems like there is a dearth in feminist humour; sarah haskins' hugely popular target women is now sadly defunct, and its replacement, modern lady, is just not up to snuff. could it be that vag magazine will be a place for feminists to get their laughs? i hope so. that said, there are already some things irking me about it; namely, the fact that the cast is mostly white and pretty high-femme, and that most of the jokes seem to be at the expense of these very "extreme" hyper critical feminists... but! i'll stop myself there. really, i can't judge the entire series after only having seen a whole minute of footage. and maybe i'm just feeling a wee bit hypercritical about the whole thing in general. i'll save my thoughts until i've watched the webisodes, which launch tomorrow, october 18th.

edited to add: twitter informs me that both myself and vag magazine follow feminist hulk, so my hopes are now indeed higher for this interesting looking series.

links:
vag magazine
vag magazine on vimeo
vag magazine on twitter
vag magazine wants to put the funny in feminism

13 ways of looking at liz lemon at tiger beatdown
ableism in 30 rock at deeply problematic

inspiration: femme fatales by niagara

Run by Niagara

darksilenceinsuburbia posted this image quite some time ago, but it's only now that i got around to digging up a bit more information about the artist. a little bit of Litchenstein, a dash of Warhol, swirl it up with a love of ladies with guns in film history and there you have it: the art of Niagara.

her femme fatales evoke some of the most powerful women from the golden age of cinema, joan crawford, bette davis, clara bow... not to mention the "pretty faces" like veronica lake and jane russell. i'm personally drawn to the bold and tough attitude the women have, and totally have my own empowering feminist interpretation of them. here are a few of my favourites:

Bang Bang


Double Shot


I'm Pretty When I'm Angry


Don't Fuck with Me

Fuck Off Outta Here

Double Back

not to mention, the artist herself has quite an impressive and interesting story. she fronted the band Destroy All Monsters (who, as a fan of MC5, i am quite surprised i had never heard of before). here's a picture of her having quite a time in the late 70s:

plus, thurston moore of sonic youth helped to put together a compilation of Destroy All Monsters' music in 1994, since they had never formally recorded. here she is hanging with two of my favourite people, thurston moore and kim gordon.




she seems all around quite badass to me.

american able: why does fashion have to give us complexes?

Almost a month ago, Worn Journal posted a condensed version of this interview on their website. It caused quite a stir, being linked everywhere from Jezebel, to Bitch Magazine, to Sociological Images. Today, if you haven't already seen American Able somewhere in the blogosphere, you can catch it on the TTC in Toronto. And you can read the entire extended interview and article here!

A condescended version of this interview was originally posted at Worn Journal on May 3rd, 2010

I remember back when the very first American Apparel store opened in Canada. Its sole location was on Queen Street in downtown Toronto, and I was really, really excited about it. I had just become interested in the question of ethically made clothing; at the time, most of the clothing i bought was second-hand, but knowing full-well that buying used is not a universal solution to the exploitation that happens in all levels of the fashion industry, I was interested to learn more about stores with initiatives like American Apparel.

Unfortunately, after a few visits and purchases at the store, I found myself... slightly underwhelmed. Sure, the stores sure were selling what I had been told they did - ethically made, simple basics - but only in terms of the clothing. In terms of their marketing as an "ethical" clothing store (proudly boasting that every step of production happens in downtown LA, emphasizing diversity among their staff, among other things) I felt as though I had been sorely duped - as a critical very left-leaning feminist - when I saw their advertising splattered across billboards and in magazines. Even though the televisions in their stores screened videos about how much they respect their factory workers, store employees, I felt like the rules were slightly different when it came to the women in their ads. I thought this would be a company that respected people across the board, in every step of the way. But seeing a picture of a nubile young blonde wearing knee high socks orgasming (or simulating orgasm) for the male gaze as a way of selling me a pair of socks made me uncomfortable, to say the least. Things only got worse after I heard rumours of founder and CEO Dov Charney masturbating while being interviewed by a female reporter and charges of sexual harrassment swirled in the mid 2000's. Well, Dov Charney might be masturbating to a slightly different picture if Holly Norris and jes sasche have anything to do with it.

So much ink has already been spilled about what American Apparel has done wrong (and yes, right) as a company. Ironically, Woody Allen has even gotten involved, suing one of their rare ad campaigns that featured something other than a half-dressed hypersexualized woman. But I digress! This is not what I'm here to talk to you about; rather, I want to talk about a refreshing take up of their notorious ad campaigns.

Let me paint you a picture. You’re headed towards a bus stop on your daily commute to work. You notice a gigantic advertisement plastered on the side of the bus shelter - a young, thin, blonde woman wearing nothing but striped socks and a pair of underwear. It’s not even 8 :30 in the morning yet, and you’re sighing at the sight of a woman objectified and hyper-sexualized, all in the name of advertising. How cliché. The problem isn’t even necessarily the fact that she’s half-naked, it’s more that you’re sick of seeing the same kind of woman sexualized in these boring, uncreative ways. What’s even worse is that the fine print of the ad tells you that this is not, in fact, a professional model but rather an every day, average gal. Just like you! Ah, American Apparel strikes again, you tell yourself. As if this speaks to my life.

In my reality, all kinds of people are sexy and sexual: People who identify as queer, as trans, as disabled, as fat, some combination of the aforementioned terms but most generally, as awesome. But in this world of American Apparel and various other “real beauty” ad campaigns making claims of representing the “average woman,” I never see myself or the kinds of people I know. It still doesn’t speak to my reality, and I’m sure it doesn’t speak to a lot of other people’s realities as well.

Luckily, thanks to Holly Norris and jes sachse, we might have to prepare ourselves for a sea change. This May, riders of the TTC in Toronto will bear witness to the critical sass created by photographer Holly Norris who teamed up with her then-roommate and poet/photographer/pornographer jes sachse to satirize the notorious American Apparel ad campaings in a witty, sex-positive way. Their spoofs of the ads, titled American Able, are currently being shown on television screens in subway stations across the city as part of the Contact Toronto What’s the Hype? Exhibition.

One of the most effective ways for feminists to constructively criticize the fashion industry and their problematic ad campaigns is with humour. Many of us have seen Sarah Haskins’ Target Women videos, which are probably the best known contemporary examples of criticizing the rampant stereotyping and sexism that goes on in advertising while simultaneously making you laugh your ass off. Holly and jes’ thoughtful and witty takeup of American Apparel’s notorious ad campaigns is just another way to think about how (and which) women are presented and sold to us in the advertising industry.

To talk a bit about why a photo series like American Able is needed, I caught up with these old friends to ask them a few questions.

Julia : tell me a bit about your goal with this project and how you came up with it. did you bounce ideas off of each other? did you know what you wanted it to look like before you starting shooting?

jes:

Holly was taking Women and Pop Culture I think? We'd lived together during the summer of 2008, sitting through the hell that was the TCSA. Which, naturally got us talking about disability politics. Holly was relatively new to critical dis theory, and would ask me lots of questions, which got us into great conversations. The shoot was Holly's idea, but the actual process was collaborative. The second set was all my own clothing, much of which was American Apparel. So, the poses were all me. The "shane" look was my idea. And the general attitude was mine. But Holly is the genius behind the lens.

Holly :

Originally, it was just a project for a Women and Pop Culture class at Trent University in 2008. While working on the assignment, I saw a photograph on Facebook of the Fat Femme Mafia in a change room wearing tight, shiny American Apparel tracksuits. It got me thinking about how different bodies look in clothing, and how we only see one specific kind of body in advertisements. I had been living with Jes that summer, and we had started talking about disabilities and difference. She does a bit of modeling so I asked her if she could model for this little ad thing I was doing for class and it just grew from there.

Fat Femme Mafia

Julia : there are so many sexist ad campaigns out there. why single out american apparel?

jes:

God. American Apparel is sexy. I dunno about holly but i love their style. Its andro and 'basic' and hipster. Lots of lyrca. Lots of 'your body as is' type clothing. However, model and sales clerk wise? Tall skinny white people. The usual. The fact that AA is hyper sexual appeals to me. The fact that the lens isn't really on an empowered body, is less appealing. Sexy sells. But why does sexy always seem to intersect with misogyny? Ultimately, AA is a popular brand of choice for hipsters. Many of whom are educated. Many of whom are familiar with the provocative nature of their ads. American Able doesn't mock from the outside. It mocks from the inside. I like that.

American Apparel is... oh gosh. predictable. sexy clothes outfitting lotsa variant people but advertising rather conforming depictions. no surprise here. the way my boobs and curved spine and facial difference sits in their sheer vnecks and tighties makes me giggle. one thing about their style is that its provocative. the clothes are made to conform to your shape, as it is. its actually some of the most comfortable clothing for me, because often more structured stuff is hit or miss, too big or too loose or too constricting. i'm not an hour glass, i'm two intersecting ones. i'm leggy and under 5 feet. i'm reeeeeeally tiny in places and pucker in others. i have the bum bum of a 12 year old, and the underwear tastes of a boy (mmmm mmmost days). but i rock the rack of a milk maid. what the hell is a milk maid? anyway. you get the picture.

Holly :

First off, on their ads there are often little blurbs like “Sarah is a student in New York…”, so they are positioning their models as representative of ‘regular people.’ However, they all fit into a specific idea of what a “regular woman” is. More practically speaking, for me as a photographer, it is easier to spoof their advertisements because they have that notable style with on-location shoots, simple cotton basics (which is half of my closet anyway), and helvetica font. It is a lot easier to recreate their ads as there is no need for a studio or for high fashion.

Hilariously enough, I've applied for a job at American Apparel before a few years back when I was in Halifax and desperate for a job. I didn't get a call back from them, but I was in the store a few months later and overheard a lot of gossip about the importance of appearance and of attaching the right kind of sexy headshot to your resumé.

It just seems really absurd that these sorts of objectifications aren't only relegated to their ad campaigns, but are in their stores as well. Even on their website anyone can submit to the contest of "best ass."

Julia : what did you hope people would take away from the american able series?

jes:

It’s Holly’s project, but personally? I hope people see these ads in the TTC, laugh, and put on something skin tight when they go home and stare at their bodies. It’s like an invitation to a healthy dose of vanity. Why does fashion necessarily have to give people complexes?

I’d love to be a model. I love designers and fashion, it’s art on bodies. I guess I love modeling because I feel like I embody a piece of that stare in my own work. That “I see you lookin’ at me” stare. I know I don’t look like a stereotypical model, and I like my body, but I get stared at a lot, in a different way. So when I pose, I have the opportunity to engage with my voyeurs. Or act indifferent about their gaze. Or make them question the politics in their stare. Or seduce them. Or pierce them. It’s really fun.

Barbara Kruger

All this feminist 'oh look at how this woman is being objectified' stuff with respect to advertisements and things, condemning the "ogle" comes from the same fibres as anti-porn sentiments. It grinds against what i know to be true about this culture. us as people. we stare. feminists stare at me. say ableist things to me... shit like this has stopped surprising me. the level of hate we hold toward ourselves and weave into the supposed 'gaze' of the world is obscene.

Holly :

I’m really interested in where it will be seen. It is showing on digital screens that are typically ad space, and has the potential to make people do a double take and question what they are seeing and how it differs from a regular ad. I think the realization that it’s a spoof makes people question and critique why - why do they only ever see able-bodied people in fashion advertising? People with visible disabilities are rendered invisible by mass media, and I think the reactions to American Able really highlight that. Even when there are claims of ‘diversity’ it is usually really lacking, to say the least. One rarely sees people with disabilities in advertising, unless it’s in a group photo and then it often seems more tokenizing than anything else.

American Able featured in the Toronto Star

Julia : the first thing i took away from the photos was a mischievious, sexy sense of humour. what do you think about the place of humour in criticizing media (tv/ads/newspapers) of an oppressive nature? do you think it is more or less effective than, say, boycotts, letter writing campaigns, or other traditional activist approaches?

jes:

Humour is my life. On the surface it’s easy to take me less seriously because of it. But humour also gets you in the door in a way that a rebellious placard never will (lamentably). Writing for Arthur as Arts Editor, I decided to merge news reporting with a first person persona that i think lent beautifully to art coverage. Some people told me my articles were the only thing they read. and i dont take that flattery 100% as credit to myself, but rather the opportunity that satire and wit provides. People still talk about that damn Swift essay, but who remembers any political campaigns from the day? If you can make em laugh, they'll trust you...

I suppose thats where the humour and smirk comes from. i'm 25 and the reality, truth and illusion necessitate each other. you can find that in an ad. in a photograph. in a pick up line.

Me boycotting AA is ridiculous. You show me a fashion line that rocks my disability politics. None of em do! I'll wear what i want to, because my body, like everything else, contradicts itself.

This is too much rambling. But i guess Holly doesn't necessarily know all this when she shoots me. i'm just jes to her. goofy and sexually 'free' and comfy bein naked for her project, for the TTC, whatevs.

Oh i'm so ready to move beyond 'this girl reclaiming her body'. It's not about 'my journey'. Maybe it is for people looking at me lookin at them. But shit. I wish the negative people would just move on.

Holly :

I don’t think it’s necessarily more or less effective, I think they can compliment each other. Because it’s not like someone is out yelling in the street, it’s a piece that you can sit and look at it and inform your own thoughts and opinions on your own. With spoofs, its sort of pointing out the sort of problems with it what you otherwise wouldn’t be seeing.

It’s a really interesting space, I really like looking at spoof advertisements, I love Adbusters, that sort of thing. We live in this culture where we are so bombarded by imagery and advertisements and stuff like that, I really like putting this kind of thing in the space where we’d otherwise be seeing these corporate advertisements we see over and over, and over that really does question and challenge what we’re seeing . Why am I not seeing ads like these in real life. Why aren't bodies like jes' seen in major ad campaigns?

Julia : i've heard rumours that the american able series was even forwarded to the american apparel head offices; what do you think their reaction might have been like? jes, are you excited by the idea that dov charney may have lusted for your hot bod?

jes:

Oh yes. I hope he jacked off. (no but seriously... how effing hilarious is that? I've penetrated the headquarters of the company outfitting hipster worldwide...)

Holly :

American Able was sent to American Apparel in March because there were concerns from One Stop Media, the company that owns the digital screens, that they may be sued were they to show American Able without permission from AA. It was frustrating, as I felt it politically undermined the project on some levels. There was also no reason to sue - the photographs were mine and they do not own Helvetica font. I'm not sure if it actually landed on Dov Charney's desk, but it went to the head offices in Montreal and LA. Regardless, I am glad it was shown in the end.

Julia : tell me about any other projects you are working on right now and where we can see them.

jes:

I've got a lovely exhibit coming up in May for CONTACT which i premiered during artsweek last fall.

i'm also working on a brand new website, crookedcanvas.ca (at the moment you can see some of jes' own self-portraits and other samples of her work on that website)

also... a film project in post production called 'crooked' made with kate taylor... its a documentary-meets-hang out sesh with yours truly. basically it's a first-person narrative exploration of queerness, disability and sexuality - looking specifically as some of the ways in which people with disabilities are working to subvert popular representations of disabled sexuality, which often work to asexualize and fetishize disabled bodies. the film uses both art and humour to probe these complex intersectional spaces in a way that aims to make these issues widely accessible.

yes. what else... uhh... writing a book? i'm writing a book. haha. don't read it.

Holly :

I recently did a research project in Feminist Research Methods on photographic self-representations, looking at my own work, Jes’ work, and Nancy Roberts. I’ve been pretty inspired by all of the work I’ve been looking at. (Keep your eyes peeled for perchance another interview with Holly about self-portraits and the internet! We talked about this for a really long time)

Nancy Roberts

In the future I'm planning on working on a blog with a few friends from feminist research methods class. It's called Getyourcookiestoo.com and we're hoping that it will become a sort of positive online space to talk about sexuality. So far we've talked a lot about pleasure, consent, those sorts of things... in the end it'd be something similar to feministing, covering a broad range of topics. In the works!

Julia : last but not least, i'd love it if you could recommend some blogs, books, or movies that talk about sexuality and disability from a critical sex-positive position.

jes:

Murphy o'myer... um. where do i start! Loree Erickson's film Want, man. i saw some great ones last year. This one called GIMP bootcamp... so great. also... the griffin centre is doing some fabulous work. They started sprOUT - the first (FIRST!) group for queers with intellectual disabilities to talk and hang out and play social programming. they often do stuff at bodies. preeetty ground breaking shit. they also had an exhibit at the AGO from what i understand. there is so much more to add!

from the archives: sucke(red)?

straight from the archives: originally published in february 2007 in Arthur Newspaper. text by kate taylor and julia caron. design and layout by julia caron.

Activism is about doing something to solve a problem. Buying something isn't a creative or empowered solution to that problem, regardless of what Bono or P!nk will tell you. Activism, by its very definition, is active, so get off your ass, chop up that credit card, and check out your local activist organizations.

this week, my friend salima and i are giving a workshop about women and gender in the media, and we've been digging up old academic papers and clippings to prepare. hence, you guys finally get something from the archives! i've been meaning to do this since the fall. it's been years since i've given a workshop, and it will be my first time giving one in french... i'm kind of nervous, but really excited. here are some things we are going to talk about:

• examples of positive representations of women in the media they have seen
• ways of speaking back to the media, and of making your own media
• graffiti
• internet (blogs, videos, etc)
• the bubble project
• zines

we really want to get the participants thinking about how women in the media are portrayed versus how the women they know in real life are. where is the disconnect? why is there a disconnect? how can we respond critically to sexism, racism, and other forms of oppression in the media in a productive and positive way? i'm going to make a resource list of specific books, websites and videos that speak critically about women in the media, so if you have any suggestions send them my way!

so! all of this to say, thinking about these ideas reminded me of this article i wrote three years ago. i imagine a lot of you remember the GAP (red) campaign and if you do, then you might enjoy reading this piece!

if you'd like to read the article,
you can download it here.

i'm hoping to transcribe it and republish it here but in the meantime, i pieced together a pdf for your enjoyment.

why we need feminist fashion blogs.

There is an abundance of intelligent (and stylish) young women out there starting fashion blogs for all sorts of reasons; to show off their pretty clothes, to have one place to post all of their high fashion haute couture desires, to increase their sales on ebay or etsy, or, of course, in the hopes of finding fame and fortune. With magazines like Vogue and Glamour increasingly losing ad revenue and audiences to the Internet, more and more young women are being profiled and reverred in the mainstream media. To top it off, artists like Kanye West and Justin Timberlake, known for their cutting edge taste in fashion, have been plugging bloggers like Sea of Shoes' Jane Aldridge and Hannah + Landon.

So,why am I following the influx of bloggers myself? Am I striving for fame and fortune, or do I just want to brag about how stylish I can be? Well, let's start with a little history of my relationship with the Internet and fashion. I've been keeping a personal blog since I was 16 years old [which, for the record, is terribly embarrassing to read but I can't quite bring myself to delete it]. I soon ventured to greener, slightly more mature pastures when livejournal became available for free, starting with ocean_child and its most current incarnation, garconniere. I am quite active in a number of livejournal communities, varying from film_stills, thrfitwhore, to the more exclusively fashion based networks of newestwrinkle [first post in 2005], vintage_look, daughterofether and others. Sometimes I simply watch and read the comments, other times I post what I wear and ask for opinions.


On more than one occassion, I thought of boycotting fashion communities simply because the cons outweighed the pros; the privilege of white girls dressing up as indian princesses for halloween and accusing those who criticize them as being too serious, the "those pants/that dress/that style only looks good on skinny girls" comments (eating disorder trigger warning for that last link) on people's bodies who dared to venture outside of the conventional box. I briefly tried creating my own fashion community for those who were sick of the racist, fatphobic, and heteronormative conjecture being spouted in newestwrinkle and hot_fashion by creating stylishandsassy; it was quite a fruitless experiment (i was pretty much the only one who posted, and membership peaked at 50 members, compared to newestwrinkle's 7755) and it is now populated with gaudy ads for ebay and other internet sales. It was good while it lasted, but it proves that it is quite difficult to establish an online community to discuss this issues at length with engaging people, and then to maintain that community.

With all of these complaints, you may be wondering, why the fuck did you keep reading if it just made you angry? Well, the few positive aspects sometimes outweighed the many negative ones. Getting comments from people saying "you really know how to dress," or "nice armpits, friend!" when the people I was interacting with in reality would often mock my style or be repulsed by my distaste for razors. But moreso, it was seeing women like zana, [link from a post in 2005, ] who now has a great blog called garbagedress, witty commentors like hahawhat, creativetypes, etc. who never seemed to post enough compared to the sea of (mostly) teenaged white girls who bought clothes with daddy's credit card. What kept pulling me to check and engage with these communities regularly were the interactions between the members of the community: girls who liked fashion, were unapologetic about it even though it is often dismissed as superficial, and were never necessarily the people that fashion was marketed towards. Punk diy haircuts, skirts they made themselves out of old thrifted pillowcases, creative ways of pairing modern and vintage pieces, bodies that were outside of the size 0-12 size spectrum, people who mixed patterns i would have never thought could work together, but, surprisingly did. It was a combination of my admiration for these people based on their style and what they had to say. Their positive or witty responses towards negative dismissive comments usually won my heart. Simply by seeing someone post their outfits once every 4 or 5 months on a livejournal community made me feel as if I knew that person, and sometimes, they me.

It was comforting, especially in my late teens when I started posting, to find that I was not alone in my desire to be stylish without having the means to buy designer shoes or all of the things I wanted, even if it was virtually. Comforting to know that one could be politicized about capitalism, consumerism but still like fashion. To see the potential revolutionary aspects of fashion, to unpack the historical meanings behind garments, and to learn from each other's successes and mistakes. To see other queer girls who liked wearing dresses.

When I ventured back into the world of blogger and discovered fashion blogs a year or two ago, I was frankly shocked by the homogeneity. The themes and content become astoundingly redundant: here's "what i wore today," I'm not going to buy anything new for a year, here are cute vintage dresses I'm selling on etsy, etc. But where was the commentary? Where was that personal, political touch I love? Are these blogs really a new place for young women to develop their opinions and ideas about fashion? Or is it just another place to reproduce the ideals long spouted by runways and fashion magazines around the world for decades?

Instead of just bitching and complaining about the prevalence of pretty and lack of savvy substance, I decided to borrow the idea from activism communities: if you want something to exist or change and it doesn't, do it yourself. I want this blog to be a place where I can explore political notions of fashion (without using too much inaccessible jargon) and have other people give me feedback, and maybe even encourage other feminists interested in fashion to start their own blogs to start even more conversations. I have a million ideas I want to unpack, or that I have tried to explore in the past, and it is so much more exciting to have a facet where I can really develop these ideas in more detail.

That is not to say this will be a text-only blog writing about the politics of cultural appropriation, the theoretical underpinnings of self-portraits, and so on: I will engage with some of the staples of fashion blogs as a way of exploring the reasons why so many people do them as well. But! I wrote these ideas out as some kind of a manifesto, as something to stay true to while I blog. To remind myself of my original intentions as this progresses.

Here are some features I hope to have on my blog regularly (monthly or bimonthly):
- What I wore today posts
- Archives: I hope to share a lot of things I have already written about fashion by digging up old posts and going through my own personal archives.
- Links to interesting articles, radio shows, podcasts, magazines, academic journals, and other blogs that have interesting takes on fashion
- Film Features: if you've read my livejournal, you know I am a huge fan of films. I even hope to eventually do my masters in film studies! But for the time being,I will post anything I write about films here. I tried writing them in my livejournal but I think this will be a better place for them. Additionally, I will highlight stylish films from time to time (talk about superficial!) and post film stills.
- Photodumps: from time to time I will post some of my favourite fashion related images. Etsy favourites, fashion spreads, etc. In the meantime you can follow me on tumblr: garconniere.tumblr.com
- Articles written by me: I really need to get into the habit of writing in English again, so I hope to write at least one article a month that has something directly related to fashion from a feminist perspective. I already have a bunch of ideas (the politics of wearing fur/leather if you are vegetarian or vegan, the social signifiers of fashion, body politics, etc). I will limit myself to 600-800 words for these, simply for my readerships' sake!

What I want from you!
- I want you to comment! Tell me what you think about my ideas, contribute your own, link back to your blog so we can keep engaging.
- Tell me what you think I am doing right and wrong: is it contradictory to be so critical of the sea of privileged white girls posting their outfits when I am doing the same?
- Point me in the direction of blogs that you think have got it right. I know a bunch of fat-positive fashion blogs, some really great feminist ones, some great antiracist ones, but am sorely lacking in the department of fashion focused feminist or poc blogs.
- Share resources with me. If there is a movie you think I need to see, a blog, etc, send me a message and let me know.

So that's that! Welcome to a la garçonnière!