I was having a nice little stroll downtown friday morning on my way to –insert major coffee chain here– to sit and do some light reading. I passed a magazine kiosk, and briefly noticed the local paper (which I already had a copy of at home). For a split second…literally half of a second…i caught a glimpse of another newspaper underneath it; something with brighter colors and a drawing of some sort on the cover. I was at full speed, doing that “i’m a woman downtown and I have someplace to be” sort of walk, and this magazine literally made me stop in my tracks, and take two steps back. I’m nearsighted, so when something grabs my ‘eye’ it’s kind of a big deal.
Now, I’m a self proclaimed feminist. I’ve read “The Hungry Heart” probably 10 times, and my favourite book of all time will always be “Cunt” by Inga Muscio (i urge you to go there, click on ‘womanifesto’ and submit your own. I intend to do so sometime soon, I’m just working on developing my own so that it’s solid and chalk-full of that ‘wisdom stuff’ that I haven’t quite acquired yet…).
You can imagine how quickly my heart skipped a beat when I saw the word “SKIRT!” Printed at the top. I immediately said to myself “Women wear skirts! Please let this be a kick ass women’s magazine…” I’m really big on the Universe showing me little signs, which she does all the time. The image on the front of this magazine is chalk full of signs:
- I was wearing a hat almost identical to the one this figure is wearing.
- I was on my way to –insert major coffee chain here– to get a coffee much like the one she’s drinking.
- lately, the sparrow has been my spirit animal, so when I see its images, i know the universe is telling me something.
I know that sounds extremely cheesy, but the universe has not once steered me wrong.
At any rate, I grabbed the magazine thinking “Alright universe. what do you want?” and made my way to starb…I mean –major coffee chain–After about 5 mins of sifting through this magazine, I was sold. I even decided that I was going to get my hands on an edition every single month. I’m broke right now, so that literally means remembering every month, and finding a copy downtown somewhere until I can afford a subscription (a broke artist? how cleche).
The featured artist is amazing. Her name is Caroline Hwang. Her website is a lot of fun. She’s one of those creative types that even other creative people (like myself) look at her work and say “How in the flying hell did you come up with that?” It instantly makes me want to run home and “MAKE STUFF!” and then I get frustrated that my box of art supplies hasn’t been shipped from California yet, so all I can really do is sketch. I wish I lived in Brooklyn, because she’s looking for an intern and I would love to make coffee runs to –major coffee chain– for her. I am head-over-heels in love with her use of fabrics and stitching and TEXTURE (i freaking love texture) in her work. I’ve been nursing the concept of stitching fabric onto canvas myself, but again…broke artist cleche.
The content of this article is just as super kick ass as the artwork. I love the random manifesto pages, where instead of ads it simply reads things like “Wear your ♥ on your sleeve: it looks good on you” or “Don’t be afraid of a change of ♥ it opens your mind” and other little sayings. It literally made stop and look out of that Starbucks (eh, fuck it. We both know what coffee shop I’ve been referring to) window onto the street outside and smile to myself.
There are a handful of very well written and thought provoking articles. My favourite one is called “Can We Claim Our True Selves?” by Megan Seely. This article provoked me the most because it touches on the core reason why I consider myself a feminist, completely unabashed. In this article, she explores the exponential exploitation of women over time, and she attempts to answer the daunting question, how do we begin to truly empower ourselves? She writes,
We have a nation with increasingly limited access to reproductive health services, especially for young and impoverished women. We are embattled in a National fight over marriage equality and the absurd debate about whose love is legitimate. Given all this, it is no wonder that women struggle to find acceptance.
Megan Seely is the author of Fight like a girl: How to be a Fearless Feminist which you can find and order on her website. She is a Woman’s Studies and Sociology professor at Sierra College, and lives in Northern California with her daughter and her partner.
There are so many other articles that made my heart skip. Instead of gushing about them each, one after the other and preventing you from your own skirt! experience, I’ll post a link to their website. Hopefully if you are in the Savannah, Beaufort, Fluffton, or Hilton Head Island areas of Georgia, then you can pick up a copy.
-Ariana
