Ultraviolet

White Button-Down: Vintage

Black Neoprene Top: H&M

Trousers: Forever 21

Flats: Nine West 

I recently received Issue 3 of Violet magazine in the mail, which was a really exciting moment for me because...I'm in it! My name's bolded under the masthead along with a slew of incredibly inspiring & intelligent women such as style director at large of Harper's Bazaar UK and founder of Lula magazine Leith Clark, designer and former fashion editor of British Vogue Luella Bartley, UK editor of Interview magazine Davina Catt and more. The issue features interviews with actress Keira Knightley, filmmaker Miranda July and director Nicole Holofcener. The images are dreamy and the feminist conversation is honest, real and true. 

Speaking of feminism...

The lens through which I view feminism stems from a background of ignoring societal gender norms. From 1st to 5th grade, I was out on the soccer field while all the other girls were on the bars. I remember being team captain every recess and being very serious about winning. During the timed mile in middle school, my PE teacher always placed me in the boys' group instead of the girls'. In high school, I spent my weekends with a group of fellow track dudes. We'd drive around town blasting Taylor Swift or jump off bridges into the sea or sit around playing video games except I wouldn't play video games because I suck at them and despise them. 

Because I was always "one of the boys", I never saw a line between genders. Obviously there are inarguable biological differences between males and females, but I never thought those differences prevented me from being placed on an equal platform with my male counterparts. And that's how I feel feminism should be. It's about equality. Not combatting patriarchy with matriarchy. 

In my humble opinion, all hostility does is leave a bitter taste in people's mouths when it comes to feminism. It'd be so much more effective to simply have an intelligent and empathetic discussion on the subject, which Violet magazine accomplishes with gracefulness and wit. 

One of my favorite quotes from the issue is from Keira Knightley. She says, "I don't know what happened through the 80s, 90s and 00s that took feminism off the table, that made it something that women weren't suppose to identify with and were supposed to be ashamed of. Feminism is about the fight for equality between the sexes, with equal respect, equal pay and equal opportunity. At the moment we are still a long way off that." 

To which I say, yes. Let's all strive for equality, yeah? As cheesy as this is, let's all be on the soccer field, working as a team, to score that goal. (No, not a sexual innuendo, ya pervs!) 

For more illuminating and enlightening words, grab a copy of Violet here. (And find my name under the masthead while you're at it, heh heh.) 

Music

March 2015 Indie/Indie Pop Compilation 

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