If you have been around the internet a while you will know just how insightful Tavi Gevinson is. She started her blog Style Rookie four years ago at the tender age of eleven and launched Rookie Mag in September last year. If you are looking for a bit of a pick me up Tavi is always a good one to check out on the internet. She is so freaking grounded! I wish I had her self belief and way with words...
My friend Imogen sent me the above video to a TedxTeen talk that Tavi gave earlier in the year and this comment on feminism has stuck with me:
"Girls then think that to be a feminist they have to live up to being, you know, perfectly consistent in your beliefs, never being insecure, never having doubts, having all of the answers... This is not true and this became easier once I understood feminism is not a rule book but a discussion, a conversation, a process."As a FAAB (female assigned at birth) person I often struggle with understanding what it means to embrace feminist ideology while still participating in practices (like beauty regimes) that on the outside seem to be so contradictory to my world view. If I enact rituals around presentation that exaggerate my body in a way that subscribe to beauty ideals that are unnatural and idealistic, am I acknowledging that to be a successful person I feel the need to be slimmer/taller/tanned/prettier with whiter teeth/perfect hair/amazing skin?
I think acknowledging this discomfort is quite powerful. I find that it enables me to stay engaged with the ideas that form my world, it holds me accountable to these ideals and it helps me to evaluate where my thinking needs to move to and when my actions need to change.
Here is to discomfort!
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