We are 3 friends who met in Chicago. We come from different backgrounds, but our common link is we are not afraid of the dreaded “F-word” feminist and gladly identify as such. We feel that feminists shouldn’t be stereotyped or pitted against one another or that if you are a feminist that you can’t enjoy getting a mani-pedi while sipping on champagne. We are starting this blog because we are now in three different locations. Maria is in a small, college town in upstate New York. Phaydra remains in Chicago. Vera is in Oakland, California. We want to remain connected to each other and share what it is to be a feminist. Yes, feminists do like fashion and food and even enjoy watching Sex and the City (of course not without critique).
When Vera isn’t in school she is battling the wonders of children and wishing she were at home cooking, talking to her best friends about present day feminism and enjoying all the greatness that the Bay Area has to offer.
Is currently having a life crisis. She quit her job at Planned Parenthood and is now trying to figure out what to do with her life. This includes much volunteering, interning, and surfing the internet, but no actual paid work boo hoo. She blames her parents for her indecisiveness since her mother is a Democrat and her father is a Republican. Or maybe it comes from being a Libra. She hates theories and academic writing which is what caused her to change her former career path of being a life-long student. For now she is content to sell vintage clothes on Etsy and explore Chicago.
About a year ago I had a dream, I don’t remember its specifics but immediately when I woke up I called my grandmother. I had to tell her about it. In the dream there was a woman who looked at me and told me ” you do it with what’s within you.” I don’t remember what I wanted or need to do but this phrase struck me, so much so that I wrote it down in one of my notebooks. When I told my grandmother about the dream and what this woman had said, she said to me,”Dios siempre esta contigo, dentro de ti. No tienes que ir a buscarlo” this was her interpretation of the dream. She explained that God is always with me and inside me. I don’t need to go find God. I was struck by her response. I am not a religious person but I do believe in the spiritual connection between everyone, for better or worse. And although I can be really critical of organized religion and haven’t participated in along time, I think my grandmother confirmed for me that when I feel weak, like I can’t go on, sad, lost I can always count on those spirits that are around me to guide me through difficult times. If I am able to listen…This understanding of the world has been facilitated by various feminists, Starhawk, hooks, Lugones, Lorde, my mom, and grandmother among many more; through their writing and insight these immaterial connections would make no sense, they would get lost in the violence of dominant Western thought, capitalism, patriarchy, sexism, racism in short all of the dominant organizing principles of reality. What they have done is given
me the ability to articulate other real organizing principles of reality. This ability has become imperative because as a Ph.D. student in a small town; a very small, economically and spiritually depressed town finding strength to make a life here that is fulfilling is difficult but I look to “what’s in me” to guide me. I have a lot of help, from friends,family, food, music, books and the spirits in all things around me. This is a practical way of life. Fashion, Food and Feminism are part of my survival tactics, not just in the midst of academia and small town living but always. My contribution here is to share these strategies in the hopes that they help strengthen everyone’s ability to live and “do ‘it’ (whatever it may be) with what is within in you.”
Tags: art, chicago, college, etsy, fashion, feminism, feminist, food, friends, mani pedi, new york, oakland, planned parenthood, vintage clothes, watching sex and the city, young women
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