If you follow me over on Twitter or Instagram, you may have noticed the last few days that I've started taking photos of myself (selfies) with the hashtag #365feministselfie. And a few of you have asked what that means, so I figured I'd tell you about why I'm participating and how you can, too. But to go forward, let me go back a bit to the first time Erica and I met in person.
While Erica and I sat down and talked about my soon to be new YMC blog (this was in 2012), she mentioned that she liked my feminist slant on pop culture and I instantly and automatically denied that I was a feminist. There were a lot of poorly thought out reasons as to why I didn't consider myself a feminist back then, but I realized I can proudly call myself a feminist and be inclusive to many different things AND love talking about celebrity, gossip and fashion while working to try not to diminish other women (which, I will be the first to admit, doesn't always work and I'm always learning). If anything, from that initial conversation to today, I think I've become more of a feminist while becoming even MORE interested in celebrity and how it works.
On January 1, I saw my friend Lyndsay tag a photo with the #365feministselfie thing and thought, "this will be neat." So, I did some research and a few things stuck out to me and made me want to participate. One of the big things for me is how often we as women (and as mothers) are bombarded with the idea that we get our bodies back instantly after having children, or that our post-pregnancy bodies are some how LESS than our pre pregnancy bodies. This seems to be beaten over our heads with svelte celebs on the covers of magazines, shouting HOW I GOT MY BODY BACK IN 5 WEEKS. Well, my body will never be "back" after having two kids, and I don't care. I really actually like being curvy and love the larger hips that having kids has provided me. I don't run to be skinny, I run because I love running and it makes me feel good. I want women to see that so that they see what "normal" actually is.
I'm normal. I'm quite tall, which works in my favour, but I'm not skinny. I don't always wear makeup. I often have roots and my bleach blonde hair sometimes looses its lustre between colourings. And I want to share that with you. Because selfies are not about vanity, nor are they a "cry for help" like Jezebel declared late last year. A self portrait is a slice of life, REAL life, taken in a moment.
I am excited to share with everyone my day-to-day and excited to share with myself. One of the goals of my 365 is to try and take photos when I'm not happy with my hair or my outfit so that I can get used to looking at myself. Because even if I happily say how much I feel empowered, I sometimes feel like a lumpy space princess.
And it's not too late to start the challenge! Mamas, I'm calling on you to try this out, too. It's an interesting goal and I want the world to see that motherhood is beautiful and not bikini ready all the time (or ever, for some mamas) and I want you to look at yourselves every day and be happy :)
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