Why Angela Davis is my political fave

For as long as I can remember, I have been proud to call myself a feminist. My Mum's a devout feminist and has never told me to afraid of the word 'feminism'. That being said, until the past year or two, I didn't feel wholeheartedly connected to the issues mainstream (white) feminism talks about.

Of course, I knew things like 'free the nipple' and letting girls wear short skirts and show their shoulders in school without being sexualised by male teachers were important issues, but I didn't feel like this mainstream feminism was particularly useful when it came to other forms of oppression. I didn't feel like this feminism was inclusive of other intersections, it became more and more obvious to me that this type of feminism didn't really fight for those who are oppressed because of their race or those who are oppressed because of their class. Becoming invested in 'SJW Twitter' definitely helped here and opened my eyes to the reality of white feminism and to the prospect of intersectional feminism. In short, white feminism is a branch of feminism focused on the struggles of primarily white and privileged women, this is basically liberal feminism which is centered around western ideals and liberalism doesn't really help the movement on a mass scale (but that's a topic for a different time). Intersectional feminism is a branch of feminism that encompasses all intersections because it claims that oppressive institutions are all intertwined, so the obvious one is sexism, but it also takes into account racism, classism, transphobia, homophobia, biphobia, ableism - you name an oppressive -ism and intersectional feminism is against that.

This is a picture of one of the walls in my Uni house - me and my housemate Megan adore Angela and wanted to order a poster of her, and then we received two in the post (at no extra charge) so we have two posters right next to each other, yep we cool.

So how does Angela Davis come into this? Angela Davis is one of the most famous intersectional feminists there are, just a month ago she said in an interview that feminism involves 'embracing but moving beyond gender'. In the 1960s, Angela Davis was a member of the Black Panthers, leader of the Communist Party in the USA, as well as being a member of the Che-Lumumba Club which was the all-black branch of the Communist Party. Being a part of groups like these meant she was not silent on classism or racism. She was (and still is) outspoken about classism and racism in the Suffrage movement, which we're told liberated all women when actually WOC were exploited by white women to push forward the movement. She's also spoken out about sexism in the Civil Rights movement and other socialist movements which resulted in the oppression of women being pushed to the sideline. Angela Davis also emphasizes the importance of women's rights being looked at globally in order for women to form 'a united, multiracial, antimonopoly women’s movement in order to aid oppressed women throughout the world'. 

I largely base my feminism on the likes of people like Angela Davis, people who are unapologetically anti-Capitalist (for a while, I was scared to say that I agreed with a lot of communist/anarchist ideals because you automatically get shunned as a fascist apologist - again, this is another topic for another blog post) and people who include POC, most importantly black people (again, colourism - different topic that I shan't go into detail about now), and encompass all of these issues into their feminism - this is the basis of my feminism, and as it is Women's History Month, I'd like to thank Angela Davis for being a big figure in helping me further my feminism, so thank you Angela - you tha real MVP.

Sod off Demi, I wear makeup for me

When I was 12 years old, my idol was Demi Lovato. This was before she came out with her mental illnesses and it became cool to like her, I loved Sonny with a Chance and I thought Don't Forget was one of the best albums of all time, and for a long she remained my idol. More so, after she announced she was mentally ill, she became a beacon of hope for me in some sense, but over time my adoration decreased and after her tweets about makeup, whatever adoration I had for her is virtually gone. Her tweets actually came to my attention through Gabby from Velvetgh0st and I really agree with her opinions on the matter, you probably all know who she is already but I had to just note that it was through her that I picked up on this.

The thing I find most problematic with her attitude towards makeup is the fact that she has been an icon for empowerment for a long time, even more so after she announced to the world that she had been suffering with an eating disorder, and it honestly just upsets me more than anything that someone who I once looked up to would turn around and try to tell people, namely women in her tweets, not to express themselves or to make themselves feel more confident through the means of makeup. 

Her underlying point being 'you don't need makeup to be beautiful' is a sound point, but the way she illustrated her point was poor. Many people, myself included, generally don't feel remotely attractive without make up and that sucks, it sucks a lot, but for her to make those people feel guilty for wearing makeup, whether in excess amounts of not, is quite heavy handed given that she claims to be all for people doing what they have to do to feel confident in their own skin. Plus, she is a celebrity who performs, does photo shoots, interviews.. the whole celeb shabam y'know, so the odds are that in fact she wears a hell of a lot of makeup. Yes, she probably has a make up artist to make sure everything's perfectly blended and she has the crème de la crème of cosmetics, but that means that she, in fact, wears probably the same amount of makeup as the people she's criticising. 

Furthermore, makeup, at the end of the day, is an art form. As said by Dan Howell (here), it's 'art for your face' and I think in that 27 second video, Dan made a good point about how it is up to the person putting on the make up and whilst he has his preferences, it's primarily up to the person putting on the makeup. As long as what you're putting onto your face isn't hurting other people or yourself, and if it's making you happy, no one really should get a say in what you're doing. Plus, a lot of people use make up for the fun of the application and not to impress other people. The idea that women* only apply make up to please other people, mostly men, is one of the most aggravating opinions a person can hold. Men generally don't care about whether an eyeshadow is well blended or if your eyeliner is on fleek, so can we just disregard the idea that women only use makeup to impress men? Please?

I do really think that people don't need makeup to be beautiful, we are all inherently beautiful (y'know unless you're David Cameron, Nigel Farage or a Thatcherite, but I diverge..) but wearing makeup is a right you have and if you want to utilise that right, that is your prerogative and no one has the right to criticise you for that. If we start criticising a person's right to wear makeup how they want to wear it, whether it's for a confidence boost or for the sheer thrill of the application, where do we stop criticising the choices that people make**? If it's not hurting yourself or anyone else, the hell with it - do it.  There's already enough judgement regarding what women wear clothes-wise, I couldn't even tell you the amount of times I've been criticised for wearing a short skirt or shorts because it makes me look like a hartlot or that I'm trying to impress men, so it would be nice if people, in this case Demi Lovato, could let people do what they want if it's making themselves happy and not hurting other people in the process. If celebrities start criticising people for living their life in a manner that makes them happy, they're simply making it harder for people to sympathise with them when the paparazzi criticise them for living their life in a manner that makes them happy. 

Overall, let's stop judging each other for doing what we want to do. As long as what you're saying and doing isn't hurting other people and it's making you happy, just do it. You're welcome to your opinions of course, but just because you don't like bright blue eyeshadow doesn't mean you can criticise others for wearing it. Other people do not have the right to dictate how you live your life, you do you honey.

What are your reasons for wearing makeup?

*I've generalised this to women purely because I hear about this solely from female friends, I've tried very hard not to generalise this post to women so please forgive me on this one!

**But we all have the right to criticise Nick Clegg on increasing university fees, we'll never forget that one Lib Dems.

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