I had the most amazing response to my recent post about fat and fatshion (my favourite comment was via Facebook, where my friend wrote, simply, "massive love for this mate.") One fatshion blog that I've discovered recently and immediately enjoyed is Fatty Unbound and the blogger behind it, Kirsty, has just published a DIY fatshion/craft zine called Make It Work.
My first forays into writing for an audience were as a fanzine writer and editor in the mid-nineties, when I published indie zine Venus, and rubbish poetry and teenage navel gazing zine Release The Pressure. So it was with a Proustian thrill at the badly photocopied pages and typewritten text that I received my copy of Make It Work in the post earlier this week. And Kirsty had me nodding along maniacally, muttering "YES!" under my breath, to her introduction to the zine: To make it work... is an act of resistance. It's refusing to be pigeonholed, to fit into the limited aesthetic offered to fat people. It's about acknowledging that I have as much right as a straight sized person to experiment with colour, texture, pattern, silouhette and shape, without being made to feel inferior in the process. I have no obligation to dress my body for anything else apart from myself. Amazing!
As well as fat acceptance polemic, the zine has some fab how-to's, including crafting on a budget, how to organise a plus-size clothes swap, and instructions for DIY sweater clips. It's fired my enthusiasm for creating (and not just clothes: I totally want to get back into zine making now). Buy it here on Etsy.
Just before Christmas, I devoted a post to magazine reviews. As much as I love whiling away the hours reading things online, it's just not the same as holding a magazine in your hand and having something tangible, beyond an internet bookmark, to keep. But as my reviews showed, I had been feeling dissatisfied with what was on offer in terms of womens mags. Even though this great post on xojane.com sung the praises of mainstream media, this time round, I tried to seek out some genuine alternatives.
Oh Comely Recommended to my by commenter Laura after my last magazine post, it took me a while to track down the independently-published Oh Comely in my local Smiths. Issue 8 was finally located last weekend - yay! Coverlines ... well, no traditional coverlines as such, just a blurb announcing, "We wondered how biscuits began, photographed tattoos with stories, confessed our secret crushes, talked about kindness with old and young, and dyed scarves with fennel and onion." For women who aren't afraid of all things winsome and twee, and who dislike the term 'hipster', but (let's face it) are a little bit hipster themselves. Wants you to buy a Lomography camera; Tatty Devine's new book How To Make Jewellry. Reading it I feel like I want to get another tattoo. I was worried Oh Comely would leave me feeling like Mollie Makes - stressing about the number of craft projects I want to complete, and depressed that my house and life isn't as lovely as the ones shown - but it really didn't. One to buy again.
Bitch
I let my subscription to American feminist mag Bitch lapse a couple of years ago when I bought my house and was cutting out all non-essential expenditure. A recent 20% off deal led me to renew again, and I'm so glad I did. Bitch has been struggling to stay afloat over the past few years (a fact which is reflected in somewhat cheaper production values). But I'm pleased to say that it's as interesting, thought-provoking and brilliant as ever.
There are articles about lifestyle blogs and the competition they can engender between women; a feminist summer school here in the UK (I take back everything I said about it being US-centric in my last post!); the always-amazing San Francisco writer and activist Michelle Tea; how disability activism has been helped and hindered by online communities... SO much great stuff.
Coverlines are short and sweet, not giving too much away: Busting out fatshion; Gunning for women; Michelle Tea. For women who have any small ounce of feminist or political urge and want to read something amazing. Can you tell I love it?! Wants you to buyxojane.com columnist Lesley Kinzel's new book about fatshion and fat activism, Two Whole Cakes; the latest album by St Vincent. Reading it I feel excited, informed, politicised... and sorry I stayed away for so long. Subscribing again is the best $40 I've ever spent: please support them at www.bitchmagazine.org/.
The Big Issue Not a womens magazine, obviously, but still worth a mention. Since I stopped working in the city I buy it less, and haven't been too impressed with it when I do manage to get it. However this recent issue (February 27-March 4) was a veritable treasure-chest of interesting articles: secularism vs. religion; community groups regenerating areas in Liverpool and Margate; a great, gossipy interview with Dame Eileen Atkins. Coverlines... just one: rhetorical question 'The opium of the masses?' alongside a TV screen. For women people who want to support the ideals of the Big Issue, giving homeless people "a hand up not a hand out", while also reading about activism, politics and entertainment. Wants you to buy tickets for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; rechargable batteries. Reading it I feel engaged and interested in the issues it raises.
"As the spring is made alive the winter dies," goes the opening line to this lovely Midlake song. One of the things I appreciate about living in the UK is the changing of the seasons, and as much as I love autumn/winter (opaque tights and woolly hats! hot chocolate! reading by the fire!), spring is a wonderful time of year. Watching nature respond to warmer and slowly lengthening days - daffodils nodding their cheerful yellow heads in the breeze, birds chirping and building nests - it's hard to feel miserable. Walking in the glorious sunshine yesterday, on top of a moor in the Peak District, I kept on singing this song to myself, a way of saying goodbye to the dying season and hello to spring.
A great article on nerdyfeminist.com about why feminists shouldn't hate on girliness, stumbled across after I googled 'girliness' to check the spelling for this post about New Girl.
After listening to The Civil Wars last week, this week I have been all about another girl/boy musical duo. Blood Red Shoes are very different to The Civil Wars, but equally (if not more) awesome. This video of them performing new single Cold for Radio One is incredible.
A Guy Recaps Lady TV is possibly my favourite feature on always-great website xojane.com. This week's post was as funny and brilliant as usual: "This show offends me as a woman, and I'm not even a woman." Noah did not enjoy Dance Moms, but who would?
I'm a fan of all things cute, twee and 'girly' (although the implied pejorative of the phrase 'girly' bothers me); on a not-unrelated note, I'm a fan of Zooey Deschanel. I was super excited when New Girl debuted in the UK back in January, and I have not been disappointed.
This amazing post on xojane.com a couple of days ago goes some way to explain why Zooey, and New Girl, are so awesome, but can be best summed up in the below quote from the show (from an episode yet to air over here, it's Jess responding to *spoiler alert* Nick's girlfriend (played by the equally awesome Lizzy Caplan) after she's bitched about her):
"I brake for birds. I rock a lot of polka dots. I have touched glitter in the last 24 hours. I spend my entire day talking to children. And I find it fundamentally strange that you’re not a dessert person. It freaks me out. I’m sorry that I don’t talk like Murphy Brown. And I hate your pants suit. I wish it had ribbons on it or something just to make it slightly cuter but that doesn’t mean I’m not smart and tough and strong."
Just...wow. I relate so much to that (the polka dots, the talking to children, the smart and tough and strong...) and it kinda says a lot of what I was trying to say here about why feminism and girliness don't have to be at odds with each other, but in a slightly different way. It's so great that such an amazing female character is being written and put centre stage in a hit TV show. I for one am keeping everything crossed for a second season of New Girl, and if you haven't checked it out yet, take a look tonight at 8.30pm on Channel 4.
International Women's Day was always a big event in my house when I was growing up. My poor brothers: with a feminist mother and feminist (and bossy) big sister, they never had a hope of getting any attention on March 8th. Some years, mum would take me to awesomely 80s consciousness-raising craft workshops for girls; other years, we'd go to mother/daughter events. I have amazing memories of making friendship bracelets, bouncing on trampolines, going to drum circles and storytelling sessions, revelling in being in an all-girl environment.
In recent years I've tended to forget about IWD until it's upon me, but one way I do mark the day is by listening to women who rock. Last year I enjoyed the Spotify playlist put together by Drowned In Sound. This year I've made my own.
From PJ Harvey to Bjork to Tori Amos; Aretha Franklin to The Gossip to Cat Power, my favourite 40 tracks by women are all there. But have I missed any off: what would your top 40 look like?
My mum and her partner met Margaret when they moved into their house about 8 years ago.Eccentric and cantankerous but friendly and full of stories, Margaret didn’t seem to bat an eyelid at the two middle-aged lesbians arriving in the house opposite hers.Margaret had lived there for years, her home slowly deteriorating around her.When she passed away recently after a short illness, my mum and Andrea went round to help clear the house and were allowed to take away some bits and pieces, much of which they have passed on to the one person they knew would appreciate the mix of vintage gems and junk: me.
Salvaged from the kitchen by Andrea was this incredible enamel bread bin.Now taking pride of place in my kitchen, it’s lovely to have a vintage piece that I know the history of.The set of scales needs a bit of gussying up, but a lick of paint should make them look better.
A stack of books from the 40s and 50s is a wonderful insight into life sixty years ago.Seeing Margaret’s handwritten notes in recipe and dress-making books brought me up short: these scraps of paper all that are left of the larger than life woman who loved to cook and sew.Finding hobbies in common with her after her death, I’ve saved a pile of craft books to read and use.Some rather sad, tatty copies of classic novels will make nice book bunting.One book, How To Write, Think And Speak Correctly, was too fascinatingly titled to throw away. I'm looking forward to learning how to think correctly, cos I'm pretty sure I've been doing it wrong all these years.
I found this great 'Made by me' embroidered tape at The Fabric Guild in Leicester recently, which reminded me of the name tape my mum used to sew into my school uniform. It has gone on to adorn everything I've made recently, from a large order of draft excluders to this little needle case I whipped up for my mate Jen's birthday.
Next on the 'to make' list: storage bags for the bathroom using scraps left over from making the blind, a cosmetics bag in vintage fabric for another friend's birthday, and masses of book and map bunting.
Bizarre, 1 minute long bursts of sound abound on Micachu's debut album Jewellery. I saw her perform with her band, The Shapes, at Summer Sundae festival a few years ago and was agog at the sheer brilliance of her songs, which are played on strange homemade instruments, empty bottles, and modified guitars. This song, Golden Phone, is one of the longer and more accessibly 'traditional' songs on the album, which is well worth a listen if you like experimental tunes with a strong pop sensibility.
Margaret Cho writing on Jezebel about hunting down the Twitter haters after being fat-shamed. "I did not choose this face or this body and I have learned to live with it and love it and celebrate it and adorn it with tremendous drawings from the greatest artists in the world and I feel good and powerful like a nation that has never been free and now after many hard won victories is finally fucking free. I am beautiful and I am finally fucking free." Amazing.
Two interesting things in The Guardian's G2 supplement: an article by Alexis Petridis on how pop music lost its gay edge, and a review of the debut album by American folk duo The Civil Wars. Definitely worth a listen on Spotify and a search
An incredible article about a book published in 1901, The Spinster Book, and the sad tale of its author, by Hannah Chutzpah on feminist blog Bad Reputation.
