style notes: on feminism and fashion
via the epitome of quiet
"Why Can't a Smart Woman Love Fashion?"
i just love this essay by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie. can a smart woman love fashion? (it's disheartening that this question is still being asked; but you only have to look to my interview series and the rest of LAM for my answer.)
–Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,"I had learned a lesson about Western culture: Women who wanted to be taken seriously were supposed to substantiate their seriousness with a studied indifference to appearance."
"Why Can't a Smart Woman Love Fashion?"
i just love this essay by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie. can a smart woman love fashion? (it's disheartening that this question is still being asked; but you only have to look to my interview series and the rest of LAM for my answer.)
department of inspiring women: Chimamanda Adichie via
Lupita Nyong'o (via nymag)
Gloria Steinem (who makes 80 look phenomenal) via
i was working one day last week when i happened to hear a snippet of Adichie being interviewed on NPR. usually i tune out the background noise during the workday, but i found myself turning the volume up and nodding along throughout the conversation. at one point, Adichie recalls the process of finding the confidence to embrace her personal style:
if you haven't seen it already, i highly recommend watching Adichie's inspiring TED talk. i can certainly relate to many of the points she raises – but one story in particular stands out. Adichie recalls that when she was younger and preparing to teach a writing class, she felt compelled to edit her outfit lest she risk not being taken seriously by her students. so instead of putting on what she wanted to wear (a colorful dress, lip gloss, fun jewelry), she opted for a conservative black suit instead.
i feel like so many of us can recall instances when we're expected to 'tone down / cloak / masculinize' ourselves in order to project gravitas, intellect, 'seriousness'. and it's complicated, because in certain situations – a job interview, an important work event – the risk is all too real; we just don't feel like we have the option to choose between how we want to present ourselves vs. how we 'need' to.
what do you think? have you experienced this dichotomy in your own life/career?
P.S.: can't wait to get myself a copy of Americanah this week.
i was working one day last week when i happened to hear a snippet of Adichie being interviewed on NPR. usually i tune out the background noise during the workday, but i found myself turning the volume up and nodding along throughout the conversation. at one point, Adichie recalls the process of finding the confidence to embrace her personal style:
"I grew up being told that I had to look in the mirror. You know, my mother made history. She was the first woman to be head of the administrative section of the University of Nigeria, and she was very concerned about her appearance, and she brought all her children up to care about how we looked. And so I came to the U.S. and I realized serious women were not supposed to, and that if you did look as though you cared, it was a reason to be dismissive of you ...
I think I just really have come to understand that life is way too short to pretend to be what I'm not, and it sounds very New Agey and clichéd but I just really want to be my true self, and this is my true self. I think, for so long, when I would find black shapeless shifts for every event, I was just being false, that was not myself, but I was thinking, 'I have to look serious.'"
if you haven't seen it already, i highly recommend watching Adichie's inspiring TED talk. i can certainly relate to many of the points she raises – but one story in particular stands out. Adichie recalls that when she was younger and preparing to teach a writing class, she felt compelled to edit her outfit lest she risk not being taken seriously by her students. so instead of putting on what she wanted to wear (a colorful dress, lip gloss, fun jewelry), she opted for a conservative black suit instead.
i feel like so many of us can recall instances when we're expected to 'tone down / cloak / masculinize' ourselves in order to project gravitas, intellect, 'seriousness'. and it's complicated, because in certain situations – a job interview, an important work event – the risk is all too real; we just don't feel like we have the option to choose between how we want to present ourselves vs. how we 'need' to.
what do you think? have you experienced this dichotomy in your own life/career?
P.S.: can't wait to get myself a copy of Americanah this week.
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