Posts Written by erin
By erin • 11 years ago

the wearing-things conundrum of my youth

a SYTYCB entry

I used to be afraid to be looked at as a girlygirl.

I was afraid that wearing skirts sometimes would make me a bad feminist.

So I bought clothes in the boy’s section and laughed at the jokes I didn’t even think were funny just to prove that I could, as if maybe this would land me a spot in the good feminist bleachers.

But at some point in the last months, year, I figured out that I am who I am. I don’t have to change that because I think it will make me a bad feminist. In fact, I think it makes me a bad feminist if I do change for it.

So now I wear skirts once and a while (I still do the sneakers, because, really, who can actually walk straight in high heels?), and wear shirts that don’t look like sacks. I thought that wearing “girlish” stuff would entail giving up, giving in to society, but now I realize that it’s only giving in if I wear it for society, for other people.
By erin • 11 years ago

virginity=purity?


a SYTYCB entry

You’ve probably heard of purity balls (recap- girls promising their fathers they won’t have sex before marriage). Putting all the creepiness aside, even though the creepiness is outstanding, I’m wondering why virginity is synonymous with purity.

Maybe because society has turned sex into something terrible- especially for women, especially pre-marital. If you’re a virgin, you’re pure. You’re clean, you’re generally a good person. You’re the kind of person that society smiles upon. But if you’re not… you’re dirty. You’re someone that no one can have a conversation with, if they know. If you’re a virgin, you’re pure. That’s it?

But there’ the other side. If you’re a virgin you’re uptight, you’re a tease, you’re a prude. Maybe you’re ...


a SYTYCB entry

You’ve probably heard of purity balls (recap- girls promising their fathers they won’t have sex before marriage). Putting all the creepiness aside, even though the creepiness is outstanding, I’m wondering why virginity is ...
By erin • 11 years ago

ani

i can rightfully say that ani difranco changed my life.

basically, she’s a bad-ass indie rocker who somehow manages to do pretty much everything. she started her own record label (righteous babe records). she writes poems and songs and has been a driving factor in my recent life.

ani difranco taught me that i didn’t have to put myself anywhere, that i didn’t have to put myself in a box and label my sexuality.

somedays the line I walk
turns out to be straight
other days the line tends to
deviate

-in or out

i remember finding myself quoting ani difranco everywhere, in everything that i did. i wrote her words on the back of my notebooks and spoke one of ...

i can rightfully say that ani difranco changed my life.

basically, she’s a bad-ass indie rocker who somehow manages to do pretty much everything. she started her own record label (righteous babe records). she writes poems and ...
By erin • 12 years ago

where valentine’s day went wrong (everywhere)

I don’t want any flowers. I don’t want any chocolate- and, no. It’s not because I’m afraid I’ll put on a couple pounds if I eat a bite of sugar.

I don’t want your heart-shaped things. I don’t want to dress in pink, because I hate pink, and you can’t give love a color.

I don’t want to turn the television on and see a million and one straight couples.

I don’t want to see the man give the woman flowers.

I don’t want to see the woman reduced to someone who just wants. Who feels oh-so-bad about herself if she doesn’t get flowers.

Because this is how society has raised us. Expecting to label our love with material things, with a price tag and ...

I don’t want any flowers. I don’t want any chocolate- and, no. It’s not because I’m afraid I’ll put on a couple pounds if I eat a bite of sugar.

I don’t want your heart-shaped things. I don’t ...