I’m finally through with my resits/exams and I am incredibly glad because I struggled with my art history course so much. Not because it went above my capacity to understand, and not only because I found it a highly one-dimensional course (art is never just art but an indicator of a certain zeitgeist so how can you only teach us one viewpoint? etc. etc.) but also because it quite simply completely ignored women’s liberation. One of the more telling examples is that only one woman in the Bauhaus is mentioned, whereas the director of the institute claimed gender inequality was over in 1919. This, despite the fact he only let women work in textiles (these women are not mentioned even though their designs are still being produced). This I know because I read and researched it myself, not because it was in my course. Does that not show you the zeitgeist of that time but also of the time this book was written and of the time this course was given? Does that not show you how women’s liberation happened but was only often executed on the surface (or not at all), but a deep-rooted misogyny on the inside? This is not the zeitgeist of the 1930s, but also of today. At least that’s what I conclude out of the overlooking of pretty much every female artist of 1900-1950. And if they aren’t overlooked, their autonomy in their own work is often completely negated by explaining this or this man told her to do this so and so etc.

It made me feel so incredibly alienated. I feel like it subliminally told me I have no right to study this, that I don’t have a place in the art world, and the world in general. It made me feel like I was going mad, because surely this course couldn’t be telling me this subliminally and/or consciously or not, right?

I can’t deny it; lately I’ve noticed an exponential rise in my anger towards (gender) inequality. So I wondered, do I have some sort of superfluous anger to vent and am I just projecting? But I realised, the older I get the more I start to identify myself as a woman, female and consequently the more I understand and feel the sting of gender inequality, the more I see that society’s image of a woman is almost completely opposed to how I feel. How I see myself as a woman, and how society tells me a woman should be is completely contradictory. There’s a giant discrepancy between those two images and it is extremely alienating to me. Man, is that how it feels to be a woman? Because it sucks, it suxxxxxxxxxxx.

That said, how amazing are these glittery sheep hair clips? Glitter. Sheep. In. My. Hair.

It may have been my being absolutely and wholly broke, or an increasing tendency to eat, you know, actual food instead of ramen, or more admiringly a disgust in my own shopping habits but in May I made a personal pledge to not buy anything non-edible for a month. In the case of the latter, I felt pretty awful about this sort of undying urge to get shiny, new stuff, no matter what. And I have to say, seemingly unlike most in the fashion blogosphere I was inspired by blogs and blogger’s questioning of their own habits and general consumerist zeitgeist to stop shopping and live consciously rather than getting an even more consumerist urge to perpetually show new clothes instead of new combos of old clothes. And to be fair, when I think about it now, the latter is much more interesting. I find it quite inspiring.

So, I ended up not buying anything for four months up until very recently and I am planning on continuing this, no matter how difficult it may be with my soon to be newly acquired money. To keep that in check I’ve laid down a couple of rules.

I am mainly posting this for self-reference and hopefully an outside pressure to keep myself to these rules, hah.

1. Is it well-made and will it last for at the very least two years?

2. Will I wear it frequently? Or will I cherish it mightily and occasionally pull it out of my wardrobe stare, sigh wistfully and wear it while drunkenly dancing, holding a gin & tonic in one hand a brush for lip-syncing in the other on a lonely Friday night? (Let’s be frank here, we all need that kind of dresses –although not too many- , guys, even the men amongst us. Just saying.)

3. And lastly, but definitely not least as I must remember that I am still only a student: Is it in my price range? Or is it worth eating noodles for a month for? (It hardly ever is any more; I literally cannot stomach noodles any more. Oh, the heartache.)

+++ (edit) : at the very maximum one shopping trip per month unless I see a desired item that I’ve lusted after for months/years.

(These rules may not seem impressive, but if I have to keep to all three of these all the time, they are for me! Which might be quite sad…)

I’ve often reasoned that dressing up is my hobby and that I quite deserve buying a lot of stuff because that is basically my only hobby and the only thing I spend actual money on (aside from books) and even so most stuff I buy is really cheap and also second hand so why should I stop, I mean it’s totes okay for the environment? etc. etc. But really, there’s no need for me to have an unreasonably large collection of clothes so I’ve also recently donated four bags of clothes and one bag of shoes and 6 purses to good will and I am quite relieved. And I must remember this! Feel free to remind me of this post when you see some new dresses popping up here, because I kinda have a problem! :D

I am not stopping shopping completely though. I finally have money to spend on decently made clothes that aren’t second hand and 2 Euro a pop. And I am looking forward to buying from some independent designers or whatever, damn it.

Needless to say I need to cut off several centimetres as I am standing on the tip of my toes already in this photo and especially because I’ve decided to stop wearing dangerously high heels (sad times – hollow back). Could I make bows of said leftover fabric? But where to stick them? Obvs in my hair but where else??

What would you do with it? What do you think I should do with it? What could I do with it?

HOW GREAT IS JACKET? This is what I wore to one of my closest friend’s temporary-goodbye-party. She’s going to an entirely different continent for two months, which means I’ll already be off to Switzerland by the time she gets back. And it left me surprisingly sad. I don’t even want to think about how I’ll feel when I’ll have left a dozen more dear friends. Nonetheless, for my first 25 days, I might be staying at a B&B in the countryside full of farm animals and KITTENS. I’m sure I’ll find solace in petting countless animals and possibly also yodelling love songs to them.

+ just because I only just now realised that my daily accessories make every outfit even more obnoxiously colour-filled. And also because I keep forgetting I’m not twelve any more. MY LITTLE PONY BEDSHEETS.

I recently started my summer job as a museum supervisor. Though it’s undeniably dull, I kind of love it because basically I’m getting paid to pace around beautiful objects, stare at people, read and sit. It’s strangely tiring though so I might forget to regularly post and comment. I am currently also pretty ill so basically I should have no energy left but I kind of want to take my time for a little rant anyway. It’s about Jezebel.com. And it’s about me being pissed off.

So, I used to be a huge Jezebel fan. When I first started reading it, it took a refreshing not-so-very-ranty approach to feminism. It was witty, insightful and intelligently written. But this past year I’ve noticed a huge downfall, and when I occasionally come back for reading rare well-written and awesome articles I mostly close my browser window after five minutes, being incredibly pissed off at the fake feminism they’re now mostly promoting. I think I feel the strongest hate for the Dress Code series and when I checked Jezebel this morning I could not believe the approach they took was even more offensive. There’s this article, in which they give advice for ‘petite ladies’… They start off summing up the usual shit you find in those dreadful ladymags. I then think, obviously they are going to dismiss this because ‘dressing for your figure’ is complete and utter bullshit and, in my humble opinion, also completely anti-feminist because why the fuck should I ever want to want to dress to conform to this really stupid, archaic but mostly insultingly generic “ideal” of a woman today? I’m going to quote this utterly perfect definatalie post and say:

“Restricting and policing women (and men, but women are certainly the overwhelming focus of body and fashion criticism in the western world) and their fashion choices under the guise of helping them look more palatable to other people is harmful and hurtful. That we are indoctrinated into feeling indebted to people for pointing out our “flaws” feeds into the cycle of shame, and the endless pursuit of some kind of really boring and generic idea of beauty.“

But you know what they did instead? THEY ADD MORE INSULTING TIPS.

I admit, this is a personal and fairly arbitrary reason to dismiss a blog, but this isn’t the only anti-feminist thing they’ve published recently. In that same day even they published an article that, although seemingly trying to avoid criticising a woman’s body and her choices revolving around food, they are VERY OBVIOUSLY DOING IT ANYWAY.

So I seriously ask, how is this still seen as a feminist blog? Jezebel went from being the feminist answer for insulting women’s magazines to the ladymags it so supposedly hates (aside from some occasionally post that are errr … is mostly republished). And I am just ranting about the smallest facet of a myriad of problems in Jezebel lately here.

A couple of days ago I saw two guys holding up a sign, and handing out pamphlets, that said something along the lines of ‘BAN THE PILL. It lessens women’s sexual arousal! Men are frustrated because of dry cunts!’. I guess it’s reassuring to know we still live in an obvious patriarchal society in which women are mostly being seen as designed purely for men’s pleasure. Just so you know, our bodies are public property for men to sneer, leer, grope at, even rape and we can’t do shit about it. Remember that, girls!

But whatever, my hair is fabulous! A hairdo which I have obviously thought of and worked at just to attract men and leer them into my bed. Because I am a sexual predator designed to drive men into a life of sin. Made out of a man’s rib by God, I am a creature of hell nonetheless. Sigh, such is a girl’s life! How good it is in all it’s pure evilness, toothed vaginas and all.

For the past few days there’s one massive festival going on in the town I mostly live in, aka my student town, aka the only town I have a life in, aka the most perfect town ever, aka Ghent. Naturally, I am running away! There’s something about the general attitude that screams ‘let’s get so plastered tonight I won’t remember what I did’ to me. It’s not the case for everyone, but it’s pretty noticeable and it’s incredibly depressing to see middle-aged men crying in a little forgotten corner covered in their own vomit/piss/tears. Maybe I just have an eye for really depressed drunkards because everyone else seems to love this festival. But I can’t stand this town during this time of year. So I went home to study! Nerd alert!

So, I have two resist this year. My forever laidback studying attitude finally caught up on me so now I’m stuck trying to pretend as if I don’t absolutely loathe modern art history, filled with Freudian analysis. You know, this course is pretty good due to constant reminders that the Western canon is often bullshit due to century long sexism, racism and also just stupid trends. But even though this is constantly being pointed out I have to be able to psychoanalyse artworks like Lacan or Freud anyway AND IT PISSES ME OFF. Terms like ‘primitive prostitute’ and ‘castration anxiety’ just kinda rub me the wrong way, you know? What’s mostly depressing though is that the artists themselves based so much works on these really fucking archaic Freudian theories. I mean, penis envy, anal fixation? Seriously? This is also basically the sole reason why I hate French Surrealist art because it’s riddled with it. YEAH I SAID IT.

Augh, I have such an intense hate for Lacan and Freud! Who wants to start an anti-Freud & Lacan alliance with me? We’ll be like the Guerilla Girls, only with dresses made out of cloth printed with genitalia instead of cool masks, and we’ll listen to Crass’ kick ass Penis Envy album all day long.

“I wanted it to have practical volume, a regal normality. I called it ‘Bamako Pompadour.’” Bamako is the capital of Mali, which “had an empire of huge wealth and intellect—and beautiful women.”

Also love his former collections.

Christie Brown. Love these colours and appliqués (or whatever they are).

OBVIOUS love for these bordering crazy ruffled dresses by David Tlale. I just can’t help loving overly girlish dresses, I guess.

Nothing wrong with some simple, cute dresses in a kick ass kanga print, you know? By Gloria Wavamunno

Completely baffled and in love with this crazy kid’s fashion. Why is it that the cutest things are only for children? WHY? By Marianne Fassler.

This is what I personally liked and loved but you can check out everything here. Some things look weird in an unfinished, what the hell is going on, are the 80s happening again?-way, others are jaw-droppingly amazing. Be sure to check out the ’09 week too! I love it, but I was too lazy to compile photos and such.

I also really love the whole label Jewel by Lisa, but I cannot stand the script used on their website. So have a look yourself if you’re interested. This designer works superbly with a mix of cute silhouettes made of awesome mixed prints and their past collections are probably one of my very favourite things I’ve seen.

I haven’t mentioned it here yet, but I’ve been accepted as an Erasmus exchange student to Switzerland! Insert appropriate happy squealing, and babbling about chocolate and cheese! So I’ve been busy trying to arrange all sorts of stuff. There’s at least one little trivial thing I have to do every day and even though I’ve been doing that for about a month now (maybe, probably, I think? Time is something I can’t grip any more. Thank you, summer.) nothing has been finalized. But whatever! Because that’s what it’s all about, it’s a learning experience and all that blah blah, I am so grateful I can do this, yadiyadah you get the gist. I don’t really feel like writing anything any more. It may be the frequent coffee overdoses, or it may be the summer feeling (aka laziness), or it may be the fact that I can’t even remember when I last slept decently. But whatever! It’s summer! We’re young! Let’s dance! Let’s celebrate this synthetic sparkly top I got from a friend’s mother! Yay!