Work my Femininity

We Need To Talk About The Bridgerton Rape Scene Once again, Shonda Rimes has pulled through with another fantastic TV show. Following in the footsteps of Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and How To Get Away With Murder, Bridgerton was as captivating and as much of a hit as her previous successful shows. In fact, Bridgerton has been named as Netflix's biggest drama as of date, with a whopping 82 million households around the country tuning in to binge the series within only 28 days. And it's no surprise! With a gorgeous cast, a humorous take on regency social etiquette, compelling characters, and stunning costumes and scenery, it makes sense why the series has captured the hearts of so many people. In case you haven't watched the show, Bridgerton's main storyline follows a wealthy woman named Daphne who has come of age and has entered society (aka, she's on the hunt for a man.) At the same time, notorious rake (19th century slang for fuckboy) the Duke of Hastings has ret...

Unlearning My Own Internalised Misogyny - A Journey I would be lying if I said that I always considered myself a feminist, and always cared about the advancement of women - no matter who they are. My feminism came to me around the age of 14 or 15, when I stumbled across the concept through tumblr of all places. Yes, my parents had taught me growing up that I could do anything I wanted to as a girl. But the word 'feminist' and it's meaning wasn't introduced to me until my early teens. As a teenager, I'd like to say that I was always particularly 'woke'. Most definitely, the term 'wokeness' has been co-opted to mean entirely different things than what it once used to. Something which I considered when seeing what Chidera Eggerue - more commonly known as the Slumflower - posted on her Instagram story. She speaks about how white people have the privilege of going in and out of wokeness like a trend, whereas People of Colour do not have this privilege. If...

Why I'm Not Making Any New Years Resolutions So here we are, the end of 2020. It's not the catastrophic end to the year that so many of us had imagined - after all, killer hornets, a global pandemic, Brexit, and a Civil Rights revolution don't exactly paint a pretty picture - but here we are nonetheless. And whilst this New Year is going to be a little different, with most of us staying inside and ringing in the New Year in our pyjamas, there's one tradition that remains the same: resolutions. I'll be honest, I've never been a huge fan of New Years resolutions. I'm a strong believer that if you want to change something in your life, you shouldn't wait until the New Year to do it. I think that the New Year is a great time to start afresh, particularly after this disaster of a year, and that it's a great idea to look ahead for better things. That being said, if you're serious about enacting change, then you shouldn't wait!  2020 for me personal...

Where Is The Love? Not In This Relationship Mostly inspired by reading Florence Given's Women Don't Owe You Pretty, an eye-opening book that changed my perceptions of femininity, womanhood, gender, sex, and pretty much anything else, I began to explore the idea of relationships. In particular, heterosexual relationships. I myself am heterosexual, having only ever dated men. Something which has undoubtedly shaped my perception of dating and relationships, and the roles within this. Reading her book made me question how I, as a woman, took on certain roles within a relationship. And how we are conditioned by the Western society we live in to adopt these roles which can, at times, be restricting, detrimental, and challenging. But what do I mean by this? Well, I first got thinking about the term 'the old ball and chain'. It always struck me as odd, referring to your wife (whom you presumably love) like that. But, I grew up in a British (Welsh) household and so consumed most...

  Glow Up? Grow Up. The toxic nature of 'glow up' culture in body transformations  A Work My Femininity and Semi-Detached collaboration Glow up? Grow up. I'll be the first to admit that I have a complicated relationship with the 'glow up' posts that we're all too familiar with. We see them on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. Women (and sometimes men!) posting before and after images and videos of their incredible body transformations. I remember having a conversation with someone (you know who you are ;) ) who asked me if these types of videos inspire me to get in better shape? "No, it just makes me feel like shit" I laughed off. And it was true. As much as I indulged in watching these videos, they often left me with a fleeting sensation of 'wow, I can do this!' and a longer-lasting feeling of 'boy, I am fat'. And it's the same feeling I had when I first heard of Adele's incredible weight loss. She looked great, right?! I mean, ...

Michelle Obama says you can't meet the love of your life on Tinder: here's why she's wrong "You can't Tinder your way into a long-term relationship" former First Lady Michelle Obama said on her podcast this week. Obama claimed that the key to a lasting relationship is to be "honest about wanting to be with [somebody], to date them seriously, to plan on making a commitment." Something which, apparently, cannot be achieved through dating apps. Now I don't have anything against Michelle Obama. In terms of her role in politics she was hugely inspirational as the first ever Black First Lady, and she also achieved during this time helping women in America with their education, implementing wellness programmes, and a lot more. She seems like a nice person and I don't mean to take that away from her. But Michelle, I'm sorry, you're wrong on this one. Not everyone has the opportunity to meet the love of their life working together in a law fir...

Body Positivity + Plastic Surgery = Conflicting Message? I am a champion for body positivity. In this day and age, it's awful that women (and men!) feel uncomfortable in their own bodies, or unhappy about the way they look. There are numerous reasons why people have these insecurities - I've discussed them before, in previous blog posts - and there are so many different movements which encourage the acceptance of one's own body. From loving your stretchmarks, to accepting your cellulite, realising that not all men need to have a six pack, and that being plus sized, or having skin conditions, or not falling into the 'conventional' category of attractiveness: all bodies are beautiful, and all bodies are good bodies. So what does this mean when we consider plastic surgery? Joeyy Lee - unsplash People tend to have more conflicting views when it comes to plastic surgery and how this clashes with the body positivity movement. (For the record: I will be using the term ...