A Pretty Girl’s Guide to Imperfect Feminism
The terrain of feminism is a rocky one. Not only are you at war with those who don’t identify as fellow feminists, and those who believe feminism to be a futile marshland, but you are at battle with yourself. The fight to constantly portray an empowered persona and to live up to the great expectations of what a proper feminist should be, set by the generations of strong feminists before you, weigh heavily on your mind.
It wasn’t too long ago that I truly began to identify as a feminist. I don’t know what was stopping me, maybe I was just undereducated on the topic, or maybe the stereotypes around thick body hair, man-hating, and being plain old ugly were enough to turn this “pretty girl” sour.
While the feminist movement has had a powerful impact on social interaction and equality as a whole, there are many aspects of feminism that have become “rotten with perfection” as we all strive to do everything perfectly by the book in order to keep the feminist movement in motion. One of the many misconstrued ideas around feminism is the expectation that real feminists should reject heteronormative expectations in relation to their physical appearance. This concept made me question whether you can you strive to be pretty and still be a “perfect” feminist? And if “perfect” feminism is what we should be striving for at all.
Hannah McCann believes that femininity has long been seen as a problem for women through the strict ideals that society has placed on us throughout history, such as the use of items like corsets, girdles, and Spanx to force the “ideal” body shape and makeup to enhance features. This can be seen especially through the media we consume, and the narrow standard of beauty the media imposes has often reduced women by our appearance.
Despite these oppressive ideals, individuals are beginning to challenge the preconceived ideas around beauty and are striving to empower women by encouraging them not to place their self-worth in the hands of a society that values the size of one’s breasts over the thoughts in their head, while still maintaining our beauty, and our feminist title.
Chidera Eggerue, or The Slumflower as she is known online, is the face and boobs behind #saggyboobsmatter, a social movement aimed at challenging the mainstream perception of what a woman should look like. Chidera began the movement after realising , while bra shopping, that there was a lack of representation of saggy boobs, causing her to resent her own. As well as promoting the movement, Chidera Eggerue speaks about patriarchy, racialized standards of beauty, self-love and empowerment through her Instagram posts. She is also a strong advocator for being who you want to be and finding value in yourself, using her online platform to showcase fashion and beauty as well as her feminist opinions.
In a similar light, Instagram beauty influencer Flex Mami began her online journey after seeing a comment claiming that a black woman could never become a beauty influencer in Australia. Flex Mami took this opinion as a challenge and has since gained a following of 34.5k on Instagram, in addition to brand deals from numerous beauty company’s worldwide. As well as her enormous success on Instagram, Flex Mami is an author, MTV presenter and DJ. She also co-hosts a podcast, Bobo and Flex, where her and her fellow host dive deep into all things empowerment and feminism, debunking myths and shedding light on topics women might not feel comfortable asking about.
These women are social media personalities who give a new definition to powerful beauty in a society that has long had preconceived ideals around beauty meaning white, slim, middle-class and heterosexual. Women like Flex Mami and Chidera Eggerue are challenging these ideals and teaching women to own their beauty unapologetically, using the empowerment it provides to follow their dreams rather than relying on this beauty to simply get them by.
The rise of social influencers who own their beauty while fighting for and educating others on the feminist movement has seen a change in the idea of “perfect” feminism. Michelle M. Lazar found that many second-wave feminists criticise the beauty industry as oppressive to women and upholding unrealistic and narrow definitions of beauty, however, social media influencers are using the beauty industry as a prop to show women that beauty can be empowering and to learn to love their looks, even if they don’t adhere to traditional views on what is beautiful.
If there is one thing I’ve learnt in my journey to becoming an empowered 25-year-old woman, it’s that owning your looks fearlessly and not letting those looks become your identity or compromise your intelligence is about the most empowering thing you can do. It has also meant that in the past couple of years, I’ve begun to own my feminist identity.
Bell Hooks stresses that contemporary feminism must be “constantly made and re-made so that it addresses us where we live, in our present”. Feminists are constantly reshaping the ways women fight for equality, and the rise of social media has had a huge impact on this. Fighting for equality means using all forms of possible empowerment, even if this empowerment stems from the way you look. While beauty is not a traditional ingredient of a “perfect” feminist, I think it’s well and truly time that we deconstruct these traditional recipes, and fearlessly own our imperfect feminist selves.
Feminism isn’t a one size fits all situation, there has to be a little wiggle room. From one “pretty girl” to the next, “wiggle all you need and find what fits!”
