Pride and Joy

I forget, it is still cool to pose with your cat?

What about wearing purple socks and mom jeans, with leggings underneath them for warmth?

I think they are "cool" because one, the "hipster" culture dictates them to be so.  Let's face it, anything "cool" is completely constructed by the society, hipster or mainstream. In the world of hipsters, dorky, ugly outfits are completely "off the hook" on the "rad-meter". So why do I care about what hipsters say about my outfits? Other than the fact that it's kind of nice to be considered "cool" (especially when I was never thought as that growing up) but dressing ironically is probably the most cost effective way to catch people's attention with your outfits. Not to mention the kind of gems you stumble upon while thrift shopping. The point is, it's never necessary to be bothered by what others say about your outfits but it's also silly to pretend that you're not interested in people's compliments. All I've been hearing from "hipster" fashion people are how much they don't care about what other people think but the truth is, some of them do, a great deal in fact. So yeah, dress as ironic as you want, people are going to talk about how much of a fucking hipster you are but don't act like you're not flattered when hearing about how much people are jealous of your one of a kind, vintage, neon, teapot sweater dress.

Sunday Outfit Photo Dump (#2)

It's outfit dump time. This past week has been hard to dress for due to the unrelenting rain we've been having in Vancouver. I managed to pull some decent outfits together with the versatility of grandpa pants and vintage booties. 

Of course layering is also a must if you live in Canada. That and thermal socks.

The light sweaters are slowly making their out of my daily wardrobe as the coldness encourages the use of more hefty knitwear. Next week, I'll be all draped in oversized sweaters and chunky wools. Can't wait.

"A Horde of Sluts and Ragamuffins Surges Forth"

I made dinner. Now my apartment is coated in the smell of Chinese food. It may be a good thing for some who loves Chinese food (ie. Jeremy). Not so good when I wake up in the middle of the night gagging on the smell of fried oyster mushrooms.

Something I realized about food and cooking: I love the first and am very good at the latter (seriously, I one time cooked a pot roast, "taste-blindedly"; as in I'm vegetarian and wouldn't taste the dish I created but still cooked it to perfection. Or so I was told). After this recent discovery, I can add cooking to my hobbies repertoire.  

Something completely off topic but will serve to relate to whole cooking thing is that I want to get an iphone or some sort of devise through which I can access Instagram. That way I can document every creative thing I do all the time, such as the food that I make.

I wore a fur jacket and got overheated right away so a nice light blazer is what I settled on. 

Gone For Now

This is my last post for the next three and a half weeks. I'll be stirring shit up in Korea then China until the 20th. Thus I thought it was appropriate to bombard you with four times the amount of outfit photos than I usually post.

Before I leave, I want to share some exciting information with you all. I'm opening an etsy shop selling melty bead necklaces. Most of the designs are fruits as pictured above (so far I've got a grape bunch, strawberry, watermelon slice and a banana pedant) but if when I decide that I want to be daring, I might attempt to make some animals ones as well as weird, innocuous object series (bandaid, razor blades, paper clips and such). 

Head Case

I don't have cable, so I don't watch T.V.. This isn't a decision that I made out of the sheer necessity to be "anti mainstream media" or anything. It's just that I'm extremely poor. I actually don't mind T.V., I learn a great deal from it. Some of the best shows are on T.V. (Frasier being one of them) and I think a few hours a week doesn't undermine one's creativity or ability to think critically as much as your professor says.

What I don't like about T.V. is that most of the shows, especially the ones that air during the day time are complete shit. Sure, game shows are sometimes fun to watch if it's somewhat engaging like "Jeopardy" or "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" because it's fun to measure your intelligence against those participating on the show. However, what's horrible about these shows is how fucking excited people are about the prospect of winning any sum of money. Seriously, the next time you watch any of these game shows where money is the incentive (which it often is), everybody seems to shit oneself when the contestant passes a question and is that much closer towards the grand prize.

Fundamentally, there's nothing seemingly wrong with this behaviour. In fact, it's perfectly normal, natural even. Being rich is desirable. However, my discomfort lies within the fact that "richness" seems to imply "happiness". The contestants on these game show project  what seem like genuine joy at the thought of receiving a large fortune. It really plays up the importance of money and how it seems to imply that it'll make your life better.  That to me is just so fucking..."bourgeois"

Make Sex, Not Gender

I'd like to take the opportunity and devote some time to discuss the relationship of "Sex and the City" and feminism. But first, I would like to apologize for coming off as being cynical all the time seeing that how almost all of my posts had been criticisms of one thing or another. But I think my opinions are more than just pointless rants because I always try my hardest to establish an introspective conclusion within my writing. Therefore, if you would like to challenge any of my arguments, please do so. I welcome friendly debates.
Back to "Sex and the City". As a female, I have always enjoyed the show. I love the fashion, the "girl chats" and even the character relationship dynamics. However, as a feminist I've always felt somewhat conflicted for liking a show that pretty much perpetuates and glamorizes every single gender stereotype. I mean, this show made a lot of contemporary feminists lose their shit over arguing who's right. Because the themes and indications of gender stereotype in it was a little more complicated than just say, a blatantly sexist rap music video. Within the feminist realm, lots of women are against the show for its obvious sexist portrayal of contemporary single women. But some very progressive feminists think the show is empowering because it was not only relevant but also portrayed women as independent characters in control of their lives. I stand somewhere between those two extremes because what I've recently realized is that the show itself, as much as it is controversial, really isn't intentionally trying to endorse gender stereotypes. And for the longest time I thought it was precisely this unconscious mental set that has caused the biggest problem in this male-centered society. Because how can you get rid of acts of sexism when we're not even aware of committing it? I mean even the most feminist-minded, and self-aware woman sometimes can't clearly distinguish between what is empowering and what is oppressive. Most gender issues these days seem to always start out with people unknowingly making gender based assumptions and ending up offending someone. And I think I have come to realize that gender, is really a social construct and as long as we are cognitive beings who tend to rely on social constructs to understand the world, we are going to inadvertently harbor certain beliefs that are not necessarily true . So, it really boils down to simple "guilty, not guilty" question: can people really be held accountable for committing acts of sexism without an intent?

This outfit was so comfortable. It's a very prepubescent look but I was nostalgic for that stage of life where boys and girls didn't try to exaggerate their genders and sex was still somewhat ambiguous due to lack of secondary sexual characteristics.