Song of the day: Violet by Hole
I spend most of my time trying to
radiate positive energy. And having a
socially conscious business with very grateful customers often puts both
Lauren and I in a peaceful, polly-ana-ish mood that is reflected in our
designs. Our design esthetic is definitely ethereal
and feminine. Part of this is driven by our personalities and part of this
is in direct rejection of the masculine or sensible styles that many people
expect to find in eco-friendly, vegan shoes.
And in our marketing, we tend to keep it light and reject any kind of “angry
activist” message that is sometimes associated with green or vegan causes.
But despite all this goodness and
light, sometimes I succumb to what can only be described as infantile rage. And
although it’s historically made me uncomfortable (does not compute with Minnesota
nice), I am starting to learn to channel it appropriately and see the value
in anger… if it’s used to ignite change.
In truth, I rarely get angry with
another person. Usually my anger is directed at myself for either not having
enough patience & faith (being in a hurry is not a good idea when it comes to any kind of fashion manufacturing)
or not having enough discipline (like the 5,436 calories I ingested at Lauren’s
4th of July party. UGH.). Fortunately a good workout dissolves most
of it and I can quickly make peace with myself.
The kind of anger I am learning to
deal with now is that larger anger at “society.” The underlying frustration
that comes from being a woman in America- incredibly, undeniably lucky and yet
still unsatisfied with the status quo and disturbed at the images dished out by
pop culture. And it switches into both rage and sometimes helplessness when I
think about the conditions faced by women in other countries. But that’s not
useful, so in hopes of channeling this appropriately, I’m providing a small
list of things we women (and men!) can do to help make society better for all
of us. These issues range drastically in terms of gravity, but all the actions are
focused on bringing women UP and supporting one another… while hopefully
eliminating some of the anger and helplessness that affects many of us:
1)
Stop putting unreasonable demands for youth and beauty
for women. Not only do men get more of a free pass when it comes to aging, but they
are also often easier on us than we are. Don’t spend your time tearing apart
other women (people usually do it to famous women, but sometimes its stretches
into people you actually know) and commenting on how they need to lose weight,
get botox, get some sun, etc. Focus on what’s beautiful about every woman you
come across- famous or not, young or old… including yourself.
2)
I know many people find it a light escape, but I’d love
to see a mass movement where people stop watching reality shows that encourage women
to behave... well drunk and slutty. It’s a horrible message to be sending to girls-
“you too can become famous by selling yourself out on TV!” While I know most
people don’t take it all that seriously, the ubiquity of the ‘girl-who’s-famous-for-no-reason’
has got to go away. (I have to admit it would be tough to stop watching Talk
Soup though. We’re all human. And Joel McHale rocks.)
3)
On a much more serious note, get educated about what’s
happening to girls in other countries and do what you can to help. If you
haven’t heard about the “sex tours” that take
place in Asia and parts of Central America… well it’s about as bad as you might
imagine. Here’s a few sites to get you started- and we are just getting started
in seeing what we can do to help as well.
http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/learn/globalissues-stp
http://www.ecpat.net/EI/GetInvolve_speakout.asp
4)
Help another woman avoid above fate by donating to an
organization such as:
a.
Women 4 Women
b.
The Girl Effect
And lastly, stop judging the women
in your life for the choices they make. Whether it’s the choice to have kids or
not, to stay home with them or work, to get married or not, whatever it is…
stop judging… just support. We are way too hard on one another. Get angry, do
something about it, and then go back to being your sweet/sassy/sexy self. Here’s
some other songs to inspire you:
Right Through You
Don’t Let Me Get Me
Just a Girl
