Suzanne

Period

by yasthatannoyingfeminist • Posts • Tags: Classroom, Culture, Embarassment, Natural, Norms, Periods, School, Suzanne, Suzanne Warshell

By Suzanne Warshell

On a monthly basis, I am confronted with a crisis most everyone who has ever gotten a period has faced: how to handle your period at school. I have learned to discreetly put my tampon in my boot when leaving to change it during class - because God forbid anyone catches me holding it! I have put tampons in days before I am scheduled to get my period, just in case any blood leaks out beforehand. I have bought copious amounts of vaginal washes and cleansing wipes for on the go to ensure that my vagina remains in pristine condition, taught to be ashamed of when its anything… but. I. am. done. Thus, in honor of my time of the month, my favorite video this week is Alice Wilder’s, a Girls For A Change ambassador for U by Kotex, video on periods and the stigma surrounding them.

I have felt the exact same feelings of shame and embarrassment Alice describes, because these types of feelings are exactly what society wants. Girls, and other people who get periods, are socialized from elementary school to be ashamed of their periods, to speak about them only in codewords and hidden glances. I remember a particularly panicked incident in 5th grade when a boy in my class found one of the girl’s pads. My fellow pre-teen classmates stumbled through a explanation about how they were scented tissues, terrified of the consequences that would result if he discovered what they really were. That incident happened six years ago and I am still trying to reconcile, with myself and others, that I do not need to tell men what I’m holding in my hand is a scented tissue.

This is not a phase that girls are allowed to grow out of. Fast forward to seventh grade health class; we were split up into groups of girls and boys during the sex education unit. Ignoring the issues that arise due to this gender division in the future, it did enable many of the female students to feel more comfortable asking otherwise taboo questions. One of the girls raised her hand and in a meek voice asked, “what do I tell a male teacher if I have my period during school?” Her face flushed immediately along with those of every other student present. My health teacher, a woman herself, cleared her throat and told her to “just tell them you have to go to the bathroom, they don’t need to know you’re on your period.” And she’s right, they don’t need to know I am on my period, but they don’t have to not know either. The pressure put on young girls to be polite about their period is nothing short of misogyny, causing girls to be ashamed of their own anatomy and reviled by their natural bodily functions.

Gradually, I have started holding my tampons in my hand as I walk to the bathroom and I no longer feel a need to lower my voice when talking to friends about my cramps. I’m sick of it. I am sick of being told that my period is gross or being asked if I’m being moody because my hormones are “flaring up.” The monthly shedding of my uterine lining is not taboo, I will not be polite about it and I do not care if it makes you uncomfortable. I am angry, I have the right to be angry, and my anger will not subside in five to eight days, when it’s no longer that “time of the month.” So, in honor of Alice, and in solidarity with anyone who has ever been told that their period is something to be ashamed of, I will not be embarrassed today when I grab a tampon from my backpack, and I will not care who sees it.

‘Bubbleheaded Gurus,’ or Brilliant Media Moguls?

by yasthatannoyingfeminist • Posts • Tags: Beauty, Beauty Gurus, Careers, Consumerism, Fashion, Gurus, Successful, Suzanne, Suzanne Warshell, Teenage Girls, The Guardian, Videos, Youtube

By Suzanne Warshell

As evidenced by PBG, the media loves to hate on girls - teenage girls in particular. In a feature by The Guardian (that we can just tell was totally written by some grumpy-middle aged man), Youtube beauty guru Bethany Mota, better known as macbarbie07, is profiled … if you can even call such a condescending, and sexist review a “profile”. The article calls her “a highly successful version of ordinariness,” and “ the future of bubbleheaded consumerism,” reducing Mota and her hundreds of YouTube videos - which include cooking videos, makeup tutorials and honest vlogs on problems facing teenage girls today - into “a teenager who makes videos in which she discusses her latest purchases.”

I’ve followed beauty gurus on YouTube for years, and have always admired the way they have turned their passion into a career, especially at such a young age. These girls spend hours developing, filming and editing videos, only to send them out into a sphere where they are bound to receive extremely harsh criticism veiled behind anonymity. If you’ve ever read the comment section on one of these videos, you’ll know what I’m talking about. These girls are constantly barraged with hundreds of nasty comments insulting their voices, appearances and personalities on even the most non-controversial videos. Interspersed between the hate, however, is feedback from the gurus’ adoring fans. While The Guardian reduces these young fans to blind sheep following the ever-so-evil influence of “consumerism,” I, as a teenage girl, know better. These are girls trying to navigate their way through a culture in which everything they do, say, or care about is ridiculed. In the young beauty gurus of YouTube, these fans find girls “just like them” who are succeeding solely through their own merit. It’s a true self-made success story: Mota started with a camera in her bedroom, and has now landed a deal with a nationwide retailer.

While the most successful gurus often partner with global retailers and companies, these consumeristic influences were not what inspired the girls to begin making these videos. They began making these videos out of a pure love of beauty and fashion, not out of a passive submission to societal standards. Instead, they are now able to use the beauty industry to their advantage and play an active role within it. Thus, through these videos many girls have been able to manipulate the culture that tries to oppress them, becoming empowered in the process.

Finally, the piece completely ignores the sheer magnitude of Mota’s accomplishments. While it flippantly mentions the 40k-a-month paycheck Mota receives from the videos, the article intends for this number to be scoffed at, apparently insignificant because it came from YouTube beauty videos. What Mota and other gurus like her are doing is nothing short of astounding. These teenage girls are building empires at age 18 (and below!) and single-handedly setting themselves up for lives of financial stability by pursuing their passions.

Unfortunately, the YouTube beauty community is not without its flaws. Most (if not almost all) of the girls are white, conventionally attractive and come from extremely affluent backgrounds. It is misguided to teach young teenage girls that they are exactly like these gurus because chances are, they’re not. That being said, teenage girls finding inspiration in other teenage girls following their dreams, and doing it well, is everything but “bubbleheaded.” When the article remarks that “If you’re not a teenage girl, it’s not for you to get,” it proves its complete disapproval of teen girl culture. This profile is not some high-level cultural critique of “consumerism:” it’s blatant sexism. The piece finds itself among countless others, relentlessly mocking things that bring teenage girls joy. I applaud Bethany Mota, I applaud her followers, and I applaud teenage girls in general, for loving things fearlessly, whether it be makeup and fashion, or the countless other things teenage girls (as humans) choose to love.