"Please explain why you're a feminist in 10 words or less. Preferably less. Like 3."

Sadly, no. My flat hair did not make the cover.

Last Sunday, my interview in The Observer Woman came out.

When this happened, I was over the Pacific, America, Canada, Greenland, or the Atlantic, so I didn't get to do that exciting thing of going into the shop, buying it, ripping it open and fumbling through the pages until I see my big fat head in print and squeal, "OH MY GOD I LOOK HUGE."

No, I had to do that at my desk at work the next morning because a lovely bunch of folks went out and bought me like 343 copies. Thank you, I heart you.

Now, I've been contemplating writing about what I really think about all this because I hate it when people bitch about good opportunities that come their way. Like, "Yeah, sure I was on Oprah. But she was sort of rude and, well, I didn't like how her stylist did my hair. And the bagels in my dressing room sucked. I'm seriously never going on there again. Even if she fucking begged me. Pshaw." But I felt like it would be very unlike myself to not bite the hand that feeds me, or to bitch about something that should ultimately be a positive experience. So, here is my BEHIND THE SCENES TELL ALL story of what I think.

Before I bitch, let me just say that I'm truly thankful and honoured to be interviewed, and to even been considered one of the "new feminists". Having a tape recorder shoved in my face and being blinded by those giant umbrella lights was one of the coolest experiences of my life.

...And that is why I'm so disappointed by how it turned out.

See? There I am. The big girl in the back.

5 comments

Firstly, contrary to what some may have alluded to, no we did not have makeovers. Are you joking? Do you SEE my hair? Does that look like I had someone do my hair? There was a makeup lady there, although they told us there wouldn't be, so I had some hot chick at MAC do my makeup before I got there.

There wasn't a stylist, so no, they didn't dress us in the new Topshop line. We dressed ourselves. I assume this is either due to a tiny budget for the lowly feminsts, and/or they didn't want to insult our feminist values. Personally, if they had said, "We want to put you in this Vivienne Westwood gown and put 388lbs of makeup and hairspray on you, would that be cool?" I would have high fived them and let them do whatever. MY GOD I'M GOING TO BE IN A MAGAZINE, MAKE ME LOOK LIKE A STAR. (How non-feminist of me, I know. Whatever. Suck it.)

I'm not sure why we look like a Dove ad or a Feminism Club high school yearbook photo, but I'm pretty sure I look better in spontaneous, drunken photos that are on Facebook, than I do in this professional photo.

Secondly, no, no, NO we were not told our highly intelligent, witty, disgustingly brilliant answers would be reduced to  tiny sound bites displayed in a ridiculous chart.

Look! A feminism grid!

4 comments

Besides the fact that it looks like my boob is resting on the fabulous Jess McCabe's head, and that the art direction seems to imply that they're hiding the fact that I'm really 300lbs and are concealing my massive body behind everybody else - what I'm most frustrated with is the fact that I was horribly misquoted.

From what I've heard, most of the girls were misquoted. If it were the odd word here or there, that wouldn't really bother me. It's a magazine, I except it. (And as Gemma says, "Once you've been misquoted you know you've made it!") But not only were the answers I used for one question, used for another, but the quotes were just like lazy, thrown together regurgitations of what I said. This is even more concerning as my interview lasted at least a half hour, and was bloody tape recorded. If you can't read the interview in the scan above, our answers are all online HERE.

How did you become a feminist?
"...So I started Cupcate, which brings together female-orientated blogs."

Are men necessary?

"Of course! Though not George Bush."

Second page of 'The Grid'

When have I ever made a George Bush joke? Let's be real. First, that was not my answer. Secondly, the only time I can remember saying 'George Bush' was when she asked me the question "Which men in the public eye do you dislike?" and I laughed and said, "How many people so far have said 'George Bush'."

Can you be a feminist and go to a lap-dancing club?

"I'm not interested in good feminists and bad feminists. I can do whatever I want so long as I'm aware of why I'm doing it. The important thing is to make informed decisions."

I don't remember saying, "I'm not interested in good or bad feminists..." nor do I say things like "so long as". I think that was the jist of my point, but I didn't think interviews were summaries of what you said.

There have been a ton of criticism over this "feature" by a lot of different women online, however, the most heated comes from The Observer Woman Makes Me Spit blog (go figure):

What made us spit is that when OWM finally got around to discussing feminist ideas, they do so by reducing them to vacuous soundbites in response to brainless questions. It is hard to imagine a format less likely to produce revealing, informative, thought-provoking, persuasive or intelligent analysis.

Meanwhile the neighbouring feature on the New Misogynists was about 3,000 words long, featuring in depth interviews that gave you a real insight into the (ugly) minds of the subjects, lovingly portrayed as dashing rogues. If you can honestly see nothing worthy of mockery and ridicule there, then you should probably just move along.

Amen. What I find the most comforting is that not one person mocked the nine women interviewed. I'm just thankful that everyone has given us the benefit of doubt, and placed blame on the OW.

It's just sad that the young! hot! feminists! of today were given a shot to really sound off (as best as we could) on why feminism is still necessary - and instead we got asked, "DO women really need men like a fish needs a bicycle afterall?"

Ah well. As far as I'm concerned, it's still good publicity. Fuck, we were all in a magazine. That's pretty amazing. I mean, before this, I was in the Laguna Citizen because I was Little Red in my high school's production of Into The Woods. That's a bit of a jump.

Plus, this gives any other major magazines *cough*BUST*cough* and newspapers *cough*THE NEW YORK TIMES*cough* a chance to give us hot, young, feminists of today a chance to speak in full sentences of ten words or more.