If you make one New Year's resolution this year...then maybe stop the hate?
Photo by Ethan Hoover on Unsplash
I'm going to do something a little different for my first post of each month this year and write about an issue that's been on my mind and got my little brain whirring.
After starting this blog back in November I've been thinking a lot about how I might be perceived by others and how I could be stigmatised for what I write about; fashion, beauty and lifestyle, which are primarily viewed as fairly 'shallow' topics.
I recently read an article in a magazine in which a teenage girl had written in to say that her peers at school were making her feel thick just because she was interested in fashion. It's safe to say the reply the article offered was exactly my reaction; it's outrageous that a young girl should be made to feel that way simply due to her interests, whatever they may be.
Assuming that you're reading this blog because you're interested in fashion and the like, I imagine you're feeling the same sort of despair as I am, yet I think unfortunately we're up against quite a common opinion. If girls or women are interested in fashion and beauty they are seen as shallow and yes, often perceived as 'thick'.
I recently read an article in a magazine in which a teenage girl had written in to say that her peers at school were making her feel thick just because she was interested in fashion. It's safe to say the reply the article offered was exactly my reaction; it's outrageous that a young girl should be made to feel that way simply due to her interests, whatever they may be.
This is an issue I hadn't really given much thought to until I read the article, but it's evidently quite a big one and I think it's even partly the reason why it took me so long to start this blog. I didn't want people's perceptions of me to change and in fact I haven't even let anyone read it yet who isn't just a stranger on the internet stumbling across it (thank you guys and big love if you are reading, pls don't take the stranger on the internet thing as an insult, I'm sure you're lovely).
Nobody should be made to feel bad because of their interests and hobbies. Fashion and beauty hasn't got anything to do with being shallow; it's a creative outlet that people just don't seem to be taking seriously yet. But when you think about it, pretty much every hobby has a stigma attached to it; if I was writing a blog about science I would just as quickly be branded 'a geek' or if I was writing a blog about politics I'm sure I'd be labelled 'opinionated'.
Why do we even have to attach any sort of negative connotations to things people enjoy just because we might not enjoy doing those particular things so much ourselves?
That girl's letter shows us that there is a long way to go before fashion is considered as a legitimate hobby and creative interest rather than something to be sneered at. I for one, however, am going to keep on doing what I enjoy and I most certainly won't discriminate against anyone who has contrasting interests to my own because it's just bloody nice to be nice isn't it?
Amy x
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