Tavi Gevinson, 16 better known as the blogger behind “Style Rookie”, has in a few short years and at a remarkably young age, demonstrated a lot of how new media is changing the landscape of personal influence and democratizing fashion. Most recently her focus has shifted from fashion commentary, experimentation and satire to a feminist interpretation of the industry and pop culture (and her own growing pains). She is very articulate and thoughtful: “Personal beliefs change as you change as a person, but because feminism is a conversation and a process, and not rule book and leads the way for those beliefs to change, I know that I will always agree with the basic principles, so that’s why I feel I can safely say this isn’t a teen angst phase.” She started her blog, Style Rookie in March 2008 in Chicago at the age of 11. Her sharp, quip-y commentary and experiments with personal style (a more cerebral vs. consumerist approach to fashion) quickly garnered her blog international attention. She has used the momentum from her blog to diversify into other media, such as speaking at conferences, films, and modeling. Most importantly, and relevantly, she has founded Rookie.
Rookie is an online site targeted at Tavi’s age demographic, and its content is “part life-guide, part conversation, part rebellion. “(Amed) Gevinson has said that remaining independent and having control, as editor-in-chief is essential to her vision. She says about the content, “Friendships and relationships; and family; and experiences with mental illness and sexual harassment; I don’t think those are particularly American things. The girls that are reading it who don’t live in the US, their tastes are already not specific to wherever they are from. They’ve developed it from pictures on Tumblr or movies that have been easier to watch because of the internet. I don’t really think of my tastes as very specifically American because it just comes from images that I’ve seen online.” The content is curated around a conceptual theme (this month’s is Transformation) and includes music, art and other cultural expression. The articles facilitate a real conversation with readers about puberty, gender expectations, beauty, tough life experiences etc. Gevinson has rejected the easy fame and success of a fashion blogger in favor of cultivating her voice/a real voice for girls in media, and caters to the realer experiences and nuances of young women.
Rookie is necessary for reinvigorating feminist rebuttals to the misogyny imposed upon women at younger and younger ages. Adolescents are new and inexperienced consumers. They are in the process of learning their values and roles and developing their self-concepts (Kilbourne) Gevinson recognizes that young girls are vulnerable, but are also incredibly complicated and are tired of the harmful images and messages they are inundated with in mainstream media. It can be hard to stand up straight in a crooked room.(Harris-Perry)By basically creating a Seventeen-with-substance, she harks back to zine culture, DIY and countercultural art & media, while still keeping her project accessible and relatable. The voice and content can hopefully invigorate young girls thinking about intersectionality, patriarchy, where they fit into our culture, and how to change the status quo. Contemporary media representations of glamor, beauty and femininity are aspirational, and fantastical at best and alienating and demeaning at worst. They give us continual guidance about how we can best fulfill the patriarchal gender roles that we are assigned as children. (Hooks) Girls don’t have to subscribe to them! But they also don't have to feel displaced or maladjusted: there is plenty of other material, and plenty of other young, smart women out there sympathizing with one another and empowering each other.
Gevinson’s exploration of femininity within the mainstream context of fashion (and subsequent departure from that as her sole focus) to an attempt at making a relate-able, inclusive conversation with her peers is exciting! Gevinson joins girls in trying to make sense of the contradictory expectations of themselves in a culture dominated by oppressive gender roles. (Kilbourne) She has the cultural capital to pull it off, and I’m really interested in seeing her evolve, and contribute to a change in the way girls see themselves.
Her T.E.D.xTeen talk (it's short)
Citations:
Amed, Imram. "The Business of Blogging: Tavi Gevinson." Business of Fashion. 24 April 2012: n. page. Web. 27 Apr. 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment