Anna Walker Writes

| annawalkerportfolio.wordpress.com & annalouiseblogs.blogspot.com | @anna__walker

[theparallelmag]

Parallel is a new quarterly women’s magazine that focuses on life through a feminist lens. The title is a play on the idea that feminism and modern popular culture are currently running parallel to one another; the two things need to intersect and combine. And that’s exactly what we plan to do. 

Our magazine covers subjects regarding race, gender, sexuality, age, liberation, women’s rights, activism, disability, and more, all tied up together in an aesthetically pleasing, contemporary women’s magazine.We subvert the format of ordinary celebrity or fashion magazines to highlight key issues in today’s world. We interview and talk to influential women about their opinions, highlight key feminist community groups that you could get involved in, and review, discuss, and critique women’s role in the media. Parallel Magazine spotlights achievements outside of fashion and beauty, talks about community and activism and how you, as a woman, can make a change to the world around you. It focuses on everything from art to pop culture to history – all through the viewpoint of a modern young feminist.

Liberating, and empowering, Parallel talks about activism and achievements. It features strong women who are really making a difference in this world. 

We’re halfway through the year and so Parallel is holding a giveaway! 

To win you need to be following us on Tumblr, and you need to reblog this post (likes don’t count!) You can reblog as many times as you like. You can win:

A year’s subscription - you will be sent issue 1 & 2 immediately, then issue 3 & 4 as and when they are released.

Tote bag

“Unashamedly feminist” badge

Stickers

Post card

“Unashamedly feminist” bookmark

A5 prints from issue 1

A selection of zines made by the Parallel staff.

Deadline is Tuesday 30th of June, midnight GMT! 

If you just can’t wait or don’t want to risk it, whilst this giveaway is running we’ll also have 10% off all of our products with the code GIVEAWAY10. Check out our website here! 

Facebook | Twitter | Website

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Amen 

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I Have A Confession.

I have a confession. I have watched Kim Kardashian’s sex tape.

Having always found the star attractive, and having watched other aspects of her life unfold very publically on ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’, I saw no issue with what I was doing. In fact, I barely even paused to consider my actions. The life of a Kardashian seemed to be public property, and in watching the sex tape I contributed to a culture that saw her body and sexuality as public property too. I now see that watching that video was wrong. In clicking play I contributed to the distribution of private and incredibly intimate footage – a form of sexual abuse nobody should ever be subjected to.

This morning, over 100 women working in the public spotlight, awoke to news that their most private photos had been leaked, and shared with thousands online. We’ve all heard the names, from Jennifer Lawrence to Ariana Grande, the list seems endless, and what’s more, it’s packed with incredibly young women – Grande for example, has just turned 21. To imagine these women’s feelings, hearing this news, makes me feel ashamed for ever partaking in this cycle.

What this leak does, is serve to remind us all of the time old rule that women’s bodies are freely available for public consumption. There is a reason that Ryan Gosling or Channing Tatum didn’t make the cut. To view these images, even if you claim to still respect, or admire these women, is an act of sexual invasion.  Blaming these women for taking the photos in the first place is an even greater offense, tantamount for blaming the length of a skirt, number of drinks or depth of a neckline for a sexual attack. These were photos privately exchanged, even deleted in some cases – they were never intended for public consumption. To say they simply shouldn’t have taken the photo, is pure victim blaming.

Clearly the hacking of these photos not only comments on our cultural attitude towards women and their sexuality. Last week Sony had their servers hacked – this week it’s Apple’s turn. Perhaps in targeting these famous women, in hacking media they know will be widely shared and in turn commented on by the press, what hackers hope to achieve is recognition for the power they can wield over systems that purport to securely conceal our data. There is clearly here an argument to be had on the safety and privacy of such data. Whatever the intention however, the victims of the attack are comment in themselves on societal views towards young women and their bodies. That these images have been treated as trophies of a successful, or even funny hack, is particularly distasteful.   

As a young woman myself, what scares me most about this hacking scandal is the comment it makes on the relationship of the public to my own body and sexuality. The celebrity photos leaked were mainly selfies, stored on personal phones or email accounts – images taken by the subject, and kept in their own possession. These photographs were an assertion of a woman’s personal ownership of her body. To choose this particular set of images then, as the product to distribute to the browsers of careless Googlers across the web is a clear statement. A statement that says a female act of ownership, of empowerment, of self-possession of her sexuality, will always meet its comeuppance. For daring to make herself a subject, she will forcibly be made an object.  

The best way to stop these images being shared, to stop these hackers working their seedy games, is to simply stop clicking. When your finger twitches towards the mouse, dissect your impulse. Shut your laptop lid, walk away. Be part of a movement that tells these women that you respect their privacy along with their bodies and that their sexuality is theirs, and theirs alone to express.

       (Photograph - 

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh.

Photography by Graff Hunter.

Martin Luther King Blvd in Oakland, Ca)

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[oonachaplinsarchive-deactivated]

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Electra Heart 

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Lisa is my role model 

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Missing these two 

Ovaries Before Brovaries 

[monsterpawsandbearclaws]

[cactuseeds]

I'm 16 and I don't shave my legs (by my choice) and I want to wear a skirt to school tomorrow but I'm scared I'll get bullied. Advice?

GIRL

WEAR THAT SKIRT

WORK THAT SKIRT

STROKE YOUR LEG HAIR SEDUCTIVELY 

ANYONE WHO SAYS YOU ARE LESS THAN FABULOUS IS INTIMIDATED BY YOUR UNIQUENESS AND CONFIDENCE

ANYONE WHO GIVES YOU A FUNNY LOOK IS AFRAID OF ANYTHING THAT DOESN’T ADHERE TO SOCIAL NORMS

DO IT FOR THE WOMEN WHO FOUGHT FOR THEIR RIGHT TO VOTE

DO IT FOR THE WOMEN WHO FOUGHT FOR THEIR RIGHT TO OWN PROPERTY

DO IT FOR THE WOMEN WHO BURNT THEIR BRAS SO YOU COULD WEAR A SKIRT WITHOUT HAVING TO SHAVE YOUR LEGS

YOU ARE A HUMAN, NOT JUST A GIRL WHO SHOULD BE PRETTY AND SHINY AND SQUEAKY CLEAN AND HAIRLESS

YOU ARE ENTITLED TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH YOUR LEG HAIR

YOU GO GLEN COCO

[herekitty]

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Moomins on the Riviera 

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The English language Moomins on the Riviera trailer is finally here! They may have gotten the voices all wrong but I'm sooo excited :D 

[halfagony-halfhope]

Inspired by this and this

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10 points if you spot me...

[scavengedluxury]

University of East Anglia, Norwich. From the JR James collection. Viddy well.

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Very jealous of all the new freshers preparing to start life in my beautiful concrete jungle. 

[ohgoshcindy]

The saddest man

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'Song'

"The bridle-path, the river bank, and where they crossed I took a length of hazel bark, and carved a boat no bigger than a fish, a trout, and set it down and saw it float, then sink. And where it sank an inch of silver flesh declared itself against the sun. Then it was gone.

And further south, beyond the bridge, I took a nest of cotton grass and flint to make a fire. Then I watched a thread of smoke unhook a pair of seed propellers from a sycamore which turned together and became a dragonfly that drew the smoke downstream. But the fire would not light.

Then at night, the house at the mouth of the river. Inside, a fish, a trout, the ounces of its soft smoked meat prepared and on a plate. I sat down there and ate. It is the way of things, the taking shape of things, beginning with their names; secrets told in acts of sunlight, promises kept by gifts of rain."

-Simon Armitage 

From the collection, 'Kid'