My Manifesto?

As much as I knock social media, it's influence and existence is inescapable. I still use it way too much.

My friends would happily recount the experience in which they had to explain to me the basic functions, and I cannot fully remember just how long it took me to tag someone on facebook. I still don't understand what a hashtag is and have taken to saying it in real life conversations as a way to combat my ignorance: by being the first to laugh at it. I took a giant leap though, and for the first time wrote something without touching pen to paper, this post.

My response to long status updates and blog posts that start with "I'm sorry I haven't written in so long..." were, most often, WHO CARES?

Until I very recently realized many people did, and I was most decidedly one of them. Somewhere in the midst of my social needia rejection, I had become the very type of consumer I had once been confounded by. I was not only reading these overshares, I was actively seeking them out.

So this is what I am doing about it. In case you care.

There is a conversation about fashion taking place in the blogosphere. You might even argue that THE conversation about fashion is taking place in this very medium. A lot of what I see are people making a living out of wearing nice clothes.  Of course, this is a base analysis of everything that goes into making a blog.

But as a consumer, I am not always privy to all of this work. Instead I feel tired for a different reason. I am tired of giving these individuals who now line the front row at fashion week my attention just because they can actually afford the pieces coming down the runway. I don't want to congratulate them with my jealousy over their comprehensive collection of Alexander Wang and Celine bags.

I haven't decided what sort of format this blog will follow. I am not aiming to position myself as some sort of messiah of cheap clothing. I still lust. Big time. Yet this seems to be the cliche ending that I am heading towards.

My only intention is in some way to contribute to the current conversation. Fashion has been an important part of women's history and yet the rules around it -- who holds control, who is included, what enables someone to join "the club"-- has very much stayed the same.

We allow ourselves to be cast as 'those silly women (and men!) distracted by nice things' because we buy (no pun intended) into the belief that an interest in beautiful things equates to some basic character flaw. Most importantly, it insinuates a lack of depth. This disregard for the historical importance and relevance of an individual's chosen ensemble is disrespectful. In allowing these assumptions about our character to prevail, we ourselves perpetuate this idea that people who concern themselves with their look are petty or too simple to understand the complexities of our society.

Fashion has not always been the game of women. But fashion has been demoted and demeaned as something not to be taken seriously. Fashion has been smeared by being gendered.

Supposedly this weakens fashion. While some will take up the badge of slutdom, I will proudly announce, in the name of feminism, that I look at fashion blogs, and magazines. Sometimes I don't even read the words -- I just look at the pictures! This does not make me any less concerned with the state of the world, in the same way that reading a blog post on ForeignAffairs.com does not make someone Obama's next choice for Secretary of State.

I don't think I should complain anymore from the sidelines. I am getting up atop my anonymous-cyber soap box. While fashion for the lower budgeted shoppers is often about chance -- anyone who regularly hits the Goodwill will understand what I mean -- fashion is more importantly about confidence.

We herald individuals for their fashion forward exploits as long as everyone else is embarking on the same expensive retro-cyber-punk journey where a mere T-shirt can break the piggy bank.

I have been both intrigued and isolated by this herd mentality. I've heard that the miracle of the internet was its potential for democratization. I still look to many of these blogs in the same way that I do W magazine. Frankly I am friggin tired of feeling out of place because I did not spend four months rent on a purse.

So here is number one on the list. Shit I do while my cats are sleeping you ask? I rant.