Spotlight on Mimi Nguyen

A few weeks ago I got back in touch with Mimi Nguyen, a former pen-pal of mine from the 90's grrl-zine days. After hearing from her at work I googled her and found out that she has taught a course on fashion and feminism that sounds interesting. We've since been corresponding a bit and she sent me a link to her blog, threadbared, which I've been reading this week and has made me feel less crazy.

About a year ago I went on an anti-fashion feminist tirade that was ultimately productive but led to a lot of hurt feelings and difficult conversations with some younger women in my community who felt insulted by my emotional spiel against something meaningful to them. Looking back, part of that was related to turning 40 and starting to feel alienated from youth culture yet still being totally immersed in it as a musician and an aging punk rocker.

I've calmed down a lot since then and even taken to reading the occasional fashion blog. Still, the "feminist" writing I have seen on fashion does not reflect the kind of analysis or complexity that I am looking for. I want to see writing about sweatshops. I'm sick of seeing the "feminist" orientalist trope of "the veil" as a symbol of oppression contrasted with fashion as a celebration of "freedom" practiced by western women. I want this discussion to go beyond the individualism that equates style with personal choice and personal choice with feminism, so therefore style=feminism. Mediocre "feminist" magazines, women-owned businesses and fashion shows that encourage consumerism are way too compatible with the insidious post-90's DIY boutique-y "hipster" "indie" culture that facilitates gentrification, fosters niche-marketing and lacks a radical political agenda.

This frustration is not just about being dissatisfied with feminism-as-fashion or not being able to find a fashion blog I can relate to on a personal level. It's about wanting to be a part of a truly radical anti-capitalist feminist movement and not seeing this happening in my community. I keep thinking that maybe if I keep looking I will find it, that perhaps I am more isolated than I realize as I get older here in Olympia, which is a college town filled with an ever migratory population of young/ish adults who call each other "kids". I want an economic analysis. I want to see post-colonial theory become more accessible. I want punk rock feminism to evolve and address racism, imperialism, empire and war.

Anyhow, reading threadbared this week as well as the new issue of make/shift, I finally feel like there is a glimmer of hope!

From their bio:

We are two clotheshorse academics who write, teach, and speak about the politics of fashion and beauty.

Minh-Ha T. Pham, based in New York City and San Francisco, shops sample sales with a keen and discerning eye. She writes about the ways in which national publics and polities are organized around traditional and new media that are increasingly shaped and limited by neoliberal discourses and policies. Focusing on the fashion media and the Vietnamese American media, both her projects are concerned with the complex and contradictory relations of communication technologies, consumerism, and capitalism.

Mimi Thi Nguyen, based outside of Chicago, scours thrift and vintage stores with reckless abandon. Situating her scholarly work within transnational feminist cultural studies, she writes about neoliberalism and humanitarianism, war and empire. A former zinester, Punk Planet columnist and Maximumrocknroll shitworker, she has also published on punk and queer subcultures.

In addition to writing fanzines (Aim Your Dick and Evolution of a Race Riot) Mimi Nguyen is also a former columnist for Punk Planet and has created an archival blog of her writing called Thread and Circuits.

Today she posted her own piece on Race & Riot Grrl, which you should totally read, especially in light of yesterday's post.

What is feminism?

"Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression."

-bell hooks, Feminist Theory from Margin to Center

When people ask me what feminism is, I often use this definition.

Naturally it brings up additional questions, such as "What is sexism?","What is the difference between sexism and sexist exploition? How is oppression defined?" I think that is good. When people have definitions that force them to think critically and ask questions, they seek out more information, which encourages them to interrogate their own assumptions, do research and have conversations.

I also like that this quote defines feminism as a movement rather than a lifestyle. It clarifies that some kind of action must be taken in order to be a feminist. Feminism is not as simple as claiming an identity or set of values or life-style choices. Feminism is about taking part in a political movement with a clear aim.

When people ask me what it means to be a feminist (usually guys ask this) I re-frame the question by talking about what feminism is, because "being a feminist" implies individuality and feminism implies participating in a group. Anytime the focus is on "being" it sounds passive and feminism is not passive. It is rooted in action, or as bell hooks says, movement.

I want to acknowledge that claiming a political identity can be a strategic action, but if we are being strategic then we should focus on what it is that we want to happen. A political identity is not an end-in-itself, it is a basis for solidarity.

When people ask me to define riot grrl I try to discuss the actions and strategies that were utilized and frame my answer in a way that restates our goal, which was to challenge patriarchal gender constructions by creating a decentralized, participatory, feminist culture of resistance.

In other words, the goal was to change the world.

But really, bell hooks says it best:

"Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression."

riot grrl was a small part of that larger movement.