FEMINIST FRIDAY: I Can’t Keep “Quiet” & “Pretty Big Movement” Destroying Dance Stereotypes

Hello Friday, we’ve been waiting for you and now you are here! We love ending the week with our Feminist Friday series, where we get to share the videos we have been crushing over the past week. Today we have three badass videos that will be sure to get you into an empowered state of mind.

The first is a TED Talk from Sandi Toksvig, who helped form the Women’s Equality political party in the UK. We are seeing the rise of feminism and feminist-driven policies and parties across Europe, with the WEP as well as the Feminist Initiative in Sweden and Norway.

The Women’s Equality Party put specific emphasis on issues such as paid family leave and women’s healthcare and help the public understand them as economic issues also. In her TED Talk, Sandi talks about the vital importance of having more women in government leadership, helping to bring women’s issues to the forefront in a way that doesn’t diminish them but brings them into the greater socio-economic conversation. She also talks about her hopes that other countries will follow the party’s model in recreating their own equality party.

The second video will shatter every preconceived stereotype you may harbor about plus size women and the correlation between body size, health and fitness. As the body positive movement continues to grow, there is still a lot of push-back against the idea that a woman who chooses not to conform to the narrow societal ideal can in no way be considered “healthy”.

Dancer Akira Armstrong is a plus size dancer who has appeared in 2 Beyonce music videos. You’d think she’d have her career opportunities sewn up with a resume credit like that. Sadly, in the video below, she says no agent was willing to represent her because of her size.

She knew she wanted to change the narrative around what a dancer is “supposed” to look like, and started her own dance company filled entirely with plus size dancers. As the description on the Youtube video created by ‘The Scene’ says, “Pretty Big Movement is destroying dancer stereotypes, one routine at a time.”

Show this video to anyone who claims plus size or fat women don’t have the ability to move their body like a size zero woman. We dare you!

The final video is something super special to us. For those who took part in the global Women’s Marches on Saturday, January 21st, the day after Donald Trump was officially inaugurated, and even if you didn’t march but kept up with what was happening on social media, you may have already seen this performance.

There are estimates of more than 3 million people marching in more than 600 locations across the world, for an event which was initially only expected to happen in Washington D.C. Literally hundreds of thousands of men, women and children took to the streets to make a bold statement that they do not support the hate and fear-mongering being peddled by Donald Trump, his administration, and the Republican party. It is now considered to be the largest march in US history, which should say something about what people in America, and across the world, think about a man who literally insulted and lied his way to the White House.

During the Washington D.C event, a group of women were filmed by an fellow marcher as they sung an a cappella version of a song written by Los Angeles-based artist MILCK. The song is called ‘Quiet’, and Los Angeles award-winning filmmaker Alma Har’el who happened to come across these women in D.C, started filming their performance and uploaded it to social media.

It went viral. Buzzfeed called it the “unofficial anthem of the Women’s March”. A quick search on Youtube and we were able to find the original music video, where MILCK explains the story behind the song.

“As a survivor of anorexia, abuse, and depression, I can say that I have let the overwhelming pressures of filling media/society’s expectations of “how a woman should be” overwhelm and silence my inner voices – without even realizing I was doing it. Until… I just couldn’t breathe anymore. As I live more days on this planet now, I can say with full confidence that there are no standards or rules worth crushing our soul bones to fit into. Life gets better when we just… let it out,” she wrote.

You can buy and download the track on Bandcamp, and visit the website to learn about the movement, but most importantly, share the song with the people in your life who are looking for a song that can uplift them and remind them of how powerful they are, even when reality looks bleak and the world is against them. We decided to share both Alma Har’el’s march video and the ‘Quiet’ music video below because they are both stunning and will leave you will a full heart.


 

 

 

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