Modelling: Viktoria Modesta Moskalova

Source. 

Disabled models - visible or hidden disability - are a rare sight on the catwalk, but what about a model who is not only open about her prosthesis, but fully embraces it?

Meet Viktoria Modesta Moskalova; this Latvian-born, London-based musician and model is in her words a literal 'bionic girl', wearing a prosthetic leg as the result of long term health problems. Rather than let this stop her from modelling, Viktoria makes it a key feature of her image, wearing Swarovski embellished and industrial-esque prosthetics in what is probably the most perfect 'fuck you' to the ableist nature of the modelling industry I've ever seen. If I had a girl crush, she would be it.

Source. 

Though her roots lie in London's underground fetish and alternative scene, Modesta has famously performed at the 2012 Paralympics closing ceremony, and has been featured in Bizarre, Skin Two, iD and Wonderland, as well as major newspapers such as the Times. As if that's not enough, she also DJs, hosts clubs, fashion events and collaborates with designers on both fashion and prosthetics, often producing a merging of the two. She represents a kind of frank and self-directed sexuality which is usually denied to disabled people, in her modelling - which she was involved in even before her amputation - as well as her own personal style and confidence.

Found on tumblr. 

Unlike the news articles which often talk of her 'overcoming adversity' she is relentlessly positive about her prosthesis, describing how it has 'added' to her and treating it as a fashion accessory, and believes her success "has been attributed to hard work and general determination in life – and not my limbs, real or not". She's also delighted to act as a conduit for the discussion of disabled beauty, however, though not personally identifying as such, stating of her performances, “It was really fascinating watching people’s reactions because most of them were speechless."


Though perhaps a future of widespread, voluntary body augmentation is still confined to science fiction, Modesta certainly challenges perceptions about disability and beauty.


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Fee

Skinny, White and Blogging

I want my blog to be successful. Pretending otherwise would be a lie - though I love writing for it, and I would continue to do so even if nobody read what I wrote, I do want an audience who responds and engages with me. Though it would be egotistic to pretend that I've 'made it', I've grown a little and earned regular commenters and followers who aren't just friends and family. I also love reading other blogs and interacting and supporting them - this community aspect is one of the reasons I stay blogging.

Increasingly I've found, however, that I'm uncomfortable with the lack of variety in most successful blogs. Though the alternative fashion community is significantly more balanced, most of the successful bloggers look the same, come from similar backgrounds and blog about the same lifestyles. Both Cora Harrington in her discussion of the 'documentary' The American Blogger and Nicolette Mason on how mainstream values impacts bloggers have described this, and it's making me increasingly uncomfortable. We are skinny, white and blogging.

March Blog Round Up

My photography even from last year is beginning to look terrible to me.
 Hopefully this is a sign of improvement, but a new image for round ups is in order.

Just a note for the coming month; my end of year exams are during April, so I may be out of action for the next few weeks. I've queued up posts however, so don't fret about a complete absence.

I've been finding a lot of interesting new blogs recently, and it shows in this most recent blog round up -

• First, some shameless plugging; there has been several changes around my blog recently, but one which may interest you is my new facebook page! As well as my blog posts, I post lots of snark and photos which I don't feature on here - it's terribly lonely, so please do come like it.
• For those who dream of shiny black and fetish inspired fashion, Aesthetic Contradiction has posted a guide to caring for latex clothing (pro tip - her own personal style is excellent too).
• Haute Macabre, purveyor of couture fashion for the darkly inclined, recently featured the work of photographer Kim Youngjun, which displays a contrast between vulnerable models and dangerous looking cyberpunk-esque head and back pieces.
• Elisa of Style Bizarre posted about laser cut clothing, featuring both designers and high street options; additionally, you can also order your own custom laser cut clothing, which is amazing.
• What really enthused me with regards to the recent IFB links a la mode was undoubtedly the abundance of articles looking at racism and cultural appropriation; FASHTASH breaks down examples of cultural appropriation of several items from South Asian culture by major designers, and The Curatorial posted a very well thought analysis of Walter Van Beirendonck's infamous 'Stop Racism' presentation.
• My current fashion inspiration is coming from Feeling Vague's outfit posts - I already own one pencil skirt, but I've got the taste for more after this t shirt and skirt combo.
• My favourite catwalk of Paris Fashion Week has to be the space/punk inspired (yes, you read that right) Jean Paul Gaultier collection. You can view the full collection here on the Daily Mail website, or if you have issues with giving them page views here on Fashion Gone Rouge (though the mail article does feature an elderly gent with a glorious hawk, not seen on FGR).

That's all for this month, and possibly next too - my exams are right at the end of April, which means a round up for that month is unlikely. Thanks for reading!



Fee



P.S. Apologies for the post that accidentally published itself today. It's been told off and warned not to try it again, and you'll see it next month instead.

Why do we always make fun of teenage girl's obsessions?

Source.

I don't like Justin Bieber. His voice seems out of tune to me, he has a long, long history of acting like an ass and, quite frankly, I don't really get the apparent heart throb appeal. Regardless, I won't mock his followers. Why?

Partially, because they are a force of nature to be reckoned with. But mainly because they have every right to like who they see fit. Equally, I won't mock Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga or One Direction, though their followers are just as obsessively passionate about their respective idol. Some of those artists have put their names behind good causes and have worked hard to get where they are, so regardless of what people think of them (or, indeed, if they are worthy of critique) they don't deserve the over the top scorn that's heaped on them.

You'll notice that all of the oft-mocked artists mentioned have a mainly female following, and I think that that displays a pretty significant degree of misogyny. We're always bringing down teenage girls for what they like, whether it be their love of fashion, their make up (god forbid they apply it a little too heavily or inexpertly!), their facebook posts or indeed their music tastes. We call them vapid and frivolous, accuse them of being petty and obsessive. The artists they like are all accused of being cheap sellouts which no self respecting person could appreciate. This doesn't happen with things teenage boys like, and ignores all the really fucking cool things teenage girls have done. 

I had an obsession. It didn't make me a bad person, and I don't regret one bit of it. Source.

But, you say, these things are ridiculous! How could anyone declare that they would die for Harry Styles when they've never even met him? Or actually enjoy Evanescence? Well, equally the things teenage boys like are ridiculous. Sports fans suspend all rules of social etiquette in the stands and base their entire lives around teams who don't give two shits about them. Call of Duty is a dick swinging rage fest filled with the bottom scrapings of the barrel. The obsession with getting a six pack is laughable. Let's move on.

Furthermore, teenage girls are going through a hell of a time (I would know. I was one). They are shifting from child to adult - both physically and mentally - and have to cope with new pressures from society, from parents and their peer group alike. The teenage years is when people learn to express themselves and find out their interests and passions. So what if they're rather enthusiastic about their support, or like the things that the pop industry spend billions marketing at them? They're already going through a hell of a time, and your mocking doesn't help.

One of the most important things I've learned through being both a feminist and being a goth is that an open mind is the most valuable thing anyone can own. I accept that, yes, some people think the way I look is horrendous and ugly as hell, and also that my particular vein of sex positive feminism isn't agreeable to others in the movement; that's the result of everyone being, you know - different people.

Equally, I can understand how teenage girls like what they do. Does their enthusiasm for boy bands sporting £500 haircuts make a serious negative impact on your life? No? I didn't think so.

So stop telling girls that they are horrible human beings for loving the things they do.



Fee

The Great Pregnancy Panic

Nope - before you ask, I'm not up the stick, nor am I currently worried about it. :P

I've heard from two separate people in the one week about how paranoid they are of pregnancy. Both are sex-positive, both supposedly well educated on sex and contraception. Hell, neither were sexually active, and even describing the scenarios it was obvious that there was no real risk of it.

It may seem comical to an outsider, but I can relate, having had similar, completely nonsensical late period panics (and by nonsensical, I mean 'have only just realised that boys aren't smelly antagonists). And they wear you out. I could probably count more people than I have fingers who I know have had the same worries. So why, with the massive shift that's taken place in attitudes to sex over the past century, do we still have this panic?

When I first got 'the talk' from my mum, she stressed how important it was to use both a barrier and a hormonal contraceptive method, saying how condoms can slip or break (protip: this doesn't happen if you put them on correctly). In sex ed at school, I was warned about all the STDs I could get through sex, and shown terrifying pictures that could probably have put you off sex for life. And on top of that, all media was telling me what fuck ups people who had the misfortune to have an accidental pregnancy or catch an STD are. As a result, the real question is 'why wouldn't I be terrified of sex?'.

We haven't changed enough in western society. Whilst we've relaxed our grip on how sexuality is expressed, we still have a lot of hang ups as a society about sex, and as a result we aren't educating minors properly about it. My sex education, though world class when compared to the abstinence approach of many schools in America, was quite frankly terrible. In my last sex ed class, I was essentially told "weeell, you don't have to wait for 'the one'... but it's absolutely the better thing to do". I was never told about the actual mechanics of sex, or to ask for consent, or what actually posed a pregnancy risk. I was never told where my fucking clitoris was, for christ's sake. At the same time, sex is treated as a integral part of life in popular culture and you're a prude if you don't have it. It's a thin line we are expecting people to walk, balancing the social desirability of sex with the stigma of when unintended consequences arise. Cliff over at The Pervocracy outlines it very well -

 'God we fuck up teenagers' heads.  We tell them that biological conditions are moral punishments and then we get all shocked when they don't practice rational risk management of biological conditions.  We teach them "sex is super desirable and all the cool kids do it, and it's hideously shameful and will destroy your life" and we wonder why they act an eensy bit neurotic about it.'

Pregnancy itself (and STDs too) is a scary thing, if you didn't plan it. Your body is being taken over by another force, changing beyond your control and betraying you. Why would you want to heap more blame on people for an accidental mistake? Assuming you are a normal person who doesn't believe that HIV is god's punishment on sodomites or that it's tough luck for teenage pregnancies, you're probably wondering what can we do to break this system, and there are answers - 

• Increase access and awareness of different contraception types. Both of the people mentioned above didn't take the pill for various reasons ('fucking up my hormones' being a common one), but there are so many different contraceptive methods that are possible. This list by Scarleteen details all the options available, and helps you decide what suits you.
• Educate on actual pregnancy risks. Again, Scarleteen has a list of all the comparable risks associated with different sexual activities. 
• Remove stigma of STIs and accidental pregnancy, and their testing. Even with education accidents are going to happen - so stop showing the horror stories and photos, for Christ's sake, because there is no way when teenagers first become sexually active they will recognize what STIs actually look like, and they will be too embarrassed to seek medical help if they do.
• Improve access to abortion. I understand some religious readers might disagree with this on principle, but an abortion is never something a woman wants to get. If we stop shaming people who need abortions (which includes medically necessary ones, fyi!) we will reduce the terror experienced by teenagers when they or their partner's period is a few days off. 
• Stop telling all the 'I didn't know I was pregnant until I gave birth' stories. Seriously. That isn't going to help anyone frantically looking up stuff on the web.

Sex is fun. My mum only mentioned this as an afterthought when she saw how horrified I was after she first warned me about the risks. Maybe if we stopped making sex such a big deal, we could actually just get on with enjoying it, aware and safe.



Fee



P.s. Looking back over this post, it actually turned out far more like Cliff Pervocracy's post on the same subject than I would have intended or have hoped for, so apologies for the accidental cross over.

Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson: Domestic Abuse in the News

- TRIGGER WARNING: DISCUSSION OF DOMESTIC ABUSE -