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Brafire of the vanities

Can vanity and feminism live in harmony?

By Natalie Serafini, Opinions Editor

Pom it refers to

a modern feminist, a feminist hipster, or a feminist barista, depending on your interpretation. I myself use

the term in a vain attempt to defend my vanity (feminist

+ fashionista—get it?). I find that as a woman, I like to look good, at the very least to avoid frightening young children in the streets. Simultaneously, I find that as a feminist, I feel I’m betraying my radical sisters anytime I whip out my mascara wand.

As much as I abhor the fact that there’s a physical standard to which women must hold themselves, I’ve still been raised surrounded by the image of a very specific kind of woman: the busty, blonde, small-waisted, tan-skinned, big-eyed, pouty- lipped urban Amazon (yes, I’ve just described Barbie). To take a peek at my staff picture is to realize that I, Natalie Serafini, could not adopt the Barbie- aesthetic without some extreme plastic surgery.

So although I’m aware that it’s physically impossible for me

to be a glamazon (and let me be clear, it’s not something I want to pursue—it seems exhausting), I haven’t been immune to society’s concept of hegemonic beauty. I was more enthusiastic about pursuing traditional beauty in my youth—however unskillfully or unsuccessfully— but I can’t say I’m unaware of the Rosie Huntington-Whitleys of the world today.

I’m not as aggressive as I could be in the moulding of my appearance. I no longer actively pursue skin cancer through exposure to sunlight and the cultivation of a tan: I've waved that white flag and surrendered to the fact that I’m Pale4Life. Still, I spend a substantial amount of time applying makeup, damaging my hair into some form of submission, and working on getting a lithe figure.

I don’t think all this time and energy spent on appearance is good, but I don’t think my vanity detracts from me as a feminist, either. It certainly wouldn't make me less of a woman if I chose to denounce my preening and polishing—I have the parts to prove it.

Besides which, I like to see an aspect of feminism as questioning the idea that women are mono-faceted. I’m friends with plenty of women who challenge the assertion that women can only be smart or beautiful, but never both;

why shouldn’t contemporary feminists call into question the idea that feminists cannot be vain? I know that it would be easier to let my face, hair, and body go, but it’s frankly not a look that I could pull off.

The problem is not so much the fact that I, as a feminist, care about my appearance. It’s the fact that, as a woman, there’s a limit to what I can accept about myself and still be considered attractive. These ideas of beauty change all the time—just in the last hundred years, we’ve experienced bodacious curves, boyish frames, fitness mania, and heroin chic—but they act as a girdle, cinching in the parts that would otherwise flow freely and naturally. That’s what the battle should be: not the pursuit of beauty, but the representation of only one, very limiting, form of beauty.

There’s something to be said about challenging the hegemonic image of beauty, if not denouncing it entirely. Especially when what is considered beautiful is impossible for many or seriously damaging physically, mentally, and emotionally, there’s a huge problem. Like the understanding that skinny is the only kind of acceptable beauty: I eat healthily the majority of the time and I work out (almost) regularly, but I like to eat, and I’d like to see the person that’s going to take away my cake.

What's an apology anymore?

Meaningless apologies are on the rise

By Grant Crossley, Contributor

erriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary defines an apology as:

1. A formal justification

2. An admission of error or discourtesy accompanied by an expression of regret

3. A poor substitute

Have you noticed that there are a lot of people apologizing lately? Take a look at the newspaper or a TV newscast and you’re bound to find an apology: the government recently apologized for the loss of student loan files; back in

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November, the Bank of Montreal apologized for an outage that shut down their system, leaving customers in the dark; in January, TReO, the company in charge of the Port Mann Bridge, apologized for not having the roads salted enough during some cold weather. Do any of these apologies make you feel any better? Well, they don’t make me feel better, and I’ve had it.

Let's look at the flip side: take the government of Canada, for instance. Pretend that ] owed the government some money on my taxes. What do you think would happen if I lost my tax forms? Would I] be allowed to just phone up 1-800-O-CANADA and offer an apology? The answer I would get is, “Sorry Sir, you still owe us.”

Let’s say I went to the bank

and told them that I forgot to pay my student line of credit. Once again, I might offer an apology, yet I'd be dinged with—you guessed it—a penalty.

Pretend that I accidentally crossed the Port Mann Bridge: perhaps I was in the far lane, and traffic was so bad that I couldn’t get over to my exit. Maybe I wasn’t used to the new signs, or maybe | was changing the radio station. I might contact TReO and apologize for crossing the bridge so they could waive the fee, but guess what: they wouldn't really care, and I'd still be stuck paying the toll.

So what gives? Why am I supposed to willingly accept apologies with no financial gain, yet when the tables are turned | get penalized? Does this make any sense whatsoever?

I think we have a

I’m Italian, and my ethnicity is as clear as the nose on my face. Do I care about my Italian nose? No. Especially not when being Italian is part and parcel to amazing food.

Limiting concepts of what people can and can’t be are completely unrealistic. We're generally multifaceted, and trying to compress ourselves to

fundamental issue with the definition of an apology. We need to get down to the root of what it means, although this may have already been done. | typed the word “apologies” into Academic Search Complete and it came up with 879 results, 610 of which were peer reviewed.

If, as in the dictionary, it really is an admission of error, then these mistakes should never happen again. The problem is that they do: the government will lose files again, BMO will have a system glitch again, and TReO will find another defect on the Port Mann Bridge. How many apologies are the public going to accept before something changes?

I don’t know about you, but apologies don’t mean anything to me anymore. If you make a mistake with me, you’d better bring your wallet. The

slip into the one-dimensional mould will oftentimes be an unsuccessful endeavour. The problem here is that beauty is only represented in one form, and women attempt to flatten themselves to fit that mould. Being a feminista is not an oxymoron, and to think that it is ignores what the real problem is.

fact that I have to pay for my mistakes means that everybody else should, as well. Once I stop getting charged, and start having my apologies accepted, I may change my mind. But I don’t see this happening for a very long time.

I will now offer my apologies for you reading this article and realizing that you’ve been taken for a fool by big businesses and the government. Try giving them a taste of their own medicine, that phone will hang up pretty quickly—trust me, I've tried it.

PS: Don’t forget to vote in May: we need a new government and a whole new set of apologies for not doing what was promised.