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Bus “Tour” of Nancy and Quotidian Things: France Vlog 2

What I’ve been up to in the month of January, including cat sitting, bus tours of small towns, and debating in French.

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Cindy ChenJanuary 23, 2017June 28, 2017Nancy, TAPIF, Vlog

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Her name is Wilhelmina. She is beautiful. She is brilliant. - About a month ago, I visited the Andy Warhol Museum and this is the exhibit that I still find myself thinking about today. "Ladies and Gentlemen" is a reclamation of queerness, a proclamation of beauty, and a statement that the human spirit cannot be stifled. #lgbtq #trans #queer #art #latergram

Ok. Let's real talk for a second. Ever since I can remember, I've had a tenuous relationship with fashion, dressing up, and make up. I've always hated getting attention for things I considered to be superficial. Those who see me on the day-to-day probably know I tend to dress down, forgo makeup, and steer conversations towards whatever my current curiosities are. I want people to see me for me, my brain, my personality. Recently I've come to realize my aversion to owning my own body and my disbelief that beauty and intellectual character are inherently compatible are the products of patriarchy, misogyny, and commodification. We live in a world where womxn are expected to maintain certain beauty standards, but are then criticized for trying too hard, being too vapid, or inciting the wrong type of attention. In spite of this cognitive dissonance, we continue to capitalize the femme and society buys into it--countless products and services targeted for women to make them feel more beautiful. It feels like an endless feedback loop. When it comes to physical appearance it's no wonder I feel damned if I do, damned if I don't. In some ways, it's because of all this I work to reclaim my body, my appearance. For me that means being comfortable dressing up. Really though, when you think about it, when both the act of dressing up and dressing down feels like an act of defiance, you know there is something nefarious afoot. Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where we all feel secure in saying my body is mine, my body is me, with or without modification?

The cutest little coffee spot @thedayroom with art by @alyce.carrier

Back at the parents' house for Thanksgiving and I dug out my journals from my year teaching in France. During my time there, I kept a daily journal to practice my writing in French. Over the course of 9 months, I ended up filling three journals cover-to-cover with what I then considered to be banal details, but now I'm so glad I did this mundane exercise. It's amazing to see the progression in my language acquisition. The journals started as vocabulary lists and progressed to longer entries with more details and complexity as I felt more comfortable expressing myself in French. Two years later, I'm grateful to be able to look back at any date during that year and remember the little things I've since forgotten. #TAPIF #Nancy

Last one from my trip to Pittsburgh—a beautiful city filled with character. Get out the vote November 6. #gotv

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