I have many obsessions with things that I would never realize were obsessions until I was asked to consider it. For instance, I have chocolate in my kitchen at all times, a drawer full of fine tipped, colored markers in my desk, and working in a tattoo shop has been a dream in terms of being able to see all the different styles and ideas that people have permanently put into their skin. However, another obsessions I have that I would argue could be classified as more of a lifestyle at this point is a bit more complex.

It started with the social media site Tumblr. From here, I was introduced to a web of feisty, witty women who wanted change and were unashamed in their demand. Tumblr allowed me to connect with many different types of people with the same feminist enthusiasm and it gave me resources from pop culture to academic journals to art to important historic people. Very quickly, the women I followed (meaning I subscribed to their tumblr blog) led me to many different types of people who maintained personal and educational blogs about race, gender, sexuality, disability, sex positivity, class hierarchies, education/ the school systems, the prison system, and all-around super cool, inspiring people. And the influence of these blogs led me to crave this kind of subject material academically (which is how I am where I am today).

More-so than an obsession with Tumblr, I have an obsession with being a feminist. I have an obsession with challenging the ideas of the accepted “white feminism”, especially as a cis-gender, white woman. I have an obsession with feminism that includes more than just white women or just cis gender women or just my own struggle. I have an obsession with recently reclaimed femininity, which I rejected for so much of my young adult life. And while I go days without looking at tumblr or checking tumblr, I do not go a single day without writing, reading, expressing through art, or discussing this obsession.

So along with chocolate, art supplies, and tattoos there is more (like coffee and glitter and pictures of animals and sleeping in and making vegan salves!) and it has turned into a beautiful, beautiful thing.