Stop and Stare

Zara leather jacket (similar here), Image boutique dress (similar here), thrifted flannel (similar here), H&M hat (similar here), Steve Madden booties (similar here)

Photography by Pedro Morales

Edited by me

Have you seen that video of a woman walking the streets of New York for 10+ hours and being catcalled by men? It went viral for a good amount of time and created a lot of controversy about feminism. After seeing it myself, I can understand why these people made the video. I'm in New York a lot and most of the time I am walking alone either to work or to meet up with someone or whatever. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've been catcalled--it's almost too routinely and quite frankly, pretty uncomfortable for me. I hate that I have to cover up as much as I can or not reveal too much just because I don't want strangers catcalling me. And it's not like I want to wear skimpy clothing or anything, even a nice dress or skirt can be dangerous to walk around in without grabbing attention from random men. I just want to wear what I want to wear and feel comfortable in it for myself, whether I'm wearing tight jeans or a bodycon dress. 

Anyways, that's my food for thought for this particular post because it's exactly what happened when we were shooting this outfit, which is perfectly exemplified in one of the photos above. I absolutely love this knit midi dress I bought in Cali for just $20 and couldn't wait to bring out for fall. It's extremely flattering but still classy in its midi length and keyhole cutout that doesn't reveal too much but just enough. I threw on my favorite (and very sentimental) leather jacket and tied a green flannel around to add texture and color but even while being pretty much covered, I couldn't avoid the uncomfortable stares. In fact, the guy in that picture that's looking back and staring actually said something in my ear as he walked past and it was unbelievably creepy. And with recent campaigns for feminism like #HeForShe, I am an advocate because I want to feel comfortable walking the streets of New York alone.

An extra long post about an important topic but I hope you all like!

Your average feminist,

Mai Sunshine

Style tip: With a bodycon midi dress, you want to be careful about not layering too much so you don't lose the figure and look short. I added the flannel to accentuate the waist but I stuck to short booties so the midi length didn't make me look short.

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