“A true plague of a girl. And yet a Queen in every sense of the word.”― Renee Ahdieh, The Wrath and the Dawn
So with Samhain coming up – a holiday I fucking hate for the same reason vampires and demons do I might add (sooo cliche,) – I decided I wanted to celebrate by doing something little for the shop.
It’s fun to design these little character images for the clothes, and I enjoy letting my mind drift as I make each design. So! I did this one, in the colours of superheroes because I thought it would be fun. You’ll notice a lot of red, purple and green because those are the LMBG colours but also because Spiderman and Hulk are obviously, the two best characters in the MCU besides Captain Marvel. But, I was asked specifically to do something “for the girls,” so I designed this one, which as it turns out is my absolute favourite one so far.
Each of these designs is super inspired, but if you look at the second one, it’s definitely the bad girls I resonate with.
Bat Girl, Cat Woman, Black Widow, Uhura, the girls who refused to behave, the women who stood up when wrong was being committed, and even if they weren’t 100% on the up and up, tried to do the best they could to do good.
Even Harley Quinn, who was mostly bad, only went bad for a man, that’s the one I resonate with the most, hence the blue and the tiny hints of pink, she’s the one who left an abusive psychotic relationship, to find herself, and ended up becoming against her will and consent mostly, a hero. A woman with a bad reputation, who ends up doing her best to make good with the world, simply because she can, is the most dangerous kind of woman.
She’s already been bad, she knows how bad it can get, she knows what it takes to survive, and she hasn’t given up yet, so you’re not likely to make her. These are the kind of women I want in my life. I want women who don’t find themselves becoming an extension of their partner, but a rather full well rounded human who has their own needs, desires, and requirements, that are met, either by themselves or by the circle of women she keeps nearby.
I’m more concerned with whether or not the women that are there are going to be there to wipe my tears as often as they expect me to wipe theirs, than with the colour of their skin or the amount of money they make. Are they there to lift me up? Are they there to fight the demons with me? Or are they going to hang back, waiting until the dust settles before they show themselves?
In my lifetime I’ve been blessed by the women in my circle. Some of them are some of the strongest women you’ll ever meet, but because of circumstance, distance, and evolution, many of the women in my circle are Indigenous or white, and very few of them understand each other.
Stolen Language Led To Barriers We Wouldn’t Have Otherwise…
We’re starting to, we’re learning to speak the same kind of languages, but because language is the first thing stolen by those who invaded the homelands of many of our ancestors, the languages that we speak are varied, and while beautiful, often confusing to decipher.
Each woman in my circle has her own experience. Some are labelled trans, but I just see these women that are so powerful, so strong, so aware of their own strength and so completely unafraid of their power. Some of them are writers, others are dancers or mothers, some are all of the above and so much more.
And each of them gives me something different than the other women in my circle, some I haven’t spoken to in decades, but their voices are ever strong in my ear, reminding me of years old worth of advice, laughter, and memories that I get to share with no one but my sisters through time and space.
Every single day that I get to be alive, I’m introduced to another woman and in my head, I hear this tiny voice saying to me “she’s not Black,” and I think, man….we really are afraid of each other.
Supporting Black Women Is A Revolutionary Act – Unknown
I’ve had plenty of conversations where Black women are afraid of white women, and justifiably in 2022, but it never occurred to me until recently, that Black women are terrified of supporting each other. Mainly because for a lot of women supporting one Black woman means more trouble to you than it might feel like it’s worth.
Supporting Black women is a revolutionary act, and it’s not something that happens often, and that’s because people are afraid of what happens when Black and Indigenous women get a little tiny bit of power, and you know what? They should be.
I think the reason that people are afraid of Black women, is that if we were to really embrace our inner warrior spirit we’d become indestructible, and who wouldn’t be afraid of that?
Nonetheless, Black women, white women, and women everywhere deserve to be celebrated, so this entire collection that I’ve designed is entirely about celebrating women in all the beautiful and fascinating ways that matter. From the images above to all the collections that come in the future, I solemnly swear that all collections will have a place for the girls.
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall
Loud Mouth Brown Girl 