Two Very Different Role Models Growing Up

Hey Sweeties,

I was thinking recently about role models and got to thinking about who inspired me most in my mid-late teens into my early twenties… and they couldn’t be any more different to each other.

Carrie Bradshaw 

I took two things from Carrie 1. the want to become a writer, 2. a love for high heeled shoes. 

Writing. I have always loved writing, I used to love writing stories which is everyone’s entry into it, but mostly I loved keeping diaries, exploring my inner thoughts and feelings as I grew up and experienced new things. Although I know I have a great novel in me (as does everyone, so they say) that I will one day sit down and release, right now I love writing about life -social commentary if you will, which for the most part, blogging, like these Sunday Chat posts, satisfy. Carrie showed me a lifestyle writing could offer and to keep going with my pursuit of it.

Shoes.

I started watching Sex and the City when series 6 was airing -I think I was in year 11, doing my GCSEs- and the first thing I clocked about Carrie Bradshaw as she ran through New York City to the Stock Exchange, was her gorgeous pair of chunky Miu Miu heels & I loved the episode ‘A Woman’s right to shoes’; it said a lot about choice and independence. Although I didn’t really have the places to wear heels, buying them allowed me to step into a grown up femininity that I was still too young to really be in.

Carrie also taught me a lot about fashion too; about being experimental and to have fun with it and it’s these looks that influenced my own fashion purchases. I would see a pair of shoes that would remind me of something Carrie had worn and this is very much how I was inspired to create my fashion scrapbooks (here), & shoes are still one of the key things I’ll pick up on with the looks I love that fill the pages.

I don’t buy as many high heeled shoes as I once did, but my favourites still retain a special place in my wardrobe which I visit from time to time, just to remind myself of their beauty, how they feel & the memories they evoke… More on these in a later post!

Kendra Wilkinson / Girls of the Playboy Mansion

On a totally different end of the spectrum, I loved… (love) Playboy. My feminist values and beliefs often fights with me on this but as I have spoken about this on numerous occasions on this blog, I sit between tradition and modernity with regards to feminism and it’s the modernity part, that allows me to have an interest and a fascination in Playboy.

My first experience with Playboy was discovering E’s ‘Girls of the Playboy Mansion’ -a fly on the wall documentary type show that centred around Hugh Hefner’s then girlfriends; Holly, Bridget and Kendra. I was hooked from the first episode! I became naturally curious about Playboy and of course I bought into the commercial elements a little but I became fascinated by the industry and particularly the magazine, as well as Hugh Hefner himself. Back then I wasn’t informed about Feminism, I only learnt about that at University which is why I choose Playboy as the subject of my 3rd year dissertation (here). The show wasn’t seedy or perverse at all so the nudity -where it occasionally appeared or was referenced- didn’t bother me at all. In fact, it’s what got me aware of my own body.

Of the three women, I felt I related most or at least, felt drawn to Kendra, the youngest of the three (girlfriends) and I found myself trying to mimic her style and I admired her attitude to fitness. She had this edge to her that I found infectious. Because of the show and her influence, I started to explore my own body and style more, favouring if I am honest, slightly more revealing clothing hence how I ended up walking round the Eden Project in a pair of teeny tiny shorts, a bikini top and flip flops (cringe!). But in your late teens-early twenties, you are learning to adjust to your body and playing with sexuality & how the two link. LA couldn’t have been further from my life at the time in Devon & I was at that time in life when I was wanting to reach out to more than was currently on offer. When I go to LA later this year with Trek America, I really hope I get enough time to pass by the Playboy Mansion. I know I’ll only see the front gate (if that), but I just want to go there, it’s like my Mecca.

No-one really truly knows what goes on behind the doors of the Playboy Mansion except for those that live there. Ex-playmates and girlfriends (most recently Holly Madison) write books revealing the secrets but personal accounts seem to be revengeful, and as much as they will contain truth, they’re wanting to make a buck in the process as well so it’s hard to believe everything. At the end of the day, you will all have your own opinions and feelings about the mansion and of Hugh Hefner, but for me, I can’t help but be fascinated.

So you’ve heard who my role models were, who are/were your role models growing up?

Until next time x