Author: Dominic Padon

After reading The Pink by Andrea Chu, the main idea that seemed to stand out from all the discussion about feminism, and what being feminist meant and how contradicting the ideas in the community can be, was the idea of change. From the introduction’s descriptions of Chu’s operation from having male genitalia to having female genitalia, and from the discussions of how the feminist movement changed with the inclusion of trans people, to denoting the changes about what being “feminist” meant as the movement moved with the times, the one thing I found that they all had in common was change.

After the second point of critique for the pussyhat, what immediately became obvious was the motif of change. From detailing her own physical change, to diving into the history of how trans women changed the feminist movement’s stances on inclusion and being sensitive to holistic representation, the only constant I saw was the lack of constance itself. Chu’s body and perception of herself was shifted, similar to how the symbolism of the pussyhat shifted the movement’s ideas of having a face in their movement back then. Reading Chu’s account of her own change and the change of the feminism movement was like historical deja vu, where the story of a person belonging to the group that spurred change in the movement is being accounted, and the importance of their existence is highlighted.

The symbol in the picture is a Chinese word for change. I picked the letter over a phoenix because despite the “rebirth” symbolism of the phoenix, there weren’t any decent pictures online and I decided that I wanted the media to be literal. No fancy symbolism, nor any discussions about what the bird could symbolize (especially since the phoenix could also represent eternity). Just straight-up “change” in a black and white format that I edited from a cartoon’s title card. Simple, efficient, and conveys the meaning directly.

Song that comes from a show I really like, I find that I connect with the overall message: although endgames are all well and good, it definitely won’t hurt to look around you and enjoy the present. Life moves on no matter what, and you should do your best to live in the moment. The song only echoes the emotional impact: it reminds me of better times and of the moments where I wish I had done more to have fun.

The song has an interesting history that stems all the way from 1899, to a 1930’s pop song using fragments of the original, to being covered as a guitar piece in the late 60’s, to being sampled and remixed by the man considered to be one of lofi hip-hop’s godfathers, into the classic song many know and love today.