Solidarity

With all the wonderful things that are happening in the name of feminism, I've gotten to thinking about how proud I am of the women in my life. This is an important time for us – some are calling it ‘The Fourth Wave of Feminism’. So many of us are passionately fighting  the inequality, generalisation, eroticising, victim blaming, slut-shaming, and other injustices that women worldwide face every day.

It’s exciting, to say the least; things are happening, there’s a shift coming – we can all feel it and we’re welcoming it. Best of all, we've got each other’s backs. So in the spirit of female camaraderie, I would like to pay tribute to one of the most wonderful women I know.

The Lovely Sinann

There are a lot of common misconceptions about female friendships, and my relationship with Sinann has, for me, debunked them all. We’re not catty, or fickle, we don’t spend all our time talking about boys and we’re not [that] emotionally unstable.

Sinann (pronounced Shannon, but she also answers to Cinnamon, Sin-Ann, Sinbad etc.) has been my best friend for just three years. We met in our first year of college, and bonded over a mutual love of burgers and pints, as well as a shared knack for making face-palm decisions.  

Early on in our friendship, Sinann and I enforced a strict ‘Solidarity’ law. It quickly became our motto, as it was basically a vow to always look out for each other. Sinann has supported me through issues life-changing and trivial. If I were to call her sobbing hysterically because I was having a bad hair day, she would absolutely treat it with the gravest importance. She would promptly link me to every YouTube hair tutorial she’s ever seen, and would probably bitch-slap the bejesus out of anyone who said I was being melodramatic. Despite the aforementioned bad decisions and dramatics, this is one of the healthiest and most nurturing relationships I have.

Apart from being a kick-ass friend, Sinann is one of the most inspiring women that I personally know. She’s clever, well-read, opinionated, eloquent, genuine, kind and hilarious. There are a lot of women that we both look up to, but rather than just talk about how awesome they are, Sinann will figure out why they are so awesome, and just fucking channel it. At the same time, she absolutely knows who she is and she doesn't compromise it for anyone. Not that she’d ever need to; the girl makes friends like Ryan Gosling makes movies – meaning ‘rather well and quite attractively’, of course.

She’s read everything I've ever published, gives me immediate feedback, and nags me to stop slacking off between posts. Even though we live on opposite sides of the world, she still manages to be there for me. Just today, I was grumpy and stressed until I got a package from Sinann in the post. I know she had sent it a little while ago, and there was no way she could have known when I would get it, but it really felt like my best friend had come through once again. It was just the hilarious pick-me-up I needed.

I love getting post!

“I wish we were celebrating our birthdays together, but we are free spirits destined to travel the world. Me in the US and you in the UK until eventually Visas run out and we decide to retire together in Cambodia, with matching ‘monk on a motorbike’ tattoos, spending our days drinking $3 Kir Royales and eating Fish Amok. Plan and a half my friend.”

I think that for women who want to see a change in gender equality/perception, female friendship is pretty important. You want to change the way women are treated, and it all begins with how you treat the women in your life. This is why Sinann is inspiring as a feminist and as a friend.

I absolutely could not have gotten luckier.