My friend and I started The Catcall Collective in 2015 as undergrads at a liberal arts college. We were outraged and confused by how normalized street harassment and daily misogyny had become, and we were positive that women, queer folx, and people of color everywhere felt just as indignant as we did (and still do!). To describe it as merely an art collective or an online platform would no longer serve to do us justice; we began collecting anonymous stories and sketches on a college campus four years ago and now it has grown to be a small yet close internet community where those who have experienced harassment can feel heard and validated.
Many other social media accounts have served as a beacon of hope through inspiration, humor, or a combination of the two. Here are eight accounts I follow that are making the daily struggle of being a marginalized person a little easier:
Read more:5 Female 'Instapoets' to Follow on #WorldPoetryDay
1. @butlikemaybe
Arianna Margulis is the brains behind @butlikemaybe, where her sketched mini-me persona (much like the one Lizzie McGuire had) goes through the everyday struggles of being a young woman navigating adulthood. She unabashedly tackles mental health, defies menstruation stigma, grapples with body image, and highlights climate change in a funny and relatable way.
2. @violetclair
Exploring the interactions between heterosexual relationships and how men and women relate to one another in the 21st century, @violetclair accurately encapsulates the terror, frustration, and confusion women feel in situations where they are forced to deal with toxic masculinity (ie. ghosting, gaslighting, slut shaming). Her work also occasionally touches on immigration reform, allyship, and technology’s impact on our mental health.
3. @awardsforgoodboys
The entire premise of @awardsforgoodboys is to present the recognition and accolades (mostly straight, white, cisgender) men think they deserve for doing the bare minimum when it comes to respecting women and checking their own biases—you know, what anyone else would consider just being a decent human. Each post highlights a phrase, text message, or moment that every woman seemingly has had to endure just by virtue of her gender.
4. @bodeburnout
With Instagram’s well-known and controversial ban against female nipples on its platform, Jodie Langford does her part to normalize and seemingly desexualize the female form by frequently drawing her characters topless while involved in mundane, everyday activity. The self-awareness and nonchalant messages towards dieting, self-acceptance, and mental illness suggest @bodeburnout is perhaps the running inner monologue of many young women in their 30s, a slightly older demographic than some of the other accounts listed here.
5. @juliaberhardcomics
Danish artist Julia Bernhard uses a simple color palette to convey her perspectives in reds and blues. As an American, it is compelling for me to see exactly how conversations around sexuality and gender can be so universal.
6. @makedaisychains
Hannah Daisy makes chronic illness and intersectional feminism topics of priority in her art. Having endured a lifetime of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis, she highlights how physical ailments and mental illness can be intertwined and even inseparable at times. With a decade of experience as an occupational therapist specializing in mental health, she has given credence to the self-care movement and popularized the hashtag #boringselfcare.
7. @cecile.dormeau
One of my favorite things about French artist Cecile Dormeau is that her entire feed is dedicated to body diversity. Chubby women, women with butt acne, women with saggy breasts, women with small breasts, brown women, the list goes on. It is refreshing to see Dormeau’s intent to put forth self-love through illustration to make a point without explicitly spelling it out.
8. @elwingbling
Elwing Suong Gonzalez and her words resonate with me weeks and months after first coming upon them. Her drawings are often accompanied by a few words from a life lesson recently learned, and she is not afraid to shake her reader into social consciousness when it comes to dismantling white supremacy, discussing class inequality in America, or underscoring privilege. While educational, Gonzalez calls on her audience to think critically before asking to have marginalized people explain their oppression.
