I have always raised eyebrows. Non environmentalists see me as a hippy, environmentalists as "too girly".
Well, screw your stereotypes.
I am a conservationist, I am a scientist I am an environemitslist. I live for this. It's my passion, my career.
But I am also a girl (standing before a blog..) asking to be seen as me.
I love to swim. I love baking and food in general. I love my family and friends. I am a softy, I am a girlfriend, I absolutely love the cinema. I love putting on a beautiful dress and make up and being feminine. I even do a lot of my environmental work in "feminine" clothes.
I can (and am) a person outside of this environmental passions of my life. Normal people have jobs and go home from them. I am forever grateful and happy that my job is a lot of my life and makes me who I am.
Being myself whilst I do my passions is a right that I have (in the West) that does not impact my ability to do my work. As much as people like to belittle my intellect or passion because I am picking up rubbish in a dress, or discussing the issues with our food systems- it doesn't hold up. You don't get to belittle me or my work because I do not fit the mould. I am allowed to express myself how I like (and thats being girly sometimes) without the judgement.
"Do yourself, the environmental scene a favour and let it go. Discuss something with me that matters. Don't take up your own time worrying if I can do my job in a dress, or walking boots or however I choose to express myself that day."
Honestly, I'm old enough to work out what I can wear. And I don't judge others either.
There are certain stereotypes with environmentalists, that we need to tear down. You don’t need to put yourself into these stereotypes to be part of positivity and change. You can remain your beautiful self with passions beyond the environment, to be a champion for treating our planet better. We need movement towards better systems. This is a big societal change, and we aren’t going to get there by excluding anybody based, on gender, race, class, hobbies. Small change, big change. Anywhere in between is the start, all of which we should celebrate. Do you remember our book of the month about Gertrude Bell?
She climbed mountains in dresses. And didn’t even bat an eyelid to anybody who questioned her ability to be the feminine, beautiful and first of her kind adventurer.