A few weeks ago I was invited to Nat Lee’s (Style Me Sunday) Warrior Woman event. Apart from the fact that Nat is a good friend and I would pretty much walk over hot coals wearing a catsuit of rusty nails for her if she asked me too (now THAT would be an instagram shot if I ever saw one), the point of Warrior Woman is so vitally important that I would have done it even if I though she was a total wankpuffin. The fact that she isn’t just makes it all that more delicious. For the first time in many, many decades, ‘feminist’ is not a dirty word. Woman of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, beliefs, and ages are embracing the term and using it to reference themselves without so much as a wince or an apology. This is big news. It’s become cool to be a feminist and thank god. For too long, the word and the woman was characterised (rightly and wrongly) by a strident few who present a movement that was exclusive, aggressive and actually, pretty harmful to women as a whole.

Now though, women are getting on board. We’re looking around at each other and realising the potential of every woman standing by the side of every other woman. Where previous feminist movements have failed due to their partisan approach - an ‘us’ and ‘them’ dichotomy between the male and the female of the species - this new brand of feminism is doing no such thing. In fact, it’s not about men at all. It’s not about our relationships with them or the way they treat us; instead, it’s about women’s relationship with each other.

Feminism is about saying, “She’s a woman and therefore I’m on her team.” It’s about the sisterhood and fulfilling the potential that we hold which, in case you weren’t sure, is a fucking terrifyingly powerful superpower. If we can do this, and do it well, it doesn’t matter how men treat women or how they see us, or how society tries to manipulate us; it simply can’t happen if all women are stood together, metaphorically barricading the bullshit that we’ve been struggling against for all this time.

So, to return to my opening gambit - Nat Lee and her Warrior Woman project is about all of the above. Yes, it’s about #BodyPositivity and that’s amazing but actually, that’s just a symptom of the bigger problem regarding the perception of women and womanhood in modern day society. Getting all women of all ages, shapes and sizes in a room together  and asking them to throw off their clothes in the name of celebrating our bodies (which, by the way, actually MAKE human beings), is an inspired idea that resonates far beyond whether we can be comfortable with our cellulite and stretch marks.

What Nat’s done is turn the competition amongst women into compassion and what better way to show that than to use our bodies, lumps, warts, scars and all as a metaphor to tell a story that is starting to gain real traction in society. If feminism still scares you then think about what Maya Angelou said when asked whether she was a feminist:

I don’t know whether Nat will be doing more Warrior Woman events but if she does, and it’s near you, go. Don’t worry or overthink the ‘getting naked’ thing…just go. I promise you, it’ll be the most inspiring thing you do.