My name is Ulrike, I am a CIS white woman and likely a quite imperfect feminist according to the books.  I am also one of the founders of Feminista and with that, I have come under scrutiny not only in the public eye but also with my own consciousness.

The question is: What qualifies my partners and me to launch a feminist fragrance? Possibly nothing, other than, that we thought it was a right thing to do at the time.
 
The truth is, Feminista developed a life of its own right after birth and the people we met along the way over the past year defined its path, and we truly hope, you will be next to help define, what Feminista will become.
 

 

MEETING GEZA SCHÖN

 

The crucial milestone to developing Feminista was Geza Schön, who when approached about collaborating on a perfume for a film by feminist filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta said: I love the idea of paying tribute to intersectional feminism with a scent. And when asked why he answered: I personally would never date a woman who is not a feminist, as a matter of fact, I wouldn’t have anyone as a friend who is not a feminist. In today’s culture, with parts of humanity either involved in selfishness, expressed in selfie-culture, reality TV, and the pseudo influencer stardom as well as intolerance, fear, and hate, feminism is a character trait distinguishing those with confidence and ethics to do right for themselves and others.
 
With Geza, we all of a sudden had a product at hand, that was really serious and so the adventure had begun.

FINDING OUR VOICE

Siding ourselves with Munroe Bergdorf: If your feminism isn’t intersectional, you are only in it for yourself. That was the one thing we all believed in from the start. Whilst Feminista must pay tribute, to all those who have fought hard for equality over the years , we did not want to put on the western view alone and we sure as hell did not want to exclude POC, handicapped, non-binary, transsexual people while simultaneously being an open invitation to all men suffocating on old stereotypes. 
 
And with that, we opened a can load of worms, becoming the most unpopular kid in town as it seemed. 
 
But we were not in it for popularity, in contrast to common belief, Feminista was founded to make a difference and do it right. If we wanted to bring a perfume to market to get rich overnight we would have probably licensed WonderWoman instead of being inspired by a Margarethe von Trotta movie and her wonderful personality.

THE MISSION TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

The decision to stay out of stores followed suit as a platform for change. Feminista needed to tell a story and it needed to be your story, a story as colorful and diverse as the world we want to imagine whilst aiming continuously to tell new stories. It aims to become your platform, featuring and supporting your causes and heroes over time. For now, 15% of all net sales will be invested into people and projects be it role models, activists or stories featuring new feminist content. And the most challenging thing about the project so far is:

Finding new projects that also reflect a wide spectrum of diversity and breaking old stereotypes.

After I launched Feminista’s Instagram early in the process. I had one of the most emotional weekends of my life. I was approached by several transsexual kids, asking if they were invited to the party. When I disclosed that I was not a “private person” but we were a company trying to launch a perfume, they really liked the fact that they were not just included, but more than welcome. They started to open up telling me stories that were so heartbreaking that I couldn’t sleep for a very long time. – Since we are actively looking for a project to support transgender youth. But again the trolls came out. I am a CIS white woman running a company together with two men, so we have no right to fight for transgender awareness, they said.

Be my judge. There is only one thing I can tell you from the bottom of our hearts. Feminism and all the topics we hope to address and the awareness we want to build is much less popular than one might think. We are ready to go to hell and back, fight the trolls and stand back up again and yes we know our fight is not even close to the hardship of many people standing on the front line. But at the same time, we believe that silent approval is almost as bad as complicity and we do not want to be silent.

So if you have a project that needs funding that could fit the bill, please get in touch at https://feminista.world. We’d love to get to know you, even if its only for a cup of coffee, or two.

Lots of Love

Ulrike (1 of 3 Feminista’s)

 
 
 
 
 
 

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