What We See When We Look at Women

Hey,

For a long time, women have been seen through things.
Through their lipsticks.
Through the amount of blush on their faces.
Through the way they present themselves.
And slowly, those things became the story.But what if they were never the story to begin with? And this is what #Edition52 is about.

Inside this edition:
👉 Beauty has been language of power across time
📚 What she’s reading, watching, listening
📰 5 headlines worth her time
✨ Her Spotlight
🤍 Note to Her

The things women were judged for…
were often the exact tools they used to survive, express, and build power.

There are ways women show up that get judged too quickly.

She’s always there.
She has just very perfectly polished herself.
Isn’t that too intentional?
How’s she so effortless all the f**kin time…

For years, we’ve been told the ideal woman looks like she didn’t try.
And btw… how you’re seen in society…
has never really been neutral.
Plus, these things were never meant to be understood at surface level !!!
But something about that is shifting.

In the 1880s, Sarah Bernhardt applied red lipstick in public. It wasn’t just “makeup.” It was visibility in a world that preferred women unseen.
When Madam C. J. Walker built hair care products for Black women, it wasn’t about changing how they looked. It was about their care, dignity, and economic independence.
In 1912, Elizabeth Arden donated 15,000 red lipsticks at a women’s march in New York. It was solidarity you could wear, and stood against the notions around makeup that it makes you inappropriate or unladylike.
When Marsha P. Johnson showed up in full drag, it wasn’t performance. It was identity refusing to be erased.

Over time, the world kept looking at these things… and calling them vanity, excess, attention. When they were actually: resistance, survival, identity, power, real decisions. And that’s why even today, when a woman chooses how she wants to show up… it still gets misunderstood. 

We kept looking at women.
But we didn’t learn how to read them.

So maybe the question isn’t: Why do women do this?
Maybe it’s: What has it always meant that we chose not to see?

But now, when everything feels heavy and uncertain, women are choosing to be seen again. With a stronger purpose. Because sometimes, showing up isn’t just about coming across as this piece of perfection but it’s about presence.

And presence – has always been political.

💬 Ideas to tune into when the world’s too loud.

🎬 Watch: Frida (2002)
Not just a film about an artist but a woman who refused to be seen on anyone else’s terms. Everything she chose to show was deliberate → Watch when you want to understand what it means to turn yourself into your own language.

📖 Read: Mary Magdalene Revealed by Meggan Watterson
A woman rewritten and reframed who was misunderstood for centuries. This book doesn’t just tell her story,  it gives it back to her as power, voice, and authority → Read when you’re ready to question who gets to define a woman’s story.

🛍️ Shop: Molly Bee Jewellery
Jewellery that doesn’t just whisper “pretty.” It says something. Color. Texture. Presence. Pieces that feel like you chose them, not like you were told to tone it down → Wear when you want your presence to feel a little more intentional.

🌍 5 stories shaping the week for women everywhere.

💌 You can finally outgrow your past (even digitally): Gmail now lets users change their email usernames, a small but telling shift in how identity isn’t as fixed as it once felt.
🎤When a name carries power, so does who gets to use it: A performer has sued Taylor Swift over her album title, raising questions about ownership, visibility, and who gets remembered when stories overlap.
⚖️ When the system blocks the people trying to fix it: Midwives in Georgia are suing over laws that restrict their practice, even as maternity care deserts grow and women are left with fewer safe options for childbirth.
🧠When “being easy to love” starts hurting your body: People-pleasing, a pattern many women are taught early, is now being linked to chronic health issues and long-term stress.
⚠️ Not all progress moves forward: A fringe but growing ideology is calling for women to give up their right to vote — with some women themselves supporting “household voting” led by men.

Found her voice. Loved her clarity. Needed you to see her.

Natalie Ellis (@iamnatalie) builds her life only around what feels aligned.

Not hustle for the sake of it.
Not rest as an aesthetic.

But a life that holds both, on her own terms. Motherhood without disappearance. Ambition without apology. Success without urgency. The kind of life that looks deeply intentional.
And maybe that’s the shift.

Not women doing more. Not women proving more. But women deciding what’s actually worth building in the first place.

Read women. Cite women.
What we consume shapes what gets published, funded, and amplified.  

Her Weekly Download arrives three times a week – for women who don’t abandon themselves in the process.

✨ P.S.  Send this to her, the one who keeps second-guessing what she already knows. Because the best kind of perspective is the one we pass woman to woman 💚