I don't know much, but I'm learning.

Choco's List. It's a classic, a staple even, in the mori community. But it also is undoubtedly dated. It's a bit of a relic of a specific time in Japanese cultural history. So although it still holds a lot of weight and significance in the mori community, it's also a product of its time. So today, I want to look back on Choco's List. Let's examine how relevant it was, then and now, and what parts should we keep and what parts should be ignored. (I will be using my cleaned up version of the list from this post, if you want to read them first as they were intended by Choco.) But first, before I pick the list apart, it is important to remember that this list has always been more guidelines than rules. It was never meant to be followed point by point, and is just a summary of what larger trends Choco saw in the already thriving community. No Brainers First are the easiest points to categorize. These are the points of the list that, I think, are clearly mori. They d...

This month's prompt was defiance. Defiance is such a strong word.  When I think of defiance I think of political activism and protests, which, although important, don't feel very mori. Or perhaps when you think of defiance, you may think of negative things, like a "defiant child" or something similar. Also not very mori. So how does defiance fit into mori? Well, there are a few ways one might take it, and I think that the word can, in some ways, really resonate with the core of what mori is, and the mori community. What does defiance mean to mori folk? Defying Gender and Fashion Norms Really, at its core, every alternative fashion style is somewhat defiant. It defies expectations on what to wear, what to be, identity, and more.  In mori's case, the style defies very clearly Japanese definitions of femininity. You've probably heard people say over and over that dressing in mori is meant to be dressing for your own happiness, and not how society and men say wome...