Seeing Red

From Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter to Taylor Swift’s popular 2012 album, the color red has a longstanding and poignant history in the creative worlds of pop culture and literature. While adopted widely and intended to signify a bevy of different meanings, red has historically connoted lust, infidelity, blood, tumult, violence, passion, and anger. Needless to say, these connotations still exist and have been embedded deeply into our American cultural understanding. However you parse it, red has a distinct connotation, but with it comes a distinct sense of power. Since the impetus of the current federal administration, women across the United States have been emboldened and empowered. One need not look further than the Day Without Women protests that transpired back in early 2017, demonstrations that were both characterized and unified by the color red. In this shoot, Features writer Alijah Webb visually explores the capacity of red to empower women in the twenty-first century.

Concept by Alijah Webb

Photography by Sydney McCourt

Written by Peter Makey

Models June Hodge and Varvara Troitski