A Lifestyle "BOHEMIA"

Bohemian woman is a very passionate and emotional woman, who lives an artistic lifestyle and whose perspective towards life, herself and her relationships is unconventional. She makes everyone feel her existence in each and every place with her natural behaviour. She’s sometimes a child, sometimes seductive but mostly wild. She is not afraid of reflecting her feelings and her inner world out. She’s not into ordinary life matters, rather she’s into herself, her hobbies and loved ones. Not domestic or self-sacrificing. She’s herself. Fearless. Self-esteemed. She is the kind that never fits in. She shows her “difference” with her clothing and outlook as well. Casual comfort is the key for bohemian clothing: Natural, simple and raw. Long, flowing hair…, loose curls… With natural or no make-up.

She places freedom of self expression above all other desires, including wealth, social conformity and status. She’s not into rules. This free-spirit, nomadic woman is where she wants to be, and does whatever she wants to do.

The term “bohemian” originated in France during the 19th century due to the influx of gypsies believed to be traveling from Czech Republic’s, Bohemia. The term quickly became generalized, however, indicative of a lifestyle rather than a nationality.

Do we love the bohemian woman?

The film industry, the music industry, the painters, the writers and the poets love this woman very much... moreover adore and  praise her. Respect her because of her free and artistic lifestyle. She’s not ordinary. She rejects traditional family. She knows what she wants. She’s aware of both the world around her and herself. She’s highly intellectual. She’s a person herself. A worker. She questions. Rejects materialism. She controls her own life and draws her own path. She knows and embraces the strengths and weaknesses of her humanity. She sometimes gives in to her weaknesses as she is down to earth. She is surrounded by men loving and admiring her. However, this unconventional, sexually free yet “fearless” woman cannot love back the way she is expected to as she is attracted more to freedom. To her, "True love is boundless like the ocean and, swelling within one, spreads itself out and, crossing all boundaries and frontiers, envelops the whole world" as M.K. Gandhi said.

The art embraces “the bohemian”... as “The bohemia” hosts the art in itself...

Gustave Flaubert’s novel “Mademe Bovary”, “grisette” figure in mid 19th century’s popular literature, Henri Murger’s tales, Puccinni’s famous opera “La boheme”, Paul Poiret’s fashion designs, Renoir’s “The Bohemian” painting, Rosetti’s painting “Bocca Baciata”, Aki Kaurismaki’s movie “La vie de boheme”,   Victor Hugo’s “Esmeralda” figure in his novel “Notre Dame de Paris”,Ridley Scott’s movie ”Thelma and Louise”, the movement of “The Beat Generation” writers in 1950s which incorporated into the hippie counterculture in 1960s...

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

~Arthur O'Shaughnessy, "Ode," 1874

What happens in real world?

They are the weird girls who didn't fit in . . . the little girls your parents wouldn't let you play with . . . the teen-agers who dressed in black, the bad girls who climbed out of our bedroom windows after dark and caught taxis home at dawn. They are the daughters of Lilith, Lily Munster, Patti Smith and Emma Goldman. They are the women your preachers warn you about.

The bohemian woman is not accepted and respected in real world as she is embraced and admired by the arts and the artists. Rather, she scares her surrounding and mostly men around her. Her unconventional, untraditional and fearless manners put the gentlemen off. They don’t trust her. And they believe they can never own this free-spirit. “They don’t like her.”

The modern bohemian woman may prefer to be single rather than being in a relationship of “chains” and restrictions...

The single bohemian woman is on her own now, thinks of only herself and knows that spending quality time alone is the most important thing about being single. She enjoys her “single-dom”, which means “freedom”, something she can never give up.  Having fun and achieving goals can help her forget about her relationship status, but above all, it gives her the opportunity to cherish the most important person in her life, which is herself!

The modern world is a hard place for a “Modern” Bohemian. It is full of technology and pollution, and obsessed with socio-economic status, power, money and success. Could a bohemian find a way to make the two worlds meet?

                                                                                                    February,2012                                                                                                        ipal emin