Roxanne Fequiere

Roxanne Fequiere. Photo by Sylvie Rosokoff.

City of Women Denizen: Roxanne Fequiere

Bona Fides: Writer, editor, essayist, magazine founder and editor-in-chief. Contributor to Vogue and Elle magazines. Voracious reader, truth-teller and activist.

City of Women Induction: I first met Roxanne when she was a high school senior and a counselor at my kids’ summer camp. I was so impressed by her maturity, intelligence, strength, and kindness, and rooted for her as she began her studies at Harvard University. I knew she’d be a high-achiever and agent of change. When I learned a few weeks ago that she staged a digital walkout and resigned her post at The Wing, the women-only social club where she worked as a copywriter, I was not surprised; Roxanne is not a woman who tolerates racism or workplace discrimination and The Wing was guilty of both.

RPO: What's your favorite thing to write about?

RF: There’s a challenge embedded in every attempt to convey an event as it happened—whether in one’s mind or in real life—for the benefit of someone who didn’t witness it. I’m most excited whenever I find myself describing a scene that can’t easily be Googled for visual affirmation. It’s such a labor of love to describe an exact shade of red that caught my eye, or a flicker of emotion that crossed someone’s face. Because it’s all up for interpretation, it feels like a truly creative exercise, rather than straightforward reportage.

RPO: When you were a high-schooler, how did you envision your career and your future? How, when and why did you choose to become a writer? Describe the roads you took to get where you are today, and tell me about any challenges or surprises.

RF: In high school, I wanted to design clothes, which, like most creative endeavors, I saw as an activity with world-making possibilities; an opportunity to bring to life something that only exists in your mind’s eye. I’d always been encouraged to focus on a more “practical” path, so I wasn’t able to rack up the amount of art classes or skills I would have needed to really pursue that goal, so I went off to college frankly stumped as to what I planned to do with my life.

I’ve always been a voracious reader of all sorts of genres, but there was always a vast chasm between the subject matter that excited me and the titles that were taught in English classes. In college, I took an English course about ‘60s culture and counterculture, and it was like a nest egg of possibility cracked open for me. I wrote papers about Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Walt Disney and the Weathermen and suddenly saw how all of them were relevant and important topics with ties to the past and the present.

After college, I flailed around a bit before falling into copywriting, which has remained my primary method of earning a salary while I write longer form pieces for other outlets on the side. Over the years, I’ve been surprised to find that, more than just being a source of steady income, I genuinely enjoy copywriting—advertising and marketing are methods of communication that we’re all continuously steeped in, so it’s a real skill to be able to develop copy that rises above the noise and convinces people to see what your brand/product/initiative/etc. is all about.

RPO: In your recent article “What We Want: Allies Who Do More than Instagram,” you write: "Racism is a fortress, skyscraper-tall with a massive subterranean foundation and designed to protect some while leaving others exposed and at risk." I couldn't agree more. How can we remain optimistic that this fortress can be demolished when it's foundation is, indeed, massive? What gives you hope?

RF: To continue with the fortress metaphor, I think that time, changing attitudes, and direct action continues to chip away at the aboveground portions of it—it’s the subterranean foundation that really requires all of us to our due diligence and then some to dismantle.

I think that hope is like happiness in that it can sometimes be regarded as a necessary mainstay when in actuality, it ebbs and flows and sometimes dries up altogether. Right now, I remain hopeful for our collective capacity to do better because it’s difficult for me to wrap my head around what reality will look like in the future if we don’t.

RPO: What do you view as the most daunting three factors standing in the way of racial equality? Are those the same impediments that prohibit gender equality?

RF: Any imbalance of power will leave its beneficiary reluctant to relinquish it, so fear, self-interest, and apathy will naturally impede any progress made toward leveling the playing field. I think that these elements can also get in the way of achieving gender equality, but they can’t be neatly compared, as there are intersecting and often overlapping power dynamics at play. Regardless of your identity, I think it’s worth asking yourself what you’d be willing to give up in order to create a fairer world and work through the discomfort that arises from there.

RPO: How does the act of writing empower you?

RF: Writing allows me to explore, affirm, my version of reality (and at times, construct an entirely new one) in a world that often seeks to do it for me—without my best interests at heart.

RPO: Please describe one of your biggest life-changing moments or epiphanies that shaped you into the woman you are today.

RF: I don’t think that I’ve had any epiphanies per se, but I’ve come to realize that while the truth may hurt, it’s not necessarily harmful. Whether in life or in writing, I’ve often been terrified of being truthful for fear of retaliation or some other negative outcome, but if a truth exists and there are forces that are seeking to keep it hidden, I’ve learned that it’s not the former that’s the problem; it’s the latter.

RPO: What are you most proud of?

RF: Being decent, working hard, and always trying again.

RPO: What's one thing about you few people know?

RF: I say yes to opportunities that scare me right away, before I have the chance to talk myself out of it.

RPO: Do you have a personal mantra, motto, or affirmation?

RF: “I’m not afraid.” A lot of times, it’s not true, but it often helps me power through the obstacle at hand.