Let us educate the chauvinistic 'feminist-haters'!
I had a friend in middle school who was convinced she was going to be the first female president. She told me time and time again that boys are not any better than girls, that she or I or any other girl in the entire world could take on any task that is male-dominated and that I should never forget that. She explained to me that people may try to make me believe that men are bigger, better, and smarter than women, and that I should refuse that notion. Kate was a part of a community that wanted to not only prove to the world that women are strong, equal, and capable creatures that should not be downsized by anyone, but to prevent women from being criticized for having these beliefs. And I envied her.
I became interested in Kate's different political and social views and quickly began to define myself as a feminist. I had no idea that by giving myself that label I would be considered a man-hating, bra-burning, crazy-ass politically incorrect lesbian. Ugh, for Christ's sake! I believed that women are just as good as men, not any better and definitely not any worse (although I'm not too fond of the chauvinistic jerks that called me ugly names, but who would be?!) I soon realized that there was a lot more to being a feminist than just being proud to have been created to have child-bearing hips, chubby cheeks, an icky reproductive menstrual cycle, and large breasts.
So I never gave much thought to the fact that women haven't always had the same rights as men. I think that women often just thought that was the way it was SUPPOSE to be. We have always been taught that life is not always fair but a few amazingly beautiful and smart people finally started to understand that this is something that should just not be tolerated. Society began to evolve when some of these awesome revolutionists confronted their fellow women by saying, “Hey! What the hell, girls? Aren't you sick of being shat on by not only men, but other women who are convinced that we will never live up to the standards of men? Don't you want to express yourself in a way that people will learn from and appreciate? I KNOW you girls don't always feel like fixing your hair and makeup to be considered 'sexually appealing' to others! Let's do something about this!�
Reading Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards' article from Manifesta, A Day Without Feminism, I thought about how lucky I am to have the rights I DO have within today's society. The authors took me back almost forty years ago to a day in the life of women who had no rights to be free and equal people. They explained that it was normal during that time for women to be mislead or misinformed about sex, to be given male-biased academic tests, major only in teaching, home economics, english, or maybe a language, and hardly allowed to serve in the military. The thing that urked me most within this reading was that women were expected to be sexually attractive at all times. “Sex appeal is a job requirement, wearing makeup is a rule, and women are fired if they exceed the age or weight deemed sexy.� (p. 7) UGH! I personally don't think I should feel LUCKY to not be under that kind of pressure in most of our society today, but I do. I just feel that this is how it should have been all along. (Yet we do still have a long way to go.)
I feel lucky to be able to take this course because I know that I could learn so much more about feminism. Already from Bell Hooks' Feminism is For Everybody to Manifesta and Tidal Waves, so much has been brought to my attention and raised my awareness about the "issue". I think that no matter who a person is or what their beliefs are on the topic of feminism, they should take some sort of women's studies course (or maybe find my dear friend Kate who will help them out). At least then uneducated, ignorant people would have some education about female activism and feminist theories and will stop calling proud innocent 12 year old girls (or anyone for that matter) politically incorrect lesbians! (Even if some feminists are lesbians, some lesbians don't classify themselves as feminists..so what?)