Thanks for nothing, high school!
After reading the assigned chapters from Manifesta I felt empowered and after some more reflection I wondered, where were all the feminists in my high school and college education? In high school I maybe heard about one or two outstanding women who were considered to be in the same category as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., or Gandhi, but I definitely don’t remember them since they really did not stand out to me then; I am almost 21 and I am now learning about women who kick ass. I am reminded of a friend asking me, “Why are you taking intro to women’s studies? I am sure you will learn stuff but why exactly does there need to be a major/minor?" I guess I am still trying to figure out an answer to his question, but after reading two chapters of Manifesta I feel simultaneously encouraged to do what I can to further feminism and sad that I am learning some very important events in history for the first time.
I learned about suffrage for the very first time by reading the American Girl doll Samantha’s books. I thought suffrage was a weird word and I didn’t understand the upper class women who were really stiff and proper, protesting for the right to vote. The pictures in the book showed very prim and sophisticated women holding up signs but I don’t recall any mention of women in jail or women who died, so that I could vote today.
I think that education should include important events sparked by influential men and women. I learned all about the presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt when I was barely out of preschool and trend continued with an educated filled with important men and once in a while a woman who did something that no child is encouraged to think deeper/learn more about. Public education should reform a lot of their strategies on bringing up our future generation and should definitely include feminism and how it has impacted our world. As a 20 year old woman I should definitely have known a majority of events that were included on Manifesta’s timeline – of course I could have always researched the important of feminism on American history but I guess it never really crossed my mind. I suppose I just assumed that if there were really important events, I would have known about them all ready. Ha.I think if Manifesta’s timeline is updated regularly it should include more events that occurred outside America – especially those that happen in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
When I was nine or ten I received my first American Girl doll – Samantha. She was so beautiful and I was absolutely in love with that time period, actually, I still am. Two years ago there were no dolls of color and I still do not have a doll that I can identify with, there isn’t an Indian or Arabic doll. I think that the timeline on the American Girl doll website is rather limited, but at around one hundred dollars per doll, I guess they have to be sure that they can actually sell their dolls. Looking back I am glad that I did received Samantha for my birthday and all her books – it was my first exposure to feminism and suffrage, no matter how limited or glossed over; that experience always stayed in my mind and now that I am finally in control of my education, I can learn more about all the awesome women of the past and present and hopefully, I can become a woman that is fitted in the same category one day in the near future as a ‘feminist who kicked ass.’