Anastasia Smith: 24, sisterless and searching.
EARLIER THIS SUMMER, I was quite disappointed to hear many young women call in to the morning show on my local NPR station saying they didn’t call themselves feminists simply because they hated the word “feminism.” It made them uncomfortable. If I could find those women today, I would show them this lovely graphic representation of a Kate Nash quotation. It continues after the jump.
Made by Maren, via Leigh at Marvelous Kiddo.
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THIS GUSTAV KLIMT painting has always spoken to me.
First time here? Here's the idea: The Sister Project is a network of blogs about the many facets of the word sister, and the concept of sisterhood. A sisterhood of sister blogs, you could say. Whatever sister means to you, from identical twin to sister-in-law (or in friendship or in feminism), we’ll make room to listen in about it or express it on TSP. Like the slogan up top on our homepage says, “Don’t you have something to say to your sister?” We've got galleries of art and literature by and about sisters, and a Sisterpedia of sisterly trivia...but now we're getting ahead of ourselves. The quick study: Learn more about TSP, and how to find your way around. And oh—a giant, sisterly welcome.
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And that’s why I’m a feminist.
Yes.
(also, fittingly, I’m mentioning feminism over at jekyllian, too! great minds, they say.)
My favorite quote about the word feminism is from Ani Difranco:
“Feminism ain’t about equality, it’s about reprieve.”
Very cool.
Sounds as if our young women need a little background story, and this quote would come in handy. Kudos :)
It has been fascinating to me to watch MadMen with my young adult daughter (she was born in ’83 – I was born in ’53 and grew up during the era portrayed – just a little older than the Draper brood). The show, while only providing snapshots and those admittedly crafted for dramatic effect, gives a startling glimpse at how far we have come as women along with how very far we have yet to go.
It is dangerously easy to take the advances of the past half century for granted. It is during those times when things are “not so bad”, that we run the greatest risk of failing to push forward.
Fact is, most women around the globe are still mired in the bad old days. This is no time to become complacent or skittishly shoved aside by label aversion.
Funny how a word like “feminism” can be such a turn off to women. Really the word is meant to empower women to work together on passions they share. It has nothing to do with hate. That is why I like the idea of The Sister Project :)
Funny how feminists still need someone to take care of them…. Seems to me that they’ve just replaced a man with the government…
Those in power seem to have a lot of difficulty understanding how other people could be oppressed and attribute their resistance (feminism, black power, etc) to hatred. An unfortunate effect of this is since those in power are, well, in power, they control much of the discourse around these issues and it becomes easier to get confused about what words like feminism means. I agree with CopyStrands that this is why I like TSP!
Thank you for continuing to shed light on the seriousness of “feminism”. This post along with the earlier Bob Herbert post are a great contribution to the freedom and equality of all people, even those who don’t believe they deserve it.
A-freakin’-MEN!