Bring Your Daughters
So I got this idea that feminism to young girls is a lot like listening to our parents music, in a way. When you're young (for me anyways) you grow up listening to your parents music, hearing about their times, their experiences, the concerts and even though the music and time means a lot to them,you can't really/fully relate to it. The beats and the message are not speaking to you, growing up in a new age. The things they attended sound cool, but you don't know that much about that time and what they were searching for. And since you didn't live it first hand you can feel inadequate. That is when you start listening to the total opposite of your parents, they cannot understand it but you love it because it speaks to you, its current, they don't get it and that makes it solely you. Eventually you learn more about your parents and their experiences and once you get to a certain point you can appreciate their music and what it stood for and see how a lot of your own music taste is derived from the past and you incorporate the past tunes into your daily playlist. This is a little all over the place, but what I am trying to symbolize is that feminism, to people who were not exposed to it at an early age, can seem like an awesome past event that took place. Issues that were fought are not always appreciated (like parents music) at a young age and you strive to find your own issues and feel like older women would not understand what you're going through. But they do. And you do not realize it till you are a little older and can see that your issues today are special, but come from what was fought for in the past. And you can incorporate what past feminists stood for into what you stand for now and in that manner feminism becomes a constant continuation-like a family tree,with different branches and issues that are important but at the root is a movement. Like everyones different playlists but some songs everybody knows and loves, and you connect with others by singing along to them together.
Singing along to a song with a group of random people can almost instantly make you relate to each other and share an experience. And that feeling is at the heart of feminism in the fact that it is a collective, a group. That mentality that needs to continue on. As I read about how girls are breaking away from the group idea, " because of a new emphasis on individualization and personal choice that pervades late modern societies, their solutions to these structural problems tend to be individual rather than collective," I became overwhelmed for them (Young Femininity, 196). Girls and older girls (womyn) need a good group atmosphere and feminism can be that. Girls today are in the know and are much more aware of feminism but some are deliberately disassociating themselves with the term. As Sharpe writes, ' the ideas and values they express are still feminist, but by not labeling them as such they miss out on the power and pleasure of shared identification...' that idea needs a good 180 twist. To ideas and values be feminist but also that girls want to associate themselves with it and to have girls realize how diverse yet encompassing feminism can be for them (Young Femininity, 196). It is difficult for the movement to continue and grow if there is inner resentment. Like the idea that second wavers think that girls are ungrateful for the privileges they have now, and that can cause rifts and voids. I like how it was expressed by Jennifer and Amy in All About the Girl (don't know how to italicize) "It hurts to see the manifestations in future generations of what one has longed for for oneself. The feminists who implored gilrs to be "strong, smart and bold" got what they wished for. Some still need to recognize that the wish came true. And perhaps younger women need to share some of their entitlement with older women..." (67). By having girls of all ages (because when do you really become an adult? I still feel like a girl) share and tell their side of the story all the confusion could be erased. Older girls could see what their fight manifested into, like girl rock camps!
My girls doing feminism was the film Girls Rock http://www.girlsrockmovie.com/ which is a movie but also a real camp that has become worldwide! They hand girls the microphone and let their voice be heard, through song. The girls work together in forming a band and in turn build community with each other. Girls doing rock in the name of feminism may not have been what the 2nd wavers were directly fighting for but indirectly it has come from that. Girls can bridge the gap between feminism and those who doubt its authenticity or think it has become to broad by showing its many faces. Girls can be feminine and be a feminist, by keeping in mind that the content of the person is more important and should be the focus rather than what the person is wearing, their accessories their makeup etc. (All About the Girl 62). Older girls can share in their new success with younger girls, whether it be through sharing stories, asking for advice, or doing something creative like a girl rock band. There needs to be a stronger interest for girls to be feminists and only by really showing how amazing, collective and strengthening feminism is can that be accomplished. We still have old myths circulating, but by showing people at a young age what feminism really is, and how they can make it their own, the movement can become stronger and by connecting older girls to younger we can become more unified.
Singing along to a song with a group of random people can almost instantly make you relate to each other and share an experience. And that feeling is at the heart of feminism in the fact that it is a collective, a group. That mentality that needs to continue on. As I read about how girls are breaking away from the group idea, " because of a new emphasis on individualization and personal choice that pervades late modern societies, their solutions to these structural problems tend to be individual rather than collective," I became overwhelmed for them (Young Femininity, 196). Girls and older girls (womyn) need a good group atmosphere and feminism can be that. Girls today are in the know and are much more aware of feminism but some are deliberately disassociating themselves with the term. As Sharpe writes, ' the ideas and values they express are still feminist, but by not labeling them as such they miss out on the power and pleasure of shared identification...' that idea needs a good 180 twist. To ideas and values be feminist but also that girls want to associate themselves with it and to have girls realize how diverse yet encompassing feminism can be for them (Young Femininity, 196). It is difficult for the movement to continue and grow if there is inner resentment. Like the idea that second wavers think that girls are ungrateful for the privileges they have now, and that can cause rifts and voids. I like how it was expressed by Jennifer and Amy in All About the Girl (don't know how to italicize) "It hurts to see the manifestations in future generations of what one has longed for for oneself. The feminists who implored gilrs to be "strong, smart and bold" got what they wished for. Some still need to recognize that the wish came true. And perhaps younger women need to share some of their entitlement with older women..." (67). By having girls of all ages (because when do you really become an adult? I still feel like a girl) share and tell their side of the story all the confusion could be erased. Older girls could see what their fight manifested into, like girl rock camps!
My girls doing feminism was the film Girls Rock http://www.girlsrockmovie.com/ which is a movie but also a real camp that has become worldwide! They hand girls the microphone and let their voice be heard, through song. The girls work together in forming a band and in turn build community with each other. Girls doing rock in the name of feminism may not have been what the 2nd wavers were directly fighting for but indirectly it has come from that. Girls can bridge the gap between feminism and those who doubt its authenticity or think it has become to broad by showing its many faces. Girls can be feminine and be a feminist, by keeping in mind that the content of the person is more important and should be the focus rather than what the person is wearing, their accessories their makeup etc. (All About the Girl 62). Older girls can share in their new success with younger girls, whether it be through sharing stories, asking for advice, or doing something creative like a girl rock band. There needs to be a stronger interest for girls to be feminists and only by really showing how amazing, collective and strengthening feminism is can that be accomplished. We still have old myths circulating, but by showing people at a young age what feminism really is, and how they can make it their own, the movement can become stronger and by connecting older girls to younger we can become more unified.
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