girls and feminism
When I was younger, I remember thinking that feminism was a nice way of saying lesbian, or a way of labeling a girl as “different.” One thing is for sure, it was a degrading term that my mother would become suspiciously aware of if it ever found its way into our Southern Baptist home. In high school, my best friend was a lesbian and my mother seriously warned me against hanging out with her or inviting her over for fear that I would “catch” her sexual orientation. A self-proclaimed “hippie” during the 1960’s, I would have thought that my mom would recognize this kind of oppression. I wasn’t allowed to have my friend over, but that didn’t stop me from maintaining our friendship. It was then that I learned that feminism was a state of mind, of activism, and that it had nothing to do with who you were attracted to.
Working with Young Women’s Leaders Program, I have come to learn that feminism can be learned as a girl without ever placing the attitudes of feminism as “feminist.” Unfortunately, this term still carries with it a negative connotation. What we learn growing up and the experiences we have as girls, lay the foundation for the feminists we have become and the activism we choose to engage in. As such, Girls Studies functions in an important role in relation to Women’s Studies and feminism. Both Girls Studies and Womens Studies are areas of academic study that allow women (and girls) the freedom to explore their own individual girl power in a culture that discourages female power and comradery. Both studies focus on the social influences and cultural situations that affect the lives of women and girls and draw attention to the fact that we should look to “fix the culture and not the girl” (pg. 23 “All About The Girl”).
A progressive movement that allows women to not fixate themselves on age or situation, feminism allows girls and women to connect to eachother in an effort to strengthen understanding and generate a change in the way the world treats women and the way women treat eachother. Instead of oppressing eachother, women are encouraged to be who they want to be, not flooded with images of women they aren’t capable of being (“fake women,” like the ones who are airbrushed into perfection in magazines and the media).
An example of girls “doing” feminism:
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