I haven’t talked about this much on the blog, but I am wholeheartedly a feminist and believe very deeply in learning and talking about feminist issues, as well as the issues of race, class and privilege that go hand in hand with feminism. I believe everyone should be a feminist, despite how scary that word and its connotations can be, and despite all the misconceptions about what feminism is and isn’t. It can be a very polarizing issue and sometimes talking about these issues can get tensions high and people’s backs up. Unfortunately, there are too many disadvantaged groups of people and too many awful occurrences to not have these discussions.
I remember when I had my “feminist awakening” – when I woke up to the fact that there did exist real inequalities and issues that I previously hadn’t even considered before. I was in my second year, taking a course on the sociology of gender with one of my best friends, and I think that I can safely say: that semester opened our eyes to everything from the pay gap to rape culture to chore division to domestic violence to beauty standards and more. Not long after, I was so interested in learning more that I changed my minor from Sociology to Women’s Studies and took summer courses in feminist theory to make up the credits I needed.
I think that feminism is both important and fascinating. More importantly, I think it’s necessary since we collectively still have so much work that needs to be done. Recently, I’ve tried not to annoy my friends and family with my observations and conversations, since I know that I get very passionate and sometimes cynical about this stuff. The last thing I want to do is scare even more people away from feminism. Nowadays, I try to engage people in friendly debate and point out things I find troubling, while trying not to be too pushy or overbearing (with varying degrees of success, of course).
This week on the podcast, Laura and I are talking about feminism 101. We tried to make our conversation as approachable and helpful as we could without being overwhelming or alarmist. Our podcast is billed as a health and wellness show, and so we know that this topic is a little different from what we usually cover. At the same time, we think an awareness of feminist issues is important for any well-rounded adult, regardless of what you ultimately choose to believe in or fight for. Not to mention the fact that many feminist issues are about the health and wellness of women and other disadvantaged minority groups. To Laura and I, it makes sense to cover this topic on our show.
You can find this week’s episode and show notes right here. In the show notes, we mention some really approachable writers, vloggers and podcasters who can break it down even further and help to make feminism more accessible to you if you’d like to learn more about it. As always, thank you for your respect, and for reading and/or listening to what I have to say.
If you’re interested in reading more on this topic, I’ve written more about the Who Needs Feminism? campaign here and two great feminist documentaries here and here.
