Thursday Thirteen #2: Feminist Because…?

January 11, 2007 at 1:02 am | Posted in Thursday Thirteen | 10 Comments

Thirteen Reasons Why I Am A Feminist!

1. I am a feminist because, most primarily, of my foremothers that came before me. Because of my mother, my Nana, and my grandmother – probably none of which would’ve called themselves Feminists – but they were. They helped me to develop my sense of feminism before I could put a label on it. My grandmother who birthed 6 children, was shipped around Europe during the second world war, gave birth to my father in Vienna – on a mental table by herself with no doctors around because she wasn’t Austrian, then watched the janitor come mop up her blood. My mother who raised me, worked, suffered depression, and died from it. My Nana who took in foster child after foster child, and taught me about love and respect and caring for other people. They are my foremothers and taught me the importance of being female – and of being oppressed, and of being equal.

2. I am a feminist for my sisters. My sisters who taught me how to be an active young woman and rally for the cause!!!!! Who taught me the meaning of sisterhood and companionship and having one’s back.

3. I am a feminist for my niece and young cousin. Because I watch them get pushed around, and I know how tough their life is going to be growing up female.

4. I am a feminist because I was drugged in a bar. I got lucky, I made it home. If you can call being drugged lucky. I used to consider myself one of the lucky ones for not being a victim of violence. Then I realized that we are all victims of violence in some regard – and no woman should have to consider herself “lucky”.

5. I am a feminist because I want to stop being asked “for the man in charge”. I am “the man in charge”. I am the boss. Just because I’m female doesn’t mean I don’t deserve an equal wage, equal pay, equal benefits and equal respect on the workplace.

6. I am a feminist because I am tired of walking home at night and feeling scared. Or crossing the street to get away from the guy walking down the sidewalk towards me. Of carrying pepper spray in my purse.

7. I am a feminist for all the amazing women in history who have been silenced. For the “herstory” that remains undiscovered. For the herstory that needs to be reclaimed.

8. I am a feminist because I have the right to choose – whatever I want to. I can choose to have an abortion. I can choose to keep my baby. I can choose to give it up for adoption. But it is my right and no one can tell me differently. I am a feminist for legal abortion and the right to legal abortion so that every woman can have the safe and legal right to choice.

9. I am a feminist because women’s work is unpaid, underpaid, and undervalued. Childcare. Education. Nursing. Social Work. Caregiving. Who decides the value of an occupation? A society that benefits the patriarchy. My work is of value and deserves the right to be recognized.

10. I am a feminist for the right to my body. For the beauty of my body, however it may be. Fat, thin, lazy, old, wrinkled, spotted, freckled, hairy, red, puckered, skinny, droopy, curvy. I celebrate my body in all its beauty regardless of the society that tries to tell us how to portray our bodies. To tell us what beauty is.

11. I am a feminist because my health might depend on it. That means women’s health and as such must be treated as only women’s health. Why are people always surprised when women react differently to some prescriptions or medical treatments? Because they were initially developed only on men and women are different. Our physiologies are different and so of course medical procedures should be different.

12. I am a feminist for all the women in the world who are silenced, objectified, violated, murdered. Enough said.

13. I am a Feminist for ME. My right as a person. My right as a woman. My right to be equal.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. racyli

2. Debbie

3. Caylynn

4. Jane

5. Gabrielle

6. Shanna

7. Starrlight

8. Buttercup

9. Nathalie

(leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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