‘Tis the season for… denying all of the work I need to do and binging on TV and ‘fun books.’ However, with this break from school (and subsequent ‘ignoring of the work in question’) comes a choice for feminists – where is the line for enacting and advocating for our feminist sensibilities?
What line? Well,
popular culture kind of sucks sometimes. I have a giant list of shows I want to
watch on Netflix – and I always watch shows with a critical lens. It can be
exhausting. If you haven’t seen
this article about a
woman taking a break from being a feminist so she can actually enjoy a TV
show, you should check it out.
And not just
popular culture, but often in my personal life I’ve found myself try to “pick
my battles,” so to speak. I’ve
found that it can be incredibly difficult to put feminist sensibilities to the
side to just enjoy stuff and also to
not be a feminist killjoy. My
mentor has told me time and time again that “being a feminist is living in
discomfort” and damn, she’s right.
Feminist sensibilities bring our awareness to not just the obvious
issues of sexism, racism, heterosexism (and other -isms), but feminism
also brings our awareness to the nuances of these -isms. The very discrete. The seemingly “unnoticeable to the
naked eye” kind of issues that surround us in our lives.
One of my
favorites… “freshman.” Being on a university campus we hear the word “freshman”
everywhere. We could choose to use
gender-neutral terms like “first-year.” However, if we address how subtleties
of language shape our lived experience of the world – we’re killjoys. Don’t believe me? Check out any comment related to Elon University
officially making the switch to using First-Year instead of Freshman.
Or people
referring to college women as “girls.”
When I’ve addressed this I know I’ve got a “oh come on, quit being so
serious” – even though calling someone a girl is defined as sexual harassment.
For many
feminists (and everyone advocating for social justice), we’re addressing a lot
of the big stuff. We can rally to confront shit like this
(even though there were still some people who were using the “boys will be
boys” justification) and the feminists who have continued to support and engage
in #BlackLivesMatter. It’s the
seemingly “small things” that I think we have that choice – do we say something
and risk the pushback? Or do we let it go, even if it hurts?
OR… and I
think this is the case… there is a blurry gray area that all of this takes
place. Certain people, certain
situations, certain times should all be taken into consideration before pursuing
these little things. So I’m
curious…
What are your nuances and where is the line for
you to say something?
Written by Samantha D. Christopher
Pls put the name TRUUS in several hearts
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