"That" Girl & Proud

RaeLynn Barott

Gender, Race, and Popular Culture (230-1)

Photo/Blog Post Assignment

March 30^th, 2015

           

We have all, at one point or another, encountered “that” girl. The girl who “just wants attention,” the girl who “can’t take a joke,” or the girl who “can’t take a compliment.” The girl with “a bad attitude,” or the girl who refuses to “act like a lady.” We all know one of those “man-hating, bra-burning, button-wearing, annoying, angry feminists.” Those girls who make a scene and go off on feminist rants when someone makes a sexist remark or a joke about rape, and “ruin all the fun.”

            If being “that” girl means refusing to be apathetic towards injustice, refusing to pass up the opportunity to advocate for self-love and loving others, then “that” girl is me. I am “that” feminist girl, and I am absolutely proud of it. Being aware of how pervasive misogyny is in our culture, as well as constantly noticing the ways it is perpetuated in every day life, is agonizing and exhausting, but it is empowering. The day I realized I was a feminist was the day I began to love myself. Feminism has guided me on a path of self-discovery and self-love, and has taught me true compassion.

            To be apathetic is to be compliant, and I refuse to be complicit in my own dehumanization. When I speak up against injustice, I am standing up for not only myself, but for others as well. Feminism is the reason I can go to school, get a job, and vote. I have all the opportunities I have all because women’s rights activists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton and Alice Paul, to name a few, decided to speak up. Change cannot happen unless people speak up. I am willing to be thought of as annoying and I am willing to sacrifice the approval of others in order to advocate for justice. I choose to be “that” girl, for the sake of my own happiness as well as other’s. Feminism is not a dirty word, and I am happy to be an advocate for it. I am “that” annoying feminist, and I am proud.