Feminista: A modern feminist perspective

[Columns, letters or cartoons published are the work of the attributed author and do not necessarily represent the official views or opinions of “The Highland Echo.”]

It’s hard to believe that it’s already Spring semester. And that I survived thesis. And that this is my last

semester writing this column.

Since this is my last go at publishing this beast, I would like to make it run as smoothly as possible.

So I have a plan. Listen up, because this is rare.

When I wrote for a women’s center newsletter in Massachusetts, we had a yearly theme that we
wrote about. These themes were things like women and health, women in the media, inspiring women,
and women and sexuality.

I plan to write about these three themes, in that particular order, for the rest of the semester. Since
feminism is so vast, I think an outline of sorts might be useful. Or maybe I have just been writing way too
many papers in the past few months.

Why these issues, you ask? Honestly, I chose them because they are the three things that matter to
me personally the most.

The old adage “write what you know” had a heavy hand in my decision.

However, I did not just decide on a magic four topics that I really wanted to talk about because I
thought they were interesting. I also thought they were all particularly relevant.

Women’s health is something that has become a hugely popular debate topic in the political world in
the past few years. Oddly enough, I have met tons of people who actually know next to nothing about
women’s health, even and especially people who identify as women.

Women’s health is often something that women and men are reluctant to discuss, and it’s time to
tear the veil off the vagina and admit that boobs try to kill us in ways that you cannot dress up with a
pretty pink ribbon.

The media controls the way that we function as a society and individuals more than I think we realize.
Women are simultaneously underrepresented and hyper-sexualized. Used as tools in a male-dominated
society, women either play by the rules of the media in patriarchy or get left out.

There can be no movement without leaders. In the feminist tradition, there are many women who
paved the way for me and for other feminists. I have met so many strong women who influenced my life
and inspired me to continue doing what I love to do in the face of constant opposition.

Women and sexuality is closely related to women and gender. Since there are basically unlimited
ways to be a woman and people who identify as women embody their gender in distinct ways, the topic
needs to be discussed.

The essence of feminism is that all genders and gender variations are equally valid and part of the
human experience. The problem is that society functions under a largely binary, heternormative set of
rules that leave out lots of way to express femininity. Acknowledging and supporting different ways of

being a woman is arguably the single most important thing that feminism can do for our society at this
point.

Hopefully, you think that these things are important too.

Or maybe everything I just said is completely foreign to you and you have no idea how someone
could care. Either way, stick with me.

I’m bound to piss you off or make you laugh, probably at the same time.