14 year old girl reality
I rode the greyhound today behind three girls who actually live in the 14 year old girl game. It was shocking and ridiculous. At one point the conversation went like this:
Loud Girl: Yeah I'm a Women's Studies minor, but like, my boyfriend said to me "you're not going to become a man hater are you?" and I was like, no, I'm interested in Women's Studies but I'm definitely not a bra-burner.
Blond girl: Yeah I'm definitely not a feminist.
iPod Girl: Yeah me neither.
Loud girl: Yeah I'm totally not a feminist because they're so annoying. I mean, I kind of like that men rule the world. And yeah, remember that episode of wife swap where that feminist yelled at that woman for doing things for her husband? I mean just let people do what they want.
Honest to God truth. I wanted to throw up and yell at them. I didn't say anything though. I couldn't think of a persuasive 'in' to show them how misguided they really are. It's like that ani verse:
people, we are standing at ground zero
of the feminist revolution
yeah, it was an inside job
stoic and sly
one we're supposed to forget
and downplay and deny
but i think the time is nothing
if not nigh
to let the truth out
coolest f-word ever deserves a fucking shout!
i mean
why can't all decent men and women
call themselves feminists?
out of respect
for those who fought for this
i mean, look around
we have this
It just hurts so much to hear people taking everything for granted. And the fact that that one girl was actually a Women's Studies minor!?! I was so riled up when I got home I put on Little Plastic Castle and actually did dishes because I needed desperately to do something with my hands. I wish I hadn't felt so silenced in the moment, but I just wanted so badly to open up their minds that I was afraid I might smash all of their heads together in the process.
posted by Urban Faery at 8:44 PM
4 Comments:
This dialogue is even funnier if you do it in the Teen Girl Squad voices.
6:55 AM
And furthermore:
You can't be angry at someone for the culture they've been raised in, nor can you expect everyone to inherently have the capacity to "see the light" if someone just shows them the way. The truth is that you are the worst stereotype of feminism to a woman like that, and if you talked to her you'd probably just confirm everything that makes her not want to be a feminist in the first place. Sadly, someone like that probably needs an authoritative male to tell them she's fucked up in order for her to even begin to see it, and even then it's questionable at best as to whether she'll be able to understand the nuances of your opinion. It's not so much that these people are oppressed, as that they're so thoroughly indoctrinated into patriarchal capitalist culture that they truly believe that a) they're free (because "freedom" is the advertising campaign that sells this mode of oppression to the masses... like those damn Alesse ads), and b) that they're making decisions of their own free will, which nevertheless subtly enforce the stereotypes that keep them down.
But tend your own garden, my dear, and sooner or later they'll discover that Tampax causes incurable bone cancer. Then we'll be free.
8:17 AM
I recognize that their words and opinions are a product of the culture they have been raised in and that is precisely why I said nothing. There was nothing I could say that wouldn't result in them seeing me as an angry lesbian feminist bra-burner. So I kept my mouth shut. I'm not angry at them for the culture they have been raised in. I'm angry that this culture continues to be a problem and as I am in my little feminist Box/Women's Resource Centre bubble events like this tend to shock me back into the realization that the patriarchal capitalist system continues to thrive and nurture the thoughts and opinions that were exemplified in those girls no matter how many events I participate in or how many articles I read.
1:17 PM
Yeah, pretty much. But what's glorious about you - and yes, I do rather enjoy you - is that you're willing to occasionally extend your feminist bubble outwards a tad and thereby change the world, if on a seemingly-small scale at the time. You've already made me a better feminist, and look at the reach I've got!
MAN I'm a big freakin' dyke huh. I really oughta get a vagina.
2:00 PM
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