Why I Needed Feminism Then

Well hi there! My name is ladylikesailormouth and I am a new to the blogging world and getting more comfortable dipping my toes into the waves of feminism. I realized during college I had always been a feminist, but I just never quite understood how to put my feelings into words. I have become a more outspoken woman with strong opinions whenever someone tries to tell me I can’t do something “because I’m a girl”. However, the journey to even get where I am hasn’t been all unicorns and sparkles. There were periods of time in my life where being “outspoken” wasn’t always an opinion. Let’s examine exhibit A, shall we? My experience in high school.

High school sucks. Granted, to it’s advantage it is not middle school horrific, but still sucks.

Going to high school in a two stop light, cornfield neighboring, always red on election day small town with more rumors than people was not necessarily a breeding ground for feminist thought and equality. Feminism was a dirty word in high school, with teenage girls thinking that must mean I’m a lesbian and teenage boys thinking that I must be a bitch. I never used the word feminist back then. I was scared of a label that I felt so connected to that everyone else ran away from like the plague.

Much like Addison felt in her blog post, I didn’t think feminism was needed anymore back then. Women were seemingly equal- we had jobs, we can vote, what’s the problem? 15 year old me didn’t quite understand how to see outside the bubble. Once I started reading and shedding my small town mentality, I began to see the injustices in the world. I saw how I was treated in response to my brash, “masculine” behavior as well as my fondness for swearing, similar to how ladychaotica21 felt in her post last semester. I got looked down on for supporting issues politically like women’s health and reproductive rights. When several of my friends and I started a gay- straight alliance you would have thought we wanted to start a club worshipping the flying spaghetti monster by how the administration reacted. It took several years to even have the administration approve the gay- straight alliance and the move to enact it at our school had to handed off to other students because original groundbreakers for the club were graduating- THAT is how long it took.

Events like this shook me awake from my bubble. I realized the people around me, such as my friends and family, may be on my side of feminist thoughts and equality, but not everyone is. I want this blog to be my response to the cruel world I got smacked with coming through high school. I want to be able to talk about my thoughts on feminism in order to develop who I am as a feminist and what I believe in.

This semester I really want to focus on teen and college girls and the pressures on sexuality, beauty, and feminine expectations. I also am really interested in how we socialize our children into gender and why I feel like I have to give my girl cousins Barbies and not Hot Wheels. By understanding gender early on I feel like we can have a better idea of how we develop into adults and the thoughts on feminism that follow. If you all (or how I shall lovingly refer to as yall as that is the only part of my Southern heritage I enjoy) have any ideas or topics you would like to here about, leave them in the comments below! I would love to hear from yall.

I am excited for a crazy semester of feminist discourse, discovering myself, and finding my voice to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. Hop on the ride.