“I need feminism because this is not a consolation prize for my presence.”
I need feminism because… My body type doesn’t specify my gender.
I am a cis-female 20 year old. I am 6’ tall, I have broad shoulders, small boobs, and big feet.
In high school people, people who didn’t know me would assume that I didn’t like feminine things and that I would punch them in the face because of my “man-ish” size.
2 years ago on halloween, I was walking with some friends in the walmart while wearing my favorite dress and a pink wig. A stranger thought it would be appropriate to make a loud comment saying that he couldn’t tell if I was a woman or a man in drag.
I need feminism because I must hide the fact that I would rather dominate a man in a sexual relationship whenever the topic arises, or people think I’m insane.
I have twice been recommended psychiatric help and shunned by ‘friends’ when they figured out I was not into submitting to a guy. One girl asked me “Do you want to be a man?” while another asked if “I was getting help for that.” I’ve since learned to not speak of my preferences when my friends are discussing sex.
Because men are not the “default” setting of humans.
I’m so tired of female characters who are created as extensions of or the “female version” of male ones. I’m tired of this strange notion that males are normal and females are some sort of sub-category.
I need feminism because I’ve been felt up more that I’ve been kissed. (Most of the times were without consent).
I need feminism because I shouldn’t have to pose as a man for my thoughts and complaints to be taken seriously by many online communities.
I need feminism because my sister came home from her English class tonight and told me that while they were discussing the appearance of Disney princesses, a female student commented “They all have huge boobs, and what’s up with that whore the Little Mermaid and those clam shells?”
There is no connection between a woman’s appearance and her choices regarding sexual activity. Nor is there a connection between a woman’s sexual choices and her character or value. And if she does choose to be sexually active with more than one person, that doesn’t make her a sex worker. And even if she is a sex worker, that has no bearing on her character or value either!
We need feminism because…only 20% of authors reviewed by The New York Review of Books are women.
Love, the Feminist Press Interns
I need feminism because I’m tired of people talking to/treating me as if I’m an idiot solely because I am a teenage girl. I’m smarter than most of the people in this goddamned city but I don’t get to prove it because people assume that I’m controlled by hormones, as well as other stereotypes of girls my age.
I need feminism because when I found the courage to confide in my father that I had been raped he looked his little girl in the eyes and told me, “Some boys are like that.”
Perhaps he felt the gender of the assailant excused the actions but I was wounded by this disgusting justification. That was rock bottom for me.
