Why We Still Need Feminism.

[Music]

so

i want you to take a moment to think

about the women

that have inspired you in your life i’ve

always been surrounded by strong women

my mother and aunties are almost all

under 5'3

but they have this quality where they

seem larger than life because of the way

they always stand up for themselves and

their beliefs

we all get this from my granny who we

affectionately call puffer fish

because she’s absolutely tiny but she’s

the most terrifying person to argue with

i was always raised to believe that i

could be anything and i never felt held

back because of my gender

this is because of those great women i

grew up around

and because of the activists that paved

the way for my generation

and to them i’m endlessly grateful

but i’ve heard a worry in common lately

i’ve heard people who say

feminism is great but we don’t need it

anymore

i think i find this so deeply upsetting

because i know that a few years ago

i would have been one of the women

saying this you see

i’ve barely faced discrimination in my

life but i’m incredibly privileged

i’m a white cis middle-class woman and

this

all shapes how the world views and

treats me

the younger me tough that feminism had

done its job

when i didn’t feel discriminated against

based on my gender

but i now know that feminism can only

have done its job

when no woman is discriminated against

for any reason

between thinking that feminism had done

its job and now

i learned of great women inspirational

women

like marsha p johnson a black trans

woman who threw the first brick at

stonewall

eva gorbouth who fought against the

homophobia and classism in the suffrage

movement

helen keller who fought against ableism

and the use of nuclear weapons

women who all highlight an incredibly

important term

intersectionality intersectionality

is the connected nature between all

social categorizations

such as race gender sexuality

nationality and so on so forth

intersectional activism

is activism which acknowledges that most

causes are intertwined

i only learned this word around a year

ago and unless you’re involved in some

movement or you took some obscure

elective in college

the chances are you haven’t heard it

either i think this is quite harmful

because it leads to this idea that all

movements are fighting against each

other for attention

rather than fighting together towards a

common goal

i believe we see another worrying side

effect when certain people are excluded

from feminism

shamefully trans women are often

excluded from feminism

by trans exclusionary radical feminists

or turfs

the most recent example of this being

j.k rowling’s tweet

and subsequent essay on why she doesn’t

view trans women as women

not only is it ridiculous to exclude a

woman from feminism

simply because she was assigned male at

birth it is also almost comical

that in 2020 there is women being

discriminated against

and instead of standing with our sisters

we isolate them further

feminism started as a movement for all

women

but there’s this cocky cutter idea of

what a feminist is that’s perpetuated by

pop culture

it’s by no means a new phenomenon but

it’s something i’ve only noticed

recently

i believe it started when the only great

women i learned about

were women like emmeline pankhurst white

wealthy

well-educated women who may have fought

for women’s rights

but fits society’s standards in every

other way

this is the acceptable face of feminism

at the start of this talk i asked you to

think about a woman

who inspired you in your life now

i ask you to take your feminism a step

further

i challenge you to find a woman unlike

anyone you’ve ever known

find her and be inspired by her story

find her and vow to fight for trans

women

women of color queer women disabled

women

women working in sweatshops sex workers

feminism

started as a movement for all women and

it’s our job

to make sure it remains a movement for

all women thank you

[Music]

you