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