Feminism is for Everybody

For the last year or so my best friend has been trying to convince me that it’s okay to be a feminist. For a long time I didn’t identify myself as a feminist because of those connotations; men-haters, riot-grrrls (although I love bikini kill), shoulder pads. I had that stereotypical perception that feminism was for those radical women who were out to get men and alienate themselves. This is what I thought feminism was.
I now have been identifying myself as a feminist for about 6 months. The road that brought me to that conclusion was a rather unorthodox way, but my way none the less. It was through the birth control pill. It may seem even stranger to say that I discovered I was feminist through my refusal to take the pill; a hallmark gain for the women’s liberation movement. From another angle you could say that it was really through an Our Bodies Ourselves revelation.
Since I have been in college I have been turned on to all sorts of radical ways of thinking. As a freshman I started going to EARTH club meetings which then lead me to discover Earth First and SDS. From an environmental stand point I began to question not only what sorts of chemicals we spread all over the earth but what sorts of chemicals we put in our bodies. I first became a vegetarian, then I tried to eat only organic, then I started questioning other chemicals like medicines. It was this chain of realizations that lead to my refusal of hormonal/chemical birth control. It was also at this point in my life that I became involved in a serious relationship.
It was a hard and paranoid road for me to make this decision. I felt stupid most of the time. I made myself sick on the morning after pill once. Mostly I just felt completely in the dark. Over the summer I discovered an alternative; one that gave me confidence and empowered me as a woman. The name of the first book I read was Honoring Our Cycles. It taught that most women are not taught about their bodies. They do not know exactly why they have periods, when they are fertile, why their cycles are irregular or why they break out in acne sometimes. It taught me how to chart my cycles as a way to gauge my health, predict my period and potentially use as a birth control method (in conjunction with condoms). It made me realize that the pill just makes us ignorant of how our bodies work (I don’t condone the pill, just for myself). From here I went on to read other books that taught about alternative gynecological health. It was an amazing feeling to feel empowered; to know something about myself that should have been reveled long ago; to understand what is happening every month; to be aware of myself. I was so excited that I wanted to share this with every woman I knew.
My best friend Meredith, who had been trying to get me to go to NOW meetings since we were freshmen, was so excited that I finally knew what it meant to be a feminist. I was aware of myself and therefore empowered with the ability to choose what I want. She gave me Feminism is For Everybody as well as Our Bodies Ourselves to read; she showed blogs like feministing.com and womanistmusings.com; and tuned me into this online news segment called Target Women. I was totally hooked.
I had the fire to share what I had been teaching myself about my body with all my womanfriends. In November my roommates and I started hosting Alternative Women’s Health meetings at our house. I really wanted to have an open forum where we all could share knowledge and concerns we had about ourselves. From kitchen table discussions I had discovered that there was a lot I didn’t know about being a women and that I knew a lot that others didn’t. We had thoughts ranging from what herbs to take for cramps to side effects of the pill to health risks with bras to not washing your vagina with soap (I could go on). I thought that if we joined collectively we would be able to empower each other to make proactive decisions about our health. (we even started a blog: http://www.womenshealthcollective.blogspot.com/).
From here I wanted to learn about the other sides of feminism. I began to realize more of what it meant to be a woman in today’s society. I am a geography major and I have learned about women globally from population, economic, agriculture and political points of view. I see how globally women are a minority and their voices are often stifled despite how much rests upon their shoulders. I want to take a women’s studies course so I can have a foundation to critically look at the struggles of women in the world. I also want to take it as way to further empower myself as a woman. There is so much that happens everyday that we take for granted, that when looked at through the lens of feminism we really are aware of where we are in society.