31 days of feminism: day 1

31 days of feminism: day 1

I would like to embark on a gentle exploration of my relationship to feminism. Several summers ago I read bell hook's "all about love" and I fell in love. bell hooks gave me a written expression of feminism that I could sink my teeth into. It begins with recognizing the personal as political. With this agenda I am able to look at my day-to-day life in the context of a bigger (political?) perspective. Feminism is a word I admittedly (ignorantly?) use without a comprehensive knowledge of its herstory of use. Nonetheless, feminism holds an abundance of meaning for me. There is a rich complexity to it that I don't intend to minimize. My focus however is on the personal sphere of knowledge that encompases my life experiences.

Tonight I picked up Kristen Suh, creator of The Pussyhat Project,'s "DIY Rules for a WTF World: How to Speak Up, Get Creative, and Change The World." How's that for a title? She found a place in my heart within minutes and she reawakened the feeling of feminism's importance to me. I am so excited to be intentionally re-entering a community that celebrates femininity and explores how anyone can own their power to change the world.

Why and how does feminism speak to me?

In part because, in order to live better and love better, it is of great importance to me to be able to generously and compassionately love myself. And loving myself means loving and accepting my femininity.

Six years ago with insurance and access to therapy I began my journey of opening up to different ways of learning to love. Since puberty I battled suicidal ideations and thought patterns of self-loathing. I arrived at college, and despite my dedicated efforts in my teen years at self-improvement through religious practice and academic accomplishments, put simply, I still hated myself. I am so grateful to the therapists who modeled gentle curiousity, kindness, and compassionate understanding in our sessions... The art of that form of listening is a feminist practice in the way that I understand feminism...

I'm not sure if I can explain how feminism brought me back to the path of love, but I know it has... And in the next month (plus forever?) I want to reflect on how feminism brings me closer to love...