Journal #5: Manifesta

My favorite quote in “Still Manifesting Feminism” was, “…it is necessary to acknowledge and value those younger people who continue to identify new issues and new tactics. And more important than labeling the feminism is identifying the power that comes from simply living feminist lives – there are more women and men than ever taking of the rights that other generations put into place. That is perhaps the best indication of a healthy feminist future.” This quote was very reassuring to me and gives me hope for the future and the role I can play in feminism. I often find myself really discouraged by my inability to directly affect issues that are important to me. I also get discouraged by the ignorance surrounding feminism, LGBT rights, racism, and transphobia. From small, chauvinistic comments to hearing of another trans person killed on the news, it often feels like the world is in a perpetual one step forward, two steps back cycle. This quote reassured me that the feminist movement is alive and well and there are men and women across the world working to raise awareness of feminist issues and also reassured me that I can be part of the movement.

After reading both introductions, I felt that I connected with Jennifer Baumgardner the most. I thought Jennifer’s tone in her writing was more passionate and enraged than Amy’s tone. I connect with Jennifer’s outrage surrounding issues of privilege, racial inequality, and gender inequality. She opens with her experience going to a restaurant and seeing trendy, lazy, white employees in the front while the Mexican kid in the back did all the work. I’m also inspired by her work as a writer for a feminist magazine because, ideally, I think I’d like to be a writer and activist for a magazine if my writing skills were stronger!

In “A Day Without Feminism” I found the paragraph about the stigma surrounding young women having premarital sex, the difficulties of receiving an abortion, and limited access to birth-control the most poignant. I selected this point because there is still a stigma around premarital sex, abortion, and birth control today. The fact that women had to live in or fly to New York, Cuba, or Scandinavia to receive a legal abortion really stuck with me. I firmly believe that women should have full say of their bodies. So the fact that abortions, as well as birth control, were so difficult to come across made me really upset. Today, women do have clinics and means of receiving legal abortions and birth control. However, some people are fighting to take women’s rights to receive an abortion away from them. There is still a stigma around young girls who have premarital sex. There is also an an extreme double standard when it comes to how many people a young woman has slept with and how many people a young man has slept with. Guys who sleep with a lot of girls do not receive the same backlash that girls who sleep with a lot of guys receive. It is unfair that women have been and still are criticized and shamed for being sexual beings while men are praised for it.