As a girl,

I was unapologetically

A

Feminist.

In the safe cocoon

Of my parents’

Encouragement and

Support

I could talk loud and

Indignant about the

Inequality I was learning

More about

Everyday.

And then

I went out in the world,

To college,

And quickly observed that

Most men–

And, to my dismay,

Lots of women–

Didn’t

Want to

Talk about

Feminism.

That word made people

Roll their eyes and even

Sneer.

And so,

I stopped talking about it.

I put my head down,

And I painstakingly gathered a

Life together that,

I felt,

Wasn’t affected by

The inequality.

“I don’t see it in my life,”

I’d think tremulously

When I did hear

Women talking about the

Persistent

Male-centeredness of our

Society and our

World.

I’ve never been beaten up by

A boyfriend.

I’ve never been

Raped.

I’ve never

(To my unexamined knowledge)

Been paid less than a

Man doing the

Same work.

I wouldn’t have even

Wanted to stay home from work

More than

Twelve weeks when I had my

Son,

And

I have a job that gave me

Sick time to use and

Short-term disability

When I was on maternity leave.

I don’t live in a society that

Doesn’t let women drive,

Or slices out their clitoris,

Or makes them the

Property of their husbands.

So for 20 years,

I avoided.

Whenever there was an

Article in the news about

Women’s inequality

I skipped it,

Packing down the

Consternation in my gut that

This is

Still

An

Issue.

When I did hear women

Broach the subject

I’d nod along but

Not really

Go

There.

Too depressing.

Too big to solve.

And

Not

My

Problem.

And yet.

And yet.

My avoidance is becoming

Painful.

I’m aware of a

Throbbing

Dismay that

More

Hasn’t

Changed.

The headlines are starting to

Bellow at me:

Wage inequality;

Women’s reproductive rights in peril;

Mass rape of women and girls in war zones.

The message is

Becoming clear:

It’s time for me to

Start

Thinking and

Writing about

Feminism

Again.

Sure,

Things are

Pretty good for me.

Tolerable,

I guess.

But this is still

Very much a

Man’s

World.

And I feel called to

Hash out a

New

Feminist

Theory

For myself,

That makes sense

Now,

For this moment in history,

That’s not

Angry at men,

That sees myself in

Partnership and

Interdependent with

Men and

Women

Around my community and

Even

The

World.

My formal

Education is

Feeble.

I read some,

But not much,

Feminist theory in

College.

All I have is my

Experience.

I can’t speak for

Womankind.

Women’s lives around the

Globe are so

Vastly different.

If you make a

Generalization about

Women,

You’ll always get someone saying,

“But that’s my

My

Experience.”

And yet.

Fear of that reaction

Has kept my

Feminism dormant and

Festering for 20 years.

And so over the next year or so,

My blog is going to

Explore my

Rekindled feminism.

Some topics I’ll explore include:

“Lessons from the gay rights movement;”

“What makes women women? Biology. Solution centered in the body?”

“Women having more doesn’t mean men having less;”

“Children aren’t a women’s issue, but let’s be real: Infants are;”

“My own personal feminist manifesto;”

“I’d don’t want special rights and I’m not angry. I just want to talk;”

“Maybe my life is okay, but other women’s aren’t. I have a duty to speak up;”

“Independence is a fallacy, we have to come together;”

“Men have a big stake in this, too;”

“The tragedy of misunderstood female sexuality.”

“Do we need a new word for feminism?”

I hope you’ll read

And let me know what you think.