Personalized feminism

“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it;” this phrase, credited to poet George Santayana, speaks to the importance of remembering the social ashes from which feminism continually rebirths itself. Being continually conscious of the struggles and causes of women before the “current” third wave of feminism demands that feminists of today build on the foundation laid by our foremothers as they forge on with their own struggles and causes.

As we explored this week’s readings, we gained a better understanding and recognition of the footsteps taken by feminists before us. While feminists have disagreed over the course of the last three waves of feminism over the “noble fights” for men, women, and intersexed individuals of our nation, a focus on basic human rights have been the focus of feminism for generations. The viewpoint has certainly shifted over the waves; as feminism becomes more and more enveloped with humanity rather than “womanity” exclusively, racism, classism, and many more forms of oppression have become the focus and the cause of feminist efforts. Remolding the value system of “femininity” has joined the fight for voting rights, property rights, destruction of the glass ceiling, reproductive and sexual rights, educational reform, and many other causes as the voice of women has been uttered through the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848, The Feminine Mystique, and "The Statement of Purpose" of the National Organization for Women in 1966.

In examining the historical aspects of feminism, I have to admit that I am humbled by my foremothers and fathers. I can hardly imagine the frustration in being expected to uphold laws that I didn't vote on or not be allowed to pursue my education here at Luther by virtue of my anatomy (and not my intellect). While, as Baumgardner and Richards point out, "there's still a lot left to do" when it comes to evening the keel of rights and responsibility between the sexes, races, and classes, the foundation that was laid before us is certainly a strong one, and one that cannot soon be forgotten.

In considering the national feminist foundation, I have been thinking about the feminist foundations in my own life. My grandmother taught me reverence for books (written by both men and women) while my grandfather encouraged me to write a few of my own. My mother and father worked to support their family and cultivate their daughters' and son's educations. My high school English teacher pushed me to believe that my writing was worth reading (a concept, I must admit, I still struggle with today) while building my "feminist library" of female and male authors who poke, prod, and question patriarchy in the canonized texts. Without these feminists, I wouldn't be the feminist I am today. I found the above list online; apparently another feminist has gotten in touch with her feminist roots as well. I found her use of leaves and other plant life in her sketch very symbolic; it communicates to me the formation of a feminist "family tree" that we have sprouted as leaves upon to become branches of our own.