I'm a feminist. It's not the only way I define myself. I am also Irish, a news junkie, a coffee addict and a bit flaky (Last summer, I informed my family I was moving to Beirut. Then I went to Rwanda for a holiday instead. See? Flaky.) Like it says there on the side panel, I'm an NGO worker, a writer and a student who has a wide variety of interests that range from mass atrocity response operations to make up, with a liberal dash of music and alcohol in between (I mentioned I was Irish, right?).
Most of these traits are unlikely to prompt further questioning. The feminist thing though, well, that's a different story. Cliches that are so overused I can't be bothered to describe them here still apparently spring to the minds of a lot of people when they hear the word 'feminisim'. To me, being a feminist just means you believe in equality. Pretty simple. The all round awesome Caitlin Moran puts it far more eloquently: If you have a vagina and you feel you should be in charge of it, then you're a feminist. Although I believe men too can be feminists, which makes her definition slightly problematic.
Saying you're a feminist somehow needs to be justified. But that makes sense somehow, since apparently these days, almost everything a woman is or everything she does has to be justified. Why do you always wear make up? Why don't you wear make up? Why are you a stay at home mother? Why are you a working mother? And so on.
Why is everything a woman does seen to be representative of women as a whole? Why haven't we yet learned that what each individual woman does with her life is just that; what that particular woman wants to do with her life.
It's something I've been thinking about quite a lot this last year. You don't realise the perceptions people have of you until you do something which seems, to them, out of character. When I tell people I'm studying Human Rights, I often get "But you're not a hippy?". When I told people I was going to Africa, there was a lot of "Really? You know you won't be able to use your straightener over there?" (Which, incidentally is a lie. I could use my hair straightener. The humidity would just immediately undo all its hard work, that's all). As a girl who straightens her hair far too much and always has painted nails (clearly, I'm in need of a hobby) apparently that pigeon holed me as being a certain 'type'. I'm not sure what type that was exactly but it was not the type who studies human rights and goes to Africa, that much was clear.
It seems that as women today we have a lot of choices. But increasingly it's becoming more important that you are seen to be making those choices. It may be whatever choice you want but you have to make distinct, categorical choices or else people feel uncomfortable. You can't be getting a Brazilian wax before you go working in a refugee camp -which is exactly what a friend of mine did. She also always made sure her eyebrows were always immacuately plucked once she arrived in the camp. Some people turn to alcohol to deal with stress. She turned to tweezers. Not such a big deal. But many friends of ours had a big issue with this. How terrible of her to care about her appearance when she does such a job?! People have expectations- girl who goes to work in a sub-Saharan refugee camp: probably a bit hairy and smelly. Certainly not waxed and plucked. Women can't have multi faceted personalities. You can't be a whole confusing mix of things. You have to choose damn it!
Similarly (but with less refugees), I have a well documented weakness for fashion magazines which is not only problematic in terms of my bank balance but also for how I am perceived. I never get on a flight without a hefty stack of glossy magazines. I have been known to buy Vogue in languages I can't actually read (I travelled a lot that particular month and I'd already bought all the main English language ones okay? Stop judging!). When I'm working or studying, most of my reading material is pretty heavy. Genocide, torture, rape. That kind of thing. Some pretty pictures are often a nice distraction. Plus, travelling is stressful and I often find it hard to concentrate on anything more serious than Marie Claire. This often surprises colleagues of mine. Apparently it's unimaginable that a girl who has a major interest in studying mass atrocities is also up to date with her A/W trends.
I'm well aware that as feminist issues go, these are relatively minor ones. There's no honour killings, stoning for adultery, etc type issues to be worrying about. These are obviously much smaller issues in comparison but they are issues none the less and ones I plan to focus on in this blog in the future. There's been a lot in the media in the last year about the perception of women, war on women and such. Debate is good. Really good. A lot of it has stemmed from America but with the abortion debate once again raging in Ireland and electoral gender quotas having recently been introduced, there's much to be discussed about feminism in Ireland today.
So, sometime in the coming weeks, I'll be talking to some Irish politicians, activists and students (and maybe some people I meet in the pub. You know, for balance) about that scariest of things in politics: GENDER QUOTAS. Feel free to weigh in on the debate with a comment below or hit me up with an email/tweet- vagina owning or not as you may be. It's all about equality folks!
Most of these traits are unlikely to prompt further questioning. The feminist thing though, well, that's a different story. Cliches that are so overused I can't be bothered to describe them here still apparently spring to the minds of a lot of people when they hear the word 'feminisim'. To me, being a feminist just means you believe in equality. Pretty simple. The all round awesome Caitlin Moran puts it far more eloquently: If you have a vagina and you feel you should be in charge of it, then you're a feminist. Although I believe men too can be feminists, which makes her definition slightly problematic.
Saying you're a feminist somehow needs to be justified. But that makes sense somehow, since apparently these days, almost everything a woman is or everything she does has to be justified. Why do you always wear make up? Why don't you wear make up? Why are you a stay at home mother? Why are you a working mother? And so on.
Why is everything a woman does seen to be representative of women as a whole? Why haven't we yet learned that what each individual woman does with her life is just that; what that particular woman wants to do with her life.
It's something I've been thinking about quite a lot this last year. You don't realise the perceptions people have of you until you do something which seems, to them, out of character. When I tell people I'm studying Human Rights, I often get "But you're not a hippy?". When I told people I was going to Africa, there was a lot of "Really? You know you won't be able to use your straightener over there?" (Which, incidentally is a lie. I could use my hair straightener. The humidity would just immediately undo all its hard work, that's all). As a girl who straightens her hair far too much and always has painted nails (clearly, I'm in need of a hobby) apparently that pigeon holed me as being a certain 'type'. I'm not sure what type that was exactly but it was not the type who studies human rights and goes to Africa, that much was clear.
It seems that as women today we have a lot of choices. But increasingly it's becoming more important that you are seen to be making those choices. It may be whatever choice you want but you have to make distinct, categorical choices or else people feel uncomfortable. You can't be getting a Brazilian wax before you go working in a refugee camp -which is exactly what a friend of mine did. She also always made sure her eyebrows were always immacuately plucked once she arrived in the camp. Some people turn to alcohol to deal with stress. She turned to tweezers. Not such a big deal. But many friends of ours had a big issue with this. How terrible of her to care about her appearance when she does such a job?! People have expectations- girl who goes to work in a sub-Saharan refugee camp: probably a bit hairy and smelly. Certainly not waxed and plucked. Women can't have multi faceted personalities. You can't be a whole confusing mix of things. You have to choose damn it!
Similarly (but with less refugees), I have a well documented weakness for fashion magazines which is not only problematic in terms of my bank balance but also for how I am perceived. I never get on a flight without a hefty stack of glossy magazines. I have been known to buy Vogue in languages I can't actually read (I travelled a lot that particular month and I'd already bought all the main English language ones okay? Stop judging!). When I'm working or studying, most of my reading material is pretty heavy. Genocide, torture, rape. That kind of thing. Some pretty pictures are often a nice distraction. Plus, travelling is stressful and I often find it hard to concentrate on anything more serious than Marie Claire. This often surprises colleagues of mine. Apparently it's unimaginable that a girl who has a major interest in studying mass atrocities is also up to date with her A/W trends.
I'm well aware that as feminist issues go, these are relatively minor ones. There's no honour killings, stoning for adultery, etc type issues to be worrying about. These are obviously much smaller issues in comparison but they are issues none the less and ones I plan to focus on in this blog in the future. There's been a lot in the media in the last year about the perception of women, war on women and such. Debate is good. Really good. A lot of it has stemmed from America but with the abortion debate once again raging in Ireland and electoral gender quotas having recently been introduced, there's much to be discussed about feminism in Ireland today.
So, sometime in the coming weeks, I'll be talking to some Irish politicians, activists and students (and maybe some people I meet in the pub. You know, for balance) about that scariest of things in politics: GENDER QUOTAS. Feel free to weigh in on the debate with a comment below or hit me up with an email/tweet- vagina owning or not as you may be. It's all about equality folks!
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