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Friday, March 9, 2018

My Feminist Journey (part 1)

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When I was young, this hung in my room and I believed it. I had no reason not too. I actually thought it was Smurfette being a doctor; I didn't realize she was President until just now. 
Rare Vintage Smurf Poster, Girls Can Do Anything Poster, Smurfette, Girl Power, Hard to Find by TheHuntIsOn on Etsy
My parents raised my sister and I to be feminists; We were and we still are. Nothing has changed that, but there were times when I noticed not everyone was a feminist.

I'm sure it happened in elementary school, but I don't have specific examples with the boys in my class. There was one teacher in the fifth grade - a male teacher. He was the first male teacher that I had. He was sexist and I remember being annoyed by him and how he treated boys and girls differently.

Middle school was another story; I began to notice how the boys were acting towards girls and it wasn't good. Somehow they thought we were weaker. I wanted to prove it otherwise. 

I was always a sporty tomboy kid. I played a lot of sports. For a while I was pretty good at them. But there were times when the boys wouldn't let girls play basketball at recess. They would make up stupid rules about who had the next game. That didn't work for me. And it didn't work for some of the other girls either. We took a stand one day and forced the boys to let us play, but we didn't change the feelings.

I became anti-girly. I didn't think you could be both girly and a feminist. I had little time for those who were girly - mostly because I didn't understand it. I didn't need to make my hair pretty for a basketball game - it was just a game. 

Sure, I was happy when in 7th grade, I was allowed to wear make-up. And for a while I did. I had awful shades of lipstick. This was during my very very awkward phase.  But that phase didn't last very long. And it didn't change my views on equality.

I was all about fairness and I wasn't afraid to speak my mind about it, but of course that would change.

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