Feminista A visual journey into the post feminist era.
I‘ve often hesitated before using the word FEMINIST to describe myself. Although I had read Susan Fauldi and Naomi Wolf, marched with my mom in TAKE BACK THE NIGHT rallies as a child and signed every Planned Parent petition I could get my hands on.
Somehow in my mind feminism was all tied up with hating men and wearing sensible shoes. How could a movement that represents over 1/2 of the worlds population be defined by one word?
The early American Feminist movement grew out of such different women, living in such different circumstances.
After all what could Eleanor Roosevelt and Emma Goldman have had in common besides anatomy?
While Upper class women in America and Britain where holding teas and luncheons for the right to cast a vote (for women property owners), women in factories where struggling to get paid wages high enough to feed their families and to have a single day free from work.
Even today in this “Post feminist” era, the idea of women’s rights is a fractured one. What does women’s liberation mean?
Are we asking be free to practice the religion of our mothers or be sheltered from oppression?
Does ‘Equal Rights’ mean being treated as equals in all things, or to be respected and praised for our differences?
Is it a freedom to earn more or wear less?
The Zapatistas of Mexico wrote this bill of rights.
“Women, regardless of their race, creed, color or political affiliation, have the right to participate in the revolutionary struggle in any way that their desire and capacity determine. Women have the right to work and receive a fair salary. Women have the right to decide the number of children they have and care for. Women have the right to participate in the matters of the community and have charge if they are free and democratically elected. Women and their children have the right to Primary Attention in their health and nutrition. Women have the right to education. Women have the right to choose their partner and are not obliged to enter into marriage. Women have the right to be free of violence from both relatives and strangers.�
It seems that these rights should be UNIVERSAL and if this was really a post feminist era the word “WOMEN” in these lines would be substituted for “people”. It would be understood that gender, skin color, class and religion would have no bearing on personhood.
To me Feminism means women decide for themselves, without fear or oppression, the direction of their lives.
On any given day I may or may not have on my sensible shoes, but when my husband declares that his wife is feminist, I glance at my feet and smile.
This book is ment as a celebration of the women around the world who continue to stuggle for a better quality of life.
by Damis Newman