First and foremost, as with anything I may be too similar to the stereotypical feminist/lesbian in the Legally Blonde film wanting to change the ‘sem’esters to ‘ovesters’ but I do not know how comfortable I am with a declaration of MY (clearly female) thoughts to be labeled as a manifesto, and wish not to go the route of the much used manfiesta, so my brief declaration of my feminist basis will be (hopefully) explained in my womanifesto…so here it goes
Like much, if not all of what bell hooks has written or said I whole heartedly agree with a short quote and have to use it as the basis for a lot of my thought, “ to learn ideas that run counter to values and beliefs learned at home is to place oneself at risk, to enter the danger zone”
Before anyone in the land of cyber-feminism can feel too sorry for me that I grew up in a 50s style home that kept the women and their opinions in the kitchen I have to make it clear that I lived and grew up in my single mothers house while she in fact attended the same University as me for Women’s Studies. I learn the fundamentals of feminism leaning over my mothers shoulder at the computer as she dumbed down the concepts of papers similar if not exact to ones I’ve written in the past few years. I can remember the exact day coming home from grade 6 when I was frustrated having spent a class discussion on the evils and enemies of communism who tried to take the world down if not for the western savior. Even as a pretty nitwitted 12 yr old I knew this wasn’t right and my mother sat me down in the middle of whatever was going on at home and spent a few hours explaining Marxism to me in the most simplistic forms.
Though I am what many insecure boys may dub a “femi-Nazi” most of my ideals and life directions don’t come solely from feminism. I believe feminism is inextricably linked to communism and veganism…at least in my interpretations.
For the way I view communism the world would be a Lili-topia if everyone put in what they could and took what they needed. In adolescence I believed the world would be perfect if everyone got one voucher for every hour worked and all homes, meals, vehicles etc were worth one as well. However with a little more experience I realize that is perhaps unrealistic and childish even just considering people unable to work for disabilities. However the fact that there are people literally starving to death in the same world, in the same countries even as people who are BILLIONAIRES not having enough time in their lives to spend their dollars does not fit within my festo. While I personally do own an obscene amount of shoes and hair products I do attempt not to take more from the world in general than I need or work more than is necessary for me to maintain my lifestyle.
This crosses over to what I literally consume in forms of nutrition. Outside of anorexics everyone accepts that we need to food to live. And until God him/herself opens the clouds and comes down to confirm the words of the bible I by no means believe we need to consume other living breathing beings to live.
While many meat lovers have tried and continue to debate me on this fact to be a good person trying to put good out into the world I do not believe consuming flesh ( milk or eggs etc) from once eating thinking beings into your body works under these guidelines.
While I don’t believe everyone needs to be an extremist spending hours in the grocery store reading ingredient lists and questioning chefs at restaurants like myself there is no way a person can consume animals or products from them understanding the torture endured to produce this luxury or the detriment to the environment and our own space to house and produce these animals on industrial farms.
While many aspects of my ideas and ideals have minor (if not major) flaws and would need to be fleshed out if the future President of the world ever called on me to set up the new world order these ideas are not childish or rash. Living almost my entire life with a misogynistic father who ironically owned ( and employed me at ) a steak house restaurant I have come up to more than any persons fair share of belief breakdown.
Going against almost everything my father tried to force out of my mind I operate under as many of the guidelines as Feminism as I can that foster a non selfish lifestyle that hurts as few if any other people or beings while allowing for personal survival. I naturally fell right into Feminism because so many of its aspects aligned with the ideas I had against hurting anything or anyone, for any reason. While I do not wish to jump on the Glee stage for any type of dance routine or hold any hands for a grassy kumbiya singalong I will not (again hopefully ) waver from operating my lifestyle under the nearly ever-present notion that no matter sex, race, class, or even species, or anything else, does anyone deserve to be treated lesser or live lesser.
Reading your womanifesto definitely triggered some thought provoking questions that i too wish could be answered. I think it is great that you had the ability to share that bond with your mother, whereas she was able to simplify things for you and give you a realistic answer rather than a child-sensitive, not-always -accurately-right answers. I think mothers that are able to communicate effectively with their child and give them that deserving knowledge says a lot about their mothering skills. I think for many people feminism encapsulates ideals that reflect themselves. One thing i do love about feminism is it way of fighting for people who are tired and drained from fighting their whole lives. Sometimes i personally wish feminism didn’t come with such a negative connotation because what feminists do is nothing short of positive. That is why many times i don’t call myself a feminism i just let my actions speak louder and if someone says i’m a feminism i say alright but i rather do things because it helps others, as yourself does, than to worry about the stigma and titles that may surround such actions.
ReplyDeleteI also admire your resistance; many people don’t have the courage or strength to do so. It also speaks volumes about your character and what drives you. Although many people would not agree with your ideology, many should learn to accept things and stop changing things to better fit them. In society, i find anyway, that many people are not as opened-minded as they’d like to believe. Thus, when they are approached with a different way of thinking or different way of life they past judgment or try to ridicule. As long as you are doing what is true to yourself, there is nothing more validating