By Sarah Davies (she/her)
2020 is FINALLY coming to an end, and what better way to enter 2021 than by evaluating your everyday feminist acts?
I think that every day is a chance to continue learning, and know that I will be actively working to incorporate more feminist acts into my every day routine – not just individual ones, but community acts, as well.
In the face of recent events regarding Chidera Eggerue and Florence Given (if you missed this, please check out @slumflower, @loudbossygross, @tindertranslators and @angelarutara, or simply Google Chidera and Florence for more info), I have realised I need to incorporate being active and intentional in my intersectional feminism. I own and have read Chidera’s book, What A Time To Be Alone (excellent, excellent reading), and while I don’t own/haven’t read Florence’s Women Don’t Owe You Pretty, I followed Florence on Instagram, engaged with her posts and didn’t see the similarities until they were directly highlighted. This, to me, emphasises the white feminism that still exists in my thinking. Standing in the bookstore and looking up authors to ensure they are not just white women is a great start, and something I do. However, if I’m only buying books about feminism or self-help (my two favourite sections), I am ignoring other, crucial aspects of my learning – climate change and environmental activism, Indigenous history and non-fiction are just a few of many other book categories that I enjoy reading/need to learn more about. It has become clear to me that I need to actively be more intersectional in my approach to this.
So, one of my new daily feminist acts is to be intentionally active in my intersectionality – whether I am buying cleaning products, plants, books, or anything else!
Anyway, we have asked our OWP and wider community, and compiled a checklist of ideas, to get you started in reflecting upon, and perhaps extending, your daily feminist acts!
Please be aware: everyone has different limitations, emotionally, physically, and mentally, that may affect their ability to change their daily feminist acts. Acknowledging your own intersectionality is always a feminist act, and this is meant to be a goal-setting activity, rather than a way to push yourself to burning out. Not ticking off everything on the following list is not failing. You may already be doing everything in your power. If you feel you could be expanding this, however, please take this list as a starting off point.
It should also be noted that this list is non-exhaustive, and is just a few suggestions of the many ways we could be changing our feminist acts.
Please screenshot this page if you want, use it as a journaling prompt, set a voice memo, write some ideas down on a scrap piece of paper! Whatever works for you.
Feminist Acts:
Learn when to take a break from social media.
Practice body neutrality and accept your body as it is, without feeling the need to change it.
Unlearn gender stereotypes and binaries. Question yourself when you judge others’ distance from typically feminine or masculine traits.
Be your own cheerleader when it comes to learning – try to reframe any defensiveness (when challenged or critiqued) into an opportunity for growth.
Try to be mindful of other’s emotional labour and mental load.
Intentionally consume media from a diverse range of voices and from women – through books, TV shows and social media accounts.
Seek out women- and diverse-owned businesses to support. Eg. In construction, make a commitment to hire only women, as they are so underrepresented.
Find joy – whether that is in listening to a hilarious episode of The Guilty Feminist post cast or watching a bird outside your window whilst stuck in Zoom meetings. Keep refreshed for the feminist fight.
Ensure to integrate continuous learning into your life (amazing resources in this link!).
These ideas may or may not be helpful - take what you need, change or alter them to fit your lifestyle.
I hope this list adds a few ideas to kick off 2021 with a feminist bang! We cannot wait to be back with some more articles in the new year. In the meantime, please email through any ideas you want to see written about to our blog team at s.davies@onewomanproject.org.