By Bridget Gibbs (she/they)
CW: activist; feminist; self-doubt
I acknowledge that I am working, living, and benefitting from Meanjin land (occupied Brisbane). Sovereignty over this invaded land has never been ceded by the Yuggera and Turrbal people, whose rights and abilities to self-govern are yet to be acknowledged. I may refer specifically to First Nations/ Blak people (ie. Aboriginal and/ or Torres Strait Islander peoples); Black people (mainly referring to Black Americans); BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour); WoC (Women of Colour); or to white people (ie. Anglo-Australians). I am a white person so ‘we’, ‘our’ and ‘ours’ will henceforth refer collectively to other white people and I.
Who becomes a feminist activist? What makes us one? How can we reject the feelings that we are a fraud in the activist space?
When you picture a feminist activist, who do you think of? For me, I imagine my fellow OWP volunteers, Angela Davis, Michelle Obama, Malala Yousafzai, or some women I follow on Instagram. I do not think there is a correct answer to this question, and that is encouraging. So why do we still feel so uneasy calling ourselves activists?
Activists are educators; protestors; picket-sign holders; chained to trees; organising marches and sit-ins; creating visual content online; writers; frequent donators; continuously reading, learning, and reflecting; pulling up their racist friends and family; or creating blockades (like outside the Kangaroo Point Central Apartments in Meanjin where 120 men medical evacuees from Nauru and PNG detention centres are being detained, read on the situation here). Activists are not bandwagoning, clout chasing, performative allies; posting black squares on Instagram with a trending hashtag; posting staged pictures of themselves at the (only) protest that they have attended; or sharing memes in place of taking real action (see Mary Retta’s explanation of the trivialisation of Breonna Taylor’s murder here). The influx of influencer activism, slacktivism, or performative activism (as discussed previously in my piece here) provides a confusing picture of what activism is. What remains true is that activists continue to do the work when no one else is watching.
Feminist activism, the way I see it, is intersectional, multicultural, and ever-changing, but remains focused on creating equality between the spectrum of genders. Feminist activism has been both violent and non-violent throughout history but nowadays, “…significant amounts of feminist activism occur online as the use of social media in political interventions has increased” (Griffin 2017). Some people might reject the label of feminist activist, for fear of taking on those aggressive, antagonistic, or outspoken traits that are so often incorrectly associated with feminists. In some ways, “…it’s easy to imagine that activists are ‘other’ people – weird or dauntingly benevolent” until you become one of the ‘others’ and realise that this is not the case (Baumgardner & Richards, 2000, p. 282; Bobel 2007, p. 147). I struggle to picture one type of person when I think of a feminist activist and this (hopefully) means that all people feel welcome to the space.
What is imposter syndrome and how do we reject it?
Perhaps you have identified with one of the activist traits listed above, or maybe you feel like a different kind of activist entirely. Either way, at some point in your activist experience you may have felt inadequate, or like a fraud. Imposter syndrome is a phenomenon that in simple terms, “… is a very real and specific form of intellectual self-doubt” (Weir 2013). Many people can experience self-doubt, “…but someone with [imposter phenomenon] has an all-encompassing fear of being found out to not have what it takes." Even if they experience outward signs of success — getting into a selective graduate program, say, or acing test after test — they have trouble believing that they're worthy. Instead, they may chalk their success up to good luck” (Carole Lieberman; Weir 2013). We can experience imposter syndrome when we try new things, when we have success, or even after we have spent years gaining knowledge in a particular area.
This feeling of being an imposter seems to be common within the feminist activist space, based on my anecdotal knowledge. Many of us might feel that we are not the best person to speak for, or on behalf of, others, and this particularly pertains to speaking up on racial movements that require us to understand perspectives that differ to our own (i.e. being a white woman learning how to empower Women of Colour). We potentially do not see ourselves as activists because we reduce our own experiences in saying ‘other people have been through worse, so are more legitimate spokespeople’, and use this as a reason not to participate. Maybe we think our version of activism is less legitimate if we practice it all online, or we feel that other people’s contributions online and in person outweigh our own. We may even feel daunted at the prospect of speaking out on topics that we do not have extensive knowledge in, or we do not feel qualified to speak on.
These are all valid concerns and these thoughts may come up again in future, but when we feel these doubts, we should remind ourselves of the purpose for our activism and the reasons why we felt the need to participate in the first place. If we can ground ourselves with this information, the doubts and the insecurities and the fraudulent feelings grow a little smaller, in my experience. It also helps to discuss these feelings with the people you view as activists, as they might feel exactly the same way that you do. Activists are a community of individuals that build each other up, and sharing how you are feeling with like-minded people can be really beneficial. We can also challenge ourselves to have perspective and to consider the actions that we are making now compared to a year ago. How can you improve on these again over the next 12 months?
What makes an activist?
I do not think that there are definitive answers to the questions: how do I know if I am an activist? Or when I have become an activist? As many of us fall onto various stages of the activism continuum. Our roles and our contributions as activists might change over the course of a day or the hour, so to pinpoint when we are actively working as activists, and we are not, is difficult. Although I spend a decent amount of time working in the feminist activist arena, I am still learning how to call myself a feminist activist and often wonder if that is what I am.
Nevertheless, I generally find that self-identifying as an activist helps me to better understand my position in the larger, collective identity of ‘activist’. As Bobel (2007) describes “… the resistance of some social movement actors to self-identify as ‘activist’… reveals a disconnection between what [they] call ‘doing activism’ and ‘being activist’” (p. 148). I believe that it is simultaneously possible to do activism without self-identifying as an activist, however, taking on the identity of activist has significance and pushes me to ‘be an activist’ always. For those that casually participate in social justice movements, I encourage you to label yourself as an activist and see if this pushes you to do more.
A reminder though: whether you self-identify as an activist or not, this should not excuse or discourage you from participating in collective action when you have the opportunity to, or are willing to do so.
We must normalise our changing opinions.
I feel that many of us are daunted by the prospect of labelling ourselves as activists, out of fear of saying something wrong and not being able to return from this. It concerns me that many celebrities and people with platforms are told they are ‘cancelled’ rather than being held truly accountable for past opinions. Many of us are consistently going through a process of unlearning and relearning information, growing, and changing our opinions. I think that activists should be more vocal in encouraging and normalising the altering of opinions, as they are probably more aware than anyone of how necessary it is to be open to change and to listen and learn.
There may not be a defining moment when a person becomes an activist, and many of us feel unqualified at times. Recognising the work that we do in public and private and reflecting on the things that we find worthy, can help us to align our personal values with the collective goals of social movements.
Join the mass sit-in outside the Kangaroo Point Central Apartments on the 8th August and donate + read up on the movements demands and events here. If you would like to discuss anything mentioned here please don’t hesitate to send me a message at b.gibbs@onewomanproject.org, or connect with the wonderful OWP Team on Facebook and Instagram (‘One Woman Project’).
References & Reading List
Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) 2020, ‘Young Feminist Activism’, https://www.awid.org/special-focus-sections/young-feminist-activism
Baumgardner, J & Richards, A 2000, ‘Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future’, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux: New York.
Bobel, C 2007, 'I'm not an activist, though I've done a lot of it': Doing Activism, Being Activist and the 'Perfect Standard' in a Contemporary Movement’, Social Movement Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 147–159.
Clance, PR & Imes, SA 1978, ‘The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention’, Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 241–247.
Griffin, G 2017, ‘feminist activism’, In A Dictionary of Gender Studies (1st ed.), Oxford University Press.
Kutlaca, M, van Zomeren, M & Epstude, K 2020, ‘Friends or foes? How activists and non-activists perceive and evaluate each other’, PloS one, vol. 15, no. 4.
Marshall, A 2002, ‘Organizing Across the Divide: Local Feminist Activism, Everyday Life, and the Election of Women to Public Office’, Social Science Quarterly, vol. 83, no. 3, pp. 707–725.
Newstead, A 2020, ‘Imposter Syndrome: why it’s legit and how to cope with it’, triple j, https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/the-latest/impostor-syndrome-why-its-legit-and-how-to-cope/12435294
Pho, A 2015, ‘But Am I Really an Activist? Dealing with Imposter Syndrome by Annie Pho’, APALA, http://www.apalaweb.org/but-am-i-really-an-activist-dealing-with-impostor-syndrome/
Ranganathan, D & Johnson, R 2016, ‘The global pulse of young feminists organising’, Open Democracy, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/pulse-of-young-feminist-organising
Refugee Solidarity Meanjin 2020, ‘What is happening?’, https://letthemhug.com/the-situation
Retta, M 2020, ‘Even in death, Breonna Taylor is being disrespected’, Bitch Media, https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/breonna-taylor-memes-are-disrespecting-her-memory
Sharma, V 2018, ‘Is Imposter Syndrome, Or Feeling Like A Fraud, Gendered?, Feminism In India, https://feminisminindia.com/2018/06/25/impostor-syndrome-fraud-gendered/
Weir, K 2013, ‘Feel like a fraud?’, American Psychological Association, https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2013/11/fraud
Wo Men Podcast 2019, ‘Fighting for change: a conversation with feminist activist Zhang Leilei, RADII, https://www.womenpodcast.net/podcast/2019/9/2/fighting-for-change-a-conversation-with-feminist-activist-zhang-leilei