Category Archives: Events

If you have ever declared yourself a feminist in front of anyone, you know that it’s like dropping the F-bomb in front of a bunch of prudes.  Forget the stupidity of the internet and Youtube comments–the reactions coming from our closest friends, families, and well-educated acquaintances can sting.  They range from:

The extreme…
“So you’re a bra-burning, butch, psychopath who hates men?”
“So you believe in women taking over the world?”
“There’s a reason why women aren’t getting elected/hired/payed more!   It’s because they only know how to cook and clean.”
“MAKE ME A SAMMICH!”

The ignorant…
“Feminism doesn’t recognize the differences between men and women”
“Feminism has made the world worse for innocent men.”
“There are more important issues in the world to deal with.  Feminism only focuses on women.”
“Feminism forces women who don’t want to work to go to work.”

The naive…
“Feminism has done a lot of good things but we don’t need it anymore because we’re all equal now.”
“I know women were oppressed, but when will we stop paying for the past?  It’s not fair that women get hiring advantages for government jobs. “

And so forth.

Typically, these kinds of reactions incite different responses from different women.  I don’t mean to boil people down to these categories, but just for the sake of getting a point across, accept my caricatures:

The “fierce feminist” woman: The one who sticks to her feminist values and isn’t afraid to say it.  (Or at least doesn’t appear to be afraid.)
The “I’m not a feminist, but…” woman: The one who not only agrees but sticks up for feminist values under a hesitant title, afraid of being persecuted as an extremist.
The “Now’s my chance to be confirmed by men”  woman: The one who probably agrees with feminist values but decides to abandon them in the effort to be “funny” and accepted by sexists.  For example, the one on my Facebook feed who puts up a profile picture of herself in the kitchen (with a supposedly funny caption), and receives 50+ comments from some men within a couple of hours.

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Last  night I went to the “Feminist. A Second Thought.” Conference at the Global Lounge, put on by a group of UBC students.  The purpose of this conference was “to shed light on the term feminist, and allow young people to redefine feminism to encapsulate their own experience with gender inequality, and not necessarily female domination”  (their website). I have been to a lot of student-led conferences and events my two years here, and I have to admit that it was the best one I have been to so far.

Two student speakers with some background in women’s/gender studies shared their experiences of being woman and feminist in today’s world.  We looked at how feminism has roots in anti-racism work, and how Canada’s policy of multiculturalism might actually be harmful to anti-racism work.  I’m personally a little wary of this kind of academic critique of multiculturalism policy.  This is partly  because it’s taken advantage of by racists, and partly because I like to focus on the positive effects the adoption multiculturalism has made.  But it was an interesting and heartfelt presentation nonetheless.  We then listened to a story about one student’s multiple identities, who reminded us all that there is always more than one story and always more than one kind of feminist.  I think this one really hit home for all of “on the edge” people who don’t fit into one category or another (be it culturally, ethnically, religiously, politically, economically  etc.)

The feature presentation was a panel of four UBC professors who generously shared their research and experience with us.  For example, one professor studied the impact on and role of youth during the earlier feminist movements…which is way more interesting than I make it sound.   We also got insight into multicultural critical theory, African literatures (with an ‘s’ for plurality!), and philosophy of education specifically in relation to homophobic institutions.  The question-answer period was perhaps the best part though.  Seriously.  I didn’t have time for dinner between a midterm and the conference, but there was so much food for thought, my stomach totally forgot it was hungry.

OK, I lied, there was also real food (and some mighty delicious vegan brownies from Sprouts.)

To top it all off, there were some amazing performances by UBC students.  I thoroughly enjoyed the slam poetry, the violin pieces, the santour performance (I play that instrument!), art displays, and belly dancing.  I was super impressed with the students behind this conference, and really hope to see these kinds of conferences attracting a wider (and not solely eager-beaver-feminist) audience in the future.

P.S. If anyone actually holds some of the views I was ridiculing above, drop me a line and I’ll happily explain why I disagree with them.