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Women of Bryn Mawr here and then,

What is a feminist? My entire life has been spent under the wing of my mother, a feminist/marxist economist who spends the majority of her time concentrating on women's studies (Yes, it's still called women studies at Fordham University!) and gender-health economics. She is a feminist. And yet, I have never asked her to explain what exactly that means...I am taking this course to find out for myself.

A friend of mine told me that one of our favorite professors stood in class last year and asked "who, in here, is a feminist?" No one raised their hand, and the professor took this for a lack of understanding. My friend, appropriately, asked "what exactly do you mean?" He answered: "A feminist is someone who would die to have equal rights between men and women." He asked his question again...all hands remained down except for his.

I believe that while there is the baby boom generation, the technology generation, etc. that mine is not appropriately labeled. As a whole, I truly feel that we are the apathetic. History has shown that the fight for justice has nearly always prevailed...that the oppresors lose favor in the light of equality, that the victims of the world walk triumfant...at some point along the line...or maybe that's just the t.v. talking. My generation has been spoon fed a story of endless happy endings...and we think that they will continue to come about whether or not we get off our ass to do/say something. As a result, we have become obsessed with the individual, with the unique...we long to be special and to be acknowledged for it...we have lost that feeling of unity which has propelled the protests of millions over this country's history.

So, what does it mean to be a feminist in a country where cries for equality are met by the deaf ears of a generation who will soon enter the real world? What does it mean to die for a cause that you truly believe in when hundreds of thousands are being sent abroad to fight for causes they don't believe in? What significance does individuality/the personal testimony hold when every documented uprising involves a call for unity-for sameness?

 I would like to know why it feels like the feminist movement has run out of gas...why it is Bryn Mawr women and not every woman in this country learning what it means to fight back? I may not know exactly what a feminist is yet...but I know for sure that no revolution was started in silent protest. How can we learn to break the silence?