Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters (25 page)

Not to get all emo at the end of the book—because that would be cliché—but the reason I wrote this book is that I believe
so
much in feminism. It changed my life for the better, and I want other young women to be able to say the same. It seems such a shame to me that so many of us shun feminism because we’re afraid of the word. Because this is something that has the potential to make you think differently about everything, to make you think differently about yourself.

So, truly, thanks for reading my random feminist rants; I hope that some of it resonated with you. Young women really do have the ability to fuck shit up (in a good way), and I hope this book inspires you to start.

1. While you may enjoy your makeup and high heels, you realize there is something insanely fucked up about beauty standards that require women to get their vaginas trimmed. (And we’re not talking hair, ladies.)

2. Fuck Ladies’ Night. You’d prefer equal pay any day.

3. You realize that “slut” is just code for “I’m jealous of your sex life.”

4. You want a relationship that doesn’t resemble a Lifetime victim-of-the-week movie.

5. You believe you have an inalienable right to have nonprocreative sex without having to consult your pharmacist, parents, legislators, or anyone else who thinks it’s their business.

1. Full frontal feminists make shopping much more enjoyable. Tired of demeaning shirts with slogans like WHO NEEDS BRAINS WHEN YOU HAVE THESE?, a group of young women called for a boycott of Abercrombie & Fitch. They were so successful in getting attention for their cause that A&F invited
them to their headquarters to help them come up with cooler sayings.

2. Full frontal feminists make sure schools are telling the truth about sex. Texas teen Shelby Knox realized that her school’s sex ed program wasn’t cutting it, so she took on her school board, town officials, and religious leaders to advocate for comprehensive sex ed. Her story is featured in the documentary
The Education of Shelby Knox.

3. Full frontal feminists rock out. Young women who were done with being relegated to “video babe” status started rock camps for girls in Oregon and New York, where young girls go and learn how to play instruments, write songs, perform, and generally rock out.

4. Full frontal feminists tell the truth about what’s really hot. A group of young women was sick to death of seeing all of the “hot lists” in men’s magazines that judge women purely for their ability to look pouty while posing in a bikini. So they started their own—The REAL Hot 100—that showcases young women around the country for all of the amazing work they’re doing in their communities.

5. Full frontal feminists make sure you can get off. In response to a sex-toy ban, young women in Memphis, Tennessee, held a “Keep Your Hands Off My Dildo” party to raise awareness about the legislation. The bill didn’t stand a chance.

NARAL Pro-Choice America
www.prochoiceamerica.org

 

National Abortion Federation
www.prochoice.org

 

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
www.latinainstitute.org

 

Planned Parenthood
www.ppfa.org

 

Pro-Choice Public Education Project
www.protectchoice.org

 

Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States
www.siecus.org

 

SisterSong
www.sistersong.net

Family Violence Prevention Fund
www.endabuse.org

 

Legal Momentum (women’s legal rights organization)
www.legalmomentum.org

 

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
www.ncadv.org

 

Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
www.rainn.org

Business & Professional Women/USA
www.bpwusa.org

 

Catalyst
www.catalystwomen.org

 

Center for Women and Work
www.cww.rutgers.edu

 

National Committee on Pay Equity
www.pay-equity.org

 

Nontraditional Employment for Women
www.new-nyc.org

Feminist Majority Foundation
www.feminist.org

 

National Organization for Women
www.now.org

 

The REAL Hot 100
www.therealhot100.org

 

Younger Women’s Task Force
www.ywtf.org

Men Can Stop Rape
www.mencanstoprape.org

 

National Organization for Men Against Sexism
www.nomas.org

 

The White Ribbon Campaign
www.whiteribbon.ca

About-Face
www.about-face.org

 

Adios, Barbie
www.adiosbarbie.com

 

Fat Activist Task Force
www.naafa.org/fatf

 

The Federal Government Source for Women’s Health Information
www.4woman.gov/bodyimage

 

Center for American Women and Politics
www.cawp.rutgers.edu

 

Center for Women Policy Studies
www.centerwomenpolicy.org

 

EMILY’s List
www.emilyslist.org

 

Human Rights Watch
www.hrw.org

 

The White House Project
www.thewhitehouseproject.org

 

Women’s Voices. Women Vote.
www.wvwv.org

 

 

 

Visit the Grrrl Zine Network for information on feminist zines:
www.grrrlzines.net

Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
by Susan Faludi

 

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women
by Naomi Wolf

 

BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine
edited by Lisa Jervis and Andi Zeisler

 

Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image
edited by Ophira Edut

 

The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls
by Joan Jacobs Brumberg

 

The Boundaries of Her Body: The Troubling History of Women’s Rights in America
by Debran Rowland

 

The Bust Guide to the New Girl Order
edited by Marcelle Karp and Debbie Stoller

 

Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism
edited by Daisy Hernández and Bushra Rehman

 

Cunt: A Declaration of Independence
by Inga Muscio

 

Dilemmas of Desire: Teenage Girls Talk about Sexuality
by Deborah L. Tolman

 

FAT!SO? Because You Don’t Have to Apologize for your Size!
by Marilyn Wann

 

Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture
by Ariel Levy

 

Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
by bell hooks

 

The Fire This Time: Young Activists and the New Feminism
edited by Vivien Labaton and Dawn Lundy Martin

 

The F-Word: Feminism in Jeopardy
by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

 

A Girl’s Guide to Taking over the World: Writings from the Girl Zine Revolution
by Tristan Taormino

 

Kiss My Tiara: How to Rule the World as a Smartmouth Goddess
by Susan Jane Gilman

 

Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation
edited by Barbara Findlen

 

Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future
by Jennifer Baumgardner

 

Ophelia Speaks: Adolescent Girls Write About Their Search for Self
edited by Sara Shandler

 

Our Bodies, Ourselves
by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective

 

Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation
by Leora Tanenbaum

 

Sugar in the Raw: Voices of Young Black Girls in America
by Rebecca Carroll

 

Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism
edited by Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake

 

To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism
edited by Rebecca Walker

 

We Don’t Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists
edited by Melody Berger

 

Woman: An Intimate Geography,
by Natalie Angier

 

Yell-Oh Girls!: Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American
edited by Vickie Nam

National Domestic Violence Hotline: (800) 799-SAFE (799-7233)

 

National Hopeline Network: (800) SUICIDE (784-2433)

 

National STD/HIV Hotline: (800) 227-8922

 

Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network: (800) 656-HOPE (656-4673)

 

Youth Crisis Hotline: (800) HIT-HOME (448-4663)

1
Ginia Bellafante. “Is Feminism Dead?”
Time
magazine, June 29, 1998.

2
Lawrence Summers is the former president of Harvard University. At a conference about women and minorities in science and engineering while he was still president, Summers theorized that one of the reasons for the lower number of women in the math and science fields was that women don’t have the same “natural” or “innate” ability as men.

3
Christine John, a first-year teacher at the Village Adventist Elementary School in Berrien Springs, Michigan, was placed on administrative leave for getting pregnant out of wedlock in 2005. Also in 2005, Michelle McCusker, an unmarried teacher at St. Rose of Lima School in Queens, New York, was fired after she told school officials she was pregnant.

4
Monique Stuart. “Slutty Feminism,”
The Washington Times,
January 1, 2006.

5
I’ll provide the following articles just to give you a sampling of what’s out there:

6
Mary Rettig. “CWA Official: Rising Crime Among Women Linked to Feminist Agenda,” AgapePress, October 27, 2005.

7
Ibid.

8
Vaginal “rejuvenation” is the newest form of plastic surgery by which women can get labiaplasties, vaginal tightening, and liposuction on their labia.

10
Rebecca Traister. “The F-Word,”
Salon.com
, July 5, 2005.

11
Ibid.

12
Post in response to Rebecca Traister’s “The F-Word.” Found online at:
www.sabreean.com/?p=10
.

1
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.

2
Representative Henry Waxman. “The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs,” U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, December 2004.

3
Gail Schontzler. “Abstinence speaker pushed religion in school, dad charges,”
The Daily Chronicle
, May 11, 2005.

4
Representative Henry Waxman.

5
Ibid.

6
Ibid.

7
“In Their Own Words: What Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs Say,” Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, August 2005.

8
Quoted in Camille Hahn. “Virgin Territory,”
Ms.
magazine, fall 2004.

9
“Jessica Simpson’s Virgin Vow,”
Female First,
December 30, 2004. Found online at:
www.femalefirst.co.uk/entertainment
.

10
Reginald Finger. “Association of Virginity at Age 18 with Educational, Economic, Social, and Health Outcomes in Middle Adulthood,”
Adolescent & Family Health,
April 2004.

11
Reports of Child Abuse and Neglect (HB 580).

12
Jodi Wilgoren. “In Nebraska, Rape Charge Follows Legal Marriage, in Kansas, to 14-Year-Old,”
The New York Times,
August 20, 2005.

13
Jonathan Amos. “Ancient phallus unearthed in cave,” BBC News, July 25, 2005.

14
From a December 1994 speech at a United Nations-sponsored conference on AIDS. Found online at:
www.rotten.com/library/sex/masturbation
.