Let's look at some of the high points in the discourse of feminism in 2013.
I’m rising on the floor today to humbly give voice to thousands of Texans who have been ignored.
Texas State Sen.
Wendy Davis, beginning her 13-hour filibuster against Gov. Rick Perry’s draconian anti-abortion bill
I have a daughter and I have granddaughters and I will never vote to let a group of backward-looking ideologues cut women’s access to birth control. We have lived in that world, and we are not going back, not ever.
Sen.
Elizabeth Warren in a Senate speech on the eve of the government shutdown
In Pakistan, when we were stopped from going to school, at that time I realized that education … is the power for women, and that’s why the terrorists are afraid of education.
Last year 16 year old
Malala Yousafzai, not only published a memoir, but spoke before the UN, and confronted the President of the United States on his use of drones while on a visit to the White House. Many think she may be a serious candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. Her simple statement:
“I want every girl, every child, to be educated.”
“I would be crazy if I didn’t understand that this was a medal for the entire women’s movement,”
Last year
Gloria Steinem won The Presidential Medal of Freedom. This honor highlights Steinem’s decades of work in the fight for social justice and brings attention to the continued efforts toward gender equality.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova: and other members of the feminist punk protest band Pussy Riot, Tolokonnikova spent the last two years in a remote prison colony in Siberia. Along with two others, she was convicted of “hooliganism” motivated by religious hatred for an anti-Putin performance in an Orthodox church. What's she doing this year? Starting a human rights organization.
Kakenya Ntaiya not only became the only woman in her Kenyan village to get a college degree, she came back and started a school. Last year she earned the Global Womens Rights Award, was honored by National Geographic as an Emerging Explorer and listed as one of CNN's Top Ten CNN Heroes.
US Senator
Kirsten Gillibrand and US Rep
Jackie Speier together have been leading the charge to protect women in the military from sexual assault. Last year they not only pushed forward bills to change how the military deals with sexual assault, but also how it reports sexual assault, taking that outside the chain of command.
Edie Windsor, likely candidate for Time's Person Of The Year, took on the supreme court in her 80s, resulting in the ruling that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.
Brittoney Griner announced she was a lesbian just before being picked first overall in the 2013 WNBA draft.
Rep
Barbara Lee, most recently introduced a bill to repeal funding for abstinence only programs and support comprehensive sexuality education. The president nominated her to a be representative of the United States to the United Nations. She is the first African American woman to hold that position.
Nina Turner's work as an Ohio state senator and minority whip to to stop anti birth control, anti abortion legislations, as well as end the 20 year statute of limitation on rape cases.
There are hundreds more examples of real discourse that accurately depict the image of feminists.
Do all the hateful tweets and blog comments that follow these women's actions and words tarnish the image of feminism? Hell no. Because we all know that the internet is full of nut jobs, haters, racists, sexists, and all around crazy and mean spirited people.
Is feminism tarnished because some self selected subset of internet users tirelessly bickers about word definitions and privilege in 140 characters or less, or in the comments section of blog articles? Hell no. Because we all know that the internet is full of nut jobs, haters, racists, sexists, and all around crazy and mean spirited people.
There's a reason it's called Twitter. Named for a bird call consisting of light repeated tremulous sounds. “A short burst of inconsequential information,” its founders said. The chirps, chirrups, tweets, peeps, warbles and chatter of twitterers, loud, important, and cacophonous as they may seem to other twitterers, are mostly a bunch of meaningless background noise to the rest of the world.
I step outside and hear the chatter and chirrups of real birds every day. I enjoy the sound and listen to them often. I've learned to identify several species by their call, including the mockingbird, who does a pretty good imitation of a bunch of them.
I think if you are genuinely interested in the real discourse of feminists, you should look to the actual words and deeds of the women above and thousands more like them that work each day to make the world a better place for our daughters. Listen to their real speeches. Read their real books. Study their real bills that get passed into real laws. Feminist discourse is alive and well and solidly rooted in the hearts and minds of millions of women and men around the world. The songs of feminists are loud and strong and impeccably clear. Once you hear it, you can recognize it again anywhere.
The argle-bargle twitter-twaddle mish mash of toxic chatter is NOT the song of the feminist. It is irrelevant background noise.
