I was reading
an interview that Time Out New York did with Amy Poehler the other day and in it she said "I consider myself a feminist, and it informs my work only in that it’s just who I am, in the same way that I’m a woman, or I’m 5'2" or whatever". I consider myself a feminist in the same way. It's who I am. I don't remember ever choosing to be a feminist but the belief in equality and recognising the strength in women has been a constant in my life for as long as I can remember.
I have been a feminist even before I knew what one was. As a kid I wanted to be a plumber just because my big brother told me I couldn't be one because I was a girl. When I was about 13 I took wood work at school in a misguided attempt to never have to rely on a man to build or fix something for me (also I was good at it and it was easy marks). I have been subconsciously buying my friend's daughter the brown haired, skateboarding Barbies for the past few years.
To clarify, I don't hate men or burn my bras (like I would anyway, bras are expensive!) the fact that I can make a dovetail joint with the best of them does not mean that I am not feminine. We need to stop expecting people to fit inside our own expectations of what we think a man or a woman should behave like. For me being a feminist isn't about making women stronger. Women are already strong, its about getting society to recognise that strength and allowing woman to thrive in equal opportunity.
There have been so many different things that as a woman I have found empowering in my life and most have them aren't in your face blatant feminist works. They're Loretta Lynn songs and YA books. I thought I would share a few of the things that have, and continue to, inspire me in my quest for equality.
Sex and the City
Say what you want about this show but to me it is so refreshing to have a show about 4 women who are well thought out 'real' characters who are successful in their work and aren't either portrayed as high-powered bitches or haggard mothers trying (and failing) to 'have it all'.
Lean In Women, work and the will to lead by Sheryl Sandberg
"Thirty years after women became 50 percent of the college graduates in the United States, men still hold the vast majority of leadership positions in government and industry. This means that women’s voices are still not heard equally in the decisions that most affect our lives. In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg examines why women’s progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers compelling, commonsense solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential."
I listened to the audiobook of Lean In and really enjoyed it. This book wont be for everyone but I enjoyed extracting the bits of it felt I could use and applying them to my own situation. Sheryl is a wealth of knowledge so any woman looking to get ahead career wise or any man looking to understand better how to work with women should read this.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler
It is no secret that I love these two women.
Amy Poehler's Smart Girls is a new love of mine that I wont talk about it too much as I talked about it in my last blog but it's excellent and you should check it out. Tina Fey's Bossy pant's is my favourite book and contains a chapter called 'I don't care if you like it: one in a series of love letters to Amy Poehler' This chapter contains one of my personal mantras so I thought I would share and bit of it with you:
"Amy Poehler was new to SNL and we were all crowded into the seventeenth-floor writers’ room, waiting for the Wednesday read-through to start. There were always a lot of noisy “comedy bits” going on in that room. Amy was in the middle of some such nonsense with Seth Meyers across the table, and she did something vulgar as a joke. I can’t remember what it was exactly, except it was dirty and loud and “unladylike.”
Jimmy Fallon, who was arguably the star of the show at the time, turned to her and in a faux-squeamish voice said “Stop that! It’s not cute! I don’t like it.”
Amy dropped what she was doing, went black in the eyes for a second, and wheeled around on him. “I don’t f***ing care if you like it.” Jimmy was visibly startled. Amy went right back to enjoying her ridiculous bit. (I should make it clear that Jimmy and Amy are very good friends and there was never any real beef between them. Insert penis joke here.)
With that exchange, a cosmic shift took place. Amy made it clear that she wasn’t there to be cute. She wasn’t there to play wives and girlfriends in the boys’ scenes. She was there to do what she wanted and she did not f***ing care if you liked it."
Ellie Linton, Hermione Granger
The
Tomorrow When The World Began and
Harry Potter series are my childhood. To this day Ellie Linton from TWTWB is my literary hero. She's strong, independent, stubborn, loyal and uncertain of herself in a way that I couldn't help but relate to. Hermione is nothing like Ellie but I love her just as much. In the Harry Potter series she isn't the love interest, or the token female. She is the brains of the operation and the boys wouldn't have survived without her. These young women are a force to be reckoned with and I love it.
So these are my views and opinions unfiltered. Feel free to comment and ask questions if you want to but in the words of Amy Poehler - I don't f***king care if you like it!
