My Story: Understanding That Feminism May Look Different for Each of Us

By Saniya Ghanoui —

MB talks about the fact that many of us have different perspectives and views when it comes to feminism.

Transcript:

OBOS Today: Is there something close to your heart that you feel like should be talked about more? 

MB: Hmm. I think, I think one thing that needs to be talked about and is starting to be talked about a little bit more is like intersection between feminist spaces and queer spaces. I think that often like when you think of feminism, there’s a kind of like white, liberal feminism that kind of fits the mold and [laughs] while I myself am both white and liberal and academic, that’s a place of privilege that doesn’t fit every feminist and I think that, I think that it’s the responsibility of those who, you know, have the tools or like who are enrolled in college or have access to taking classes about feminism, that you also take a step back and you say am I serving all the communities that I want to be serving? Also, again I said queer spaces but also like spaces of color, people of color like that’s something in feminism that it’s not always, I would say a blanket statement, or like my feminism might look different from somebody else’s feminism and that’s okay, you know [laughs]? There doesn’t need to be like, so much of like a conflict within it but I think that like there needs to be a conversation around different perspectives within the sphere of feminism and there isn’t just one way to be a feminist, I think. 

OBOS Today: Yeah, I agree with that. And I was wondering how would you describe what your feminism is? 

MB: Hm. You know, I’d like to think that my feminism is as intersectional [laughs] as it can be, it’s a word that I really try to pursue, um, but knowing that, I think, the key to my feminism is openness and being willing to have conversations with real people um ‘cause I really try to root my feminism in like— in reality, you know? Like it’s one thing to read a book about it, you know? I think one book that I think actually, that everyone should read is called Notes to Self by Emilie Pine, um and it really just talks about the kind of, for lack of a better term, like bloody reality of what it means to be a woman and I think one thing that she talks about specifically is her journey with miscarriages and fertility and how— she didn’t realize how common miscarriages were because there’s almost a culture of silence around fertility issues for women. 

OBOS Today: Yeah.  

MB: But like, I don’t know, I think there’s a culture of silence around feminism in general or like unless something is talked about in the general sphere, then it’s just not going to be talked about at all. Um so it’s this idea of silence and trying to break the silence I think is how I also define my feminism.