Feminist Interview

I interviewed my friend Katie O’Brien, a feminist. She gave what I could consider a fairly straight forward, and maybe even common definition for what feminism is. She summed up her feminism for me as being; “equality, recognizing gender bias, and reproductive rights, all through education and action.” This is not too far off from bell hook’s own definition of feminism as “a movement to end sexist exploitation and oppression.” O’Brien has only recently been vocal about being a feminist but her reasons being for being one are deeply rooted in her personal life and experiences. Citing her mother and her grandmother as being influences, she grew up seeing dependent women and sought to move in the opposite direction from them. Instead, she wanted a career and independence for herself and to be seen as an equal to men. Despite being newly public as a feminist, she has found herself a great support network with her friends and her work with PeaceJam, which includes her involvement in planning for the “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event this spring. PeaceJam has also given her the opportunity to hear and speak with Rigoberta Menchú Tum, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient and one of the founders of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, about femicide and gender projection. However, she acknowledges that there is a stigma attached to being a feminist and does her best to fight the stereotypes placed on feminists, such as being a man-hater.

Issues O’Brien feels close to include the portrayals of women in media and pop culture and how they’ve shifted over time. She noted particular interest in the paradigm of the housewife and the power house woman and questions where the roles models for girls are. This falls in line with her academic interests in the study of gender portrayal in comics. She cited heroes such as Fun Home cartoonist Alison Bechdel as inspiration for her pursuit both as a scholar and as a feminist. It is interests such as this that I would categorize O’Brien as a Third Wave feminist. Still finding her way as feminist, she acknowledges that it is very much a part of who she is. I find O’Brien to be along the lines of Rebecca Walker and her piece, “Becoming the Third Wave,” where she advocated that Third Wave feminism was about gender equality and ending sexism. O’Brien, like Walker, is a forward thinker with a community behind her. Walker advocated for turning rage into political power where as O’Brien instead seeks to under gender portrayals in pop culture, particularly in the medium of comic books and graphic novels, which can reach a much broader range of people. I personally find Third Wave feminism to be the most interesting, because as O’Brien pointed out to me in our interview, media representations of women tend to go in one of two directions: the motherly housewife or the cold attitude power house. I, like O’Brien and other Third Wave feminists, also wish to know where the real role models for young girls among the sea of Snookis and Kardashians?

Reference List

hooks, bell, “Feminism is for Everybody.” from our lectures

Walker, Rebecca, “Becoming the Third Wave.” D2L E-learning

I interviewed Katie O’Brien, she can be reached at noirblanc3@yahoo.com