Interview with a Feminist

For our first blog post, I decided to interview a feminist. For this assignment I interviewed my boyfriend who is a junior at Albion College. He was born and raised into a family that is strong believers of feminism. I originally asked Kolin 10 questions during the interview. With the way I set it up, a lot of the questions tie together so I will only be discussing a select few of the questions along with summarizing all of his answers together. I want to focus on his definition of feminism and how he came to be a feminist and embraced it as a lifestyle.

 When asking Kolin how he defined feminism he was able to give me a straight, to the point, definition. He defines feminism as believing that all people, men and women, and creatures deserve equal opportunities, rights, choices, fairness, and respect. In the assigned reading, “Men In Feminist Struggle-The Necessary Movement”, Bell Hooks willingly takes on the argument of whether or not men can be feminists. Since I ironically interviewed a man who sees himself as a feminist, I will go ahead and talk about whether or not Hooks sees Kolin as one, too. Bell Hooks believes that “Currently contemporary men’s movement does not address in a serious political manner feminist transformation of society”(Hook 33). I went back and asked Kolin what he thought about that quote and believes that it does not speak for every man that defines himself as being a feminist. You cannot judge the entire group of males who consider themselves to be feminists or to agree with feminism solely on a couple of men from that group. “Within popular culture in the United States there was and is the stereotypical assumption that men who support feminist movement represent “wimp masculinity”” (Hooks 30). Kolin actually got a good laugh at this quote by Hooks. As one of our interview questions, I asked Kolin what was something he didn’t enjoy about being a feminist. His response was that the ridicule of claiming the status as a feminist was the only thing he absolutely didn’t enjoy. Now society is just going back to the Tough Guise “box of masculinity” that we’ve been trying to minimize completely. Just because men can be courageous enough to believe that all women deserve to be treated equally and have the same rights and respect that men get doesn’t mean they should be scrutinized as “wimps”.

So how long has Kolin embraced feminism? Kolin was born and raised to treat women with respect and equally. His parents raised him to respect all women equally and to know and understand that they deserve the same respect that’s given to men. He knew he might run into some people along the way that believe women shouldn’t be equal to men. This world is full of people, men and women, who believe that men should dominate. Women think that their only place on their earth is in their home, taking care of their husband and children. This interview question lead to the answer of another interview question: Were there particular events in your life that led you to feminism? His Grandma wasn’t given equal rights when she was growing up and throughout her adulthood life. He was told stories about the many struggles she had to suffer through. The stories that he was told made him think a lot about how women are treated today. Kolin couldn’t imagine what his grandmother had to go through while growing up. While growing up to a sports-loving family, it was hard to think that his grandmother wasn’t allowed to play certain sports when she was growing up. Who would want a wife that doesn’t contribute anything to the marriage besides normal household duties? Women who faced inequality at it’s worst hardly attended school, had jobs, or were respected as a human being. The reading by Betty Friedan, “Excerpts from The Feminine Mystique”, is a great example of how women viewed themselves. “For over fifteen years there was no word of this yearning in the millions of words written about women, for women, in all the columns, books and articles by experts telling women their role was to see fulfillment as wives and mothers”(Friedan 1). Women had been brainwashed by magazines, books and society on how they should live their lives. It’s sickening. Kolin, a big fan of sports, is always seeing professional athletes marrying “trophy wives”. This has an effect on how young women see themselves in the future. He always hears girls talking about how they will just marry rich so they can be a stay at home mom/wife. The media is giving young girls such a bad image on how their lives should be. “Many women no longer left their homes, except to shop, chauffeur their children, or attend a social engagement with their husbands”(Friedan 2). In order to embrace feminism as a society, women need to get the idea that all they are good for are the household duties out of their head.

After this interview, I will be more understanding and willing to listen to men who claim to value feminism and define themselves as being feminists. It’s not something all men can openly admit to and stand up for. Kolin believes that the struggle for women in the work place, school, and society has greatly improved, but there is a lot of room for improvement. Women should be treated with fairness, respect and equally. Women deserve to have the same rights as men. Women and men should act as a team rather than enemies; besides, it takes both women and men to continue to expand our worlds population. 

Hooks, Bell. “Men In Feminist Struggle-The Necessary Movement.” Web.

Friedan, Betty. "Excerpts from The Feminine Mystique." Web.

Interviewee:

Kolin Kazen 

kvk10@albion.edu