Overthinking Tumblr
Recently I’ve kind of felt like a ‘bad feminist’.
I put that in apostrophe-things because I know (like in my heart #cringe) that the only way to succeed at being a ‘bad feminist’ is if you don’t actually believe in gender equality. I also know that there is no panel of judges, or governing body, to approve of your worthiness to label yourself as a feminist. Even so, I can’t help constantly saying to myself ‘I shouldn’t think that’ or ‘A real feminist wouldn’t think that’. I’ll elaborate because I feel like you’ve now got this picture of me liking ‘Menimist’ posts on Facebook and tweeting about how I believe women were created to pleasure a man.
This is going to sound really trivial but the first time I thought this was on tumblr. I follow loads of great blogs (if I’m honest they’re all very very similar but hey they repost nice pictures) and a lot of them repost feminist-y things. I love all these posts and agree with them 100% but a lot of the time I don’t repost them to avoid my blog becoming too feminist.
Don’t shoot me! Don’t shoot me! Don’t shoot me!
I know that is awful and I’m kind of considering deleting this.*
*I’m just being so brave.
I justified this to myself by saying (to myself, in my head) that I wanted just one form of social media where ‘FIERCE BUT NOT AGGRESSIVE FEMINIST’ wasn’t the first label that people placed on me.
This is relevant to Facebook, Twitter and essentially every single social media.*
*Yes, I’m pretty sure I’m a member of most of them which is of great embarrassment to myself and my family.
This even happens in real life. OMG yes, I said it. Real Life. For example, someone I’m talking to might mention an article they read about how feminists are actually a Top Secret Global Organisation Working Closely With The Government To Brainwash The Brains Of The Nation’s Children (or TSGOWCWTGTBTBOTNC for short). And instead of taking that opportunity to remind them that ‘feminist’ just refers to a person with a belief (that happens to be equality between sexes, lol) and actually feminists are just normal people who, no, don’t believe all men should be locked in a dungeon as their primary function is to provide semen to make more humans, hopefully women, I will just make a sarcastic remark and move on as if it didn’t happen.
This is all to minimise the number of people who decide it doesn’t matter what my name is, what subjects I study, or even whether I’m actually a nice person or not, and instead just refer to me as ‘that annoying feminist girl’.
However, I’m pretty sure if I had to have any label, category or neon pink flashing sign above my head it would say feminist. And I am proud of that. I want one of the first things people to know about me to be that I’m a feminist who is not only willing to take that label and own it, but also willing to educate and be educated about the millions of injustices and inequalities around our world.
So, from now on I am making a promise to myself to repost every feminist post I see on my tumblr dashboard, to ‘like’ every feminist status I see on Facebook, and to take every chance I can to call out inequality and promote equality.*
*Do you now understand my blog title? I got all that from not posting something on tumblr.
hey! i'm an 21 year old medical student (currently intercalating in anthropology) living it up in east london! i spend my spare time playing dixie chicks on guitar (badly), attempting to do yoga and turning it up at my church.