Think boys can’t be feminists? The seven boys who have taken my high school feminism class in the last two years disagree. They even got together to make a video to share the ways in which feminism has made an impact on their lives as young men.
“My reason for taking the feminism course is that, especially in high school, there’s not opportunities like this that come around, ever,” says Bruke, a high school senior who took my feminism class when he was a junior in the fall of 2012.
“At one point, we wrote an intersectionality essay, and that taught me that nothing is really one-dimensional. Like you can’t just be black. You can be black and gay; or like black, gay, disabled. There are many different things that don’t relate to the master narrative,” Nathaniel, a senior, who also took my course in 2012 and later appeared with Gloria Steinem on “Nick News” on Nickelodeon to talk about feminism and young people.
“Every time you read a magazine, every time you listen to a song, you can hear the misogynist undertone,” says Russell, a senior who took my class this past fall of 2013.
“It is a life-changing course,” said Luis, a senior.
Watch these seven boys share their thoughts on feminism. They’ve just graduated from high school and will be continuing their work on women’s and gender studies and feminist activism as they move on to their college years.
See if their stories can’t convince you to teach a women’s and gender studies class at your high school.
Reprinted with permission from Feminist Teacher
