I was maybe 8 or 9, my chubby self stuffed into a brand new pink leotard and tights. I was not happy in this outfit, largely because my little body did not “fit” the ballet-body type–a fact my older brother’s very tall, very thin girlfriend pointed out regularly. When I got out of the car, […]
Feminist Click Moment
Click! Everything I Needed To Know I Learned in Kindergarten
I was 5 years old when I first had that sensation that comes from your gut when you know something isn’t right. Not a feeling of danger, but of righteous anger at injustice. It comes from deep inside, where instinct resides. There I was, in my mud-stained jeans and forever-disheveled hair, playing in the kindergarten […]
Click! A Feminist All Along
To borrow from Twelfth Night: Some are born feminists, some achieve feminism, and some have feminism thrust upon them. Those in the first category received Ms. rolled up in their Christmas stockings and started advocating for gender equality in the playground. My reluctant transition into feminism, however, puts me squarely in the second category. I […]
Click! My Grandmother’s Resistance
“How am I going to manage without you?” my maternal grandmother Pata wailed at the viewing of her husband’s recently deceased body. As a precocious and carefully inscrutable 12-year-old, I remember feeling embarrassed on her behalf, and thus mine, that she expressed public grief for logistical support rather than the passionate loss I had seen […]
Click! Cape Town, South Africa, 1980
It was during the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, that I, a law student, came out as a feminist. The year was 1980. I had grown up in a Cape Town quarter of descendants of slaves from Asia and North Africa. We as a community had internalized our pain and suffering and our shared bitterness […]
Click! Hmmm, Aha! and Oh no!
I had my first feminist stirring, or “Hmmm” moment, in grade school when I noticed teachers always asked boys to help them carry boxes, move the mobile TV or assist with other physical chores. I accepted this at first because, I guess, I bought into the idea that I was just a weaker-than-the-boys girl. But […]
Click! It’s Not You, It’s Patriarchy
“It’s not you. You’re not an isolated case. It’s systematic and it’s called patriarchy,” said the radical 60-something woman at the front of the room with the “War is not good for children and other living creatures” medallion swinging from her neck. She wore a turtleneck encased in a neat blazer and put one leg […]