This post is written as part of the “This is What a Young Feminist Looks Like” blog carnival. Check out Fair & Feminist on Friday, August 27th to see which other bloggers are shouting out and being recognized as young, fly and feminist.

Where Have All the Young Feminists Gone?
Did you hear? Young feminists are disappearing at an alarming rate. The only people who care about women and women’s issues are staring menopause in the face. Young people don’t care about anything and we certainly don’t care about reproductive health issues like abortion or economic and employment matters like equal pay. Nope. All we care about our ourselves and since we were lucky enough to have older feminists fight for our rights, we take it all for granted. Where have all the young feminists gone?!

The above represents the concerns of some leaders in the feminist movement who lament the dearth of young women interested in taking up the cause’s mantle. Apparently the real problem seems to be the generation gap and the failure of established feminist leaders to recognize the changing face of feminism in an increasingly digital society.

This is What a Feminist Looks Like
I’m a 28 year old feminist. No, I didn’t major in gender studies in college. I wasn’t a member of any feminist groups on campus. I didn’t join the Women’s Law Caucus in law school. I’ve never written a thesis on feminist theory. I haven’t even read many of the authors considered to be the pillars of feminist thought. Still, I feel it’s appropriate to declare myself a feminist because of my values, actions and beliefs.

The linguistic authorities at Merriam-Webster say feminism is “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes;  organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.” I could get down with that but to me, being a feminist is part of a larger commitment to social justice that is extremely important to me. In the interest of making the world a better place it just makes sense to me that we have to protect and advocate for women.

“Feminist” has become sort of a dirty word because there are those who perpetuate the stereotype of the man-hating shrew who wants nothing to do with anything considered feminine. There are a lot of women out there who don’t identify with that image of feminism at all. It doesn’t represent how they live their lives or encompass breadth of their interests. Of course no one wants to be labeled negatively and that’s why some women are hesitant to declare themselves feminists at all.

Listen, I like pink things. I wear high heels and watch porn (not at the same time but there’s something to think about, :p). I listen to rap music with misogynistic lyrics and dance like crazy. I like when it’s Ladies’ Night. I cook, sew and like to do other household duties traditionally thought of as “woman’s work.” These things don’t define me nor do they preclude me from identifying as a feminist.  On the flip side, I fight for reproductive justice every day. I advocate to end violence against women. I believe that the economic empowerment of women and girls worldwide is key to the success and wealth of every nation. I believe women shouldn’t be treated as second class simply because we’re women. I ignore pre-determined and defined gender roles. Most importantly, I am constantly trying to learn and evolve into a better person while challenging others to do the same. That means calling people out on their sexist, anti-homosexual, racist, classist, bullshit.

If the established feminists would only look more closely, they’d see that there are lots of women like myself who are fighting for the same things as they have been doing for years. We’re on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and message boards – sometimes being the lone pro-choice, pro-woman voice among many. We’re graduating and trying to get jobs in organizations we grew up learning about and just dying to be given a chance to contribute in a meaningful way (while getting paid, of course). If the old guard doesn’t stop acting like we’re invisible and instead, work with us to include young women in the work, we’ll just have to band together and do it ourselves. Step 1: declaring your brand of feminism.

Are you a feminist? How do you define your feminism?