12 Signs Your Daughter Became A Feminist While You Weren’t Looking

Where have all the feminists gone? They may be popping up in the next generation, tuning in to a different sensibility for equality than any generation before them. They may exist right under your own roof. Here are 12 ways to tell if your daughter is a feminist:?

1. She starts wearing a brand new pair of pink tennis shoes. You think, ‘How sweet–just like when she was a little girl.’ And you hold onto that nostalgic image until you see Texas state senator Wendy Davis on the Internet and realize the shoes are the exact same Mizuno running shoe that Davis wore during her historic filibuster against the restriction of women’s reproductive rights.

2. When you ask your daughter to clear the table, she hands her dirty plate to her brother. Before he can overcome his confusion, she crams the butter dish into his other hand and cheerfully pitches in to help him complete the task.

3. Her friends are getting boob jobs as presents from their parents. You roll your eyes, thinking its kind of silly, but you don’t want her to feel out-of-place in her social group. So you give her a gift certificate for one on her next birthday. She promptly holds one corner over a birthday candle and incinerates it before your eyes.

4. She buys a dartboard and crafts her own bullseye–a collage of Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Boehner and some hound-dog faced man you can only identify by going online, Arizona Congressman Trent Franks. You’d wonder what this was all about if it weren’t for the full color diagram of a uterus securely plastered onto Trent’s body.

5. She insists that her first car have a manual transmission, asserting that she’ll feel much more in control when driving. Nothing says, “I’m in charge” like your own hand on the stick.

6. Her timeline project for school includes a career plan, projected ahead for 20 years. Thorough scrutiny reveals no trace of kids until she’s 35 years old. You’re wondering if the fact that marriage isn’t on there somewhere, too, is an oversight.

7. When you whine about never having grandkids, she directs you to a website for sponsoring orphans in third world countries.

8. She runs for president of the student body because she wants adequate preparation for her future. The office of vice-president just won’t cut it.

9. When your Victoria’s Secret catalog arrives, she picks up a Sharpie, marks it “Return to Sender” and stuffs it back in the mailbox.

10. Suddenly, she’s correcting your English at every turn: “It’s flight attendant, not stewardess. For God’s sake, stop calling people waitresses; they’re servers. Mom, you’ve been a grown-up woman for decades, so when are you going to stop calling yourself a ‘girl’?”

11. She stands up for the girl who everyone else is calling a ‘slut’ for being sexually active, then compiles a “Just Say No To Hanging Out” list of the ‘studs’ involved in the shaming and passes it out at school.

12. When you’re walking down the street with her, she flips off a man who insults her with a long, low wolf-whistle. You don’t even reprimand her for the gesture because–strange as it seems–you’re really ‘effing’ proud.

Now take a look in the mirror. You just might have found another feminist.

If you’d like to know more about the challenges young girls have in standing up for females, please check out one student’s blog: “What happened when I started a feminist society at school”.

 

Edited and published by WP.

I'm a lifelong liberal, a social/political activist, a writer and blogger. I've been through many incarnations, including 20 years as a psychotherapist and 10 years as an astrologer. However, writing and social justice have always been my passions. That's the way I was raised: much thanks, Dad! I look forward to many more transformations as life goes on. For more, please join me on Facebook. or Twitter @thepolitcali_1