Dear Amy,

I'm a Chinese girl. In our society, feminism is not as important as in western society. I've read some essays on Feminist.com. I don't think I'm a feminist, and I really cannot understand some of your notions. Perhaps it's up to our different culture. I only want to ask a simple question: what is feminism? I cannot express myself in English very well, terribly sorry.

Sincerely,

Faye

Dear Faye,

Trust me, your English is far better than my Chinese would ever be.

I think feminism is essentially what each person makes of it -- in general, it is a movement working to ensure the each person can make informed choices about their lives regardless of what choice they make. I think that feminism is about changing society, not about changing yourself -- it's about structural change not individual change, but perhaps a consequence of the structural change will be that more people can feel like they can be themselves.

I hope that's clear -- let me know if you need more information - thanks,

-- Amy