The State of Feminism

I have been very moved by the fact that this is such a sacred anniversary for Feminist.com. When I moved here after being a young organizer for Planned Parenthood in D.C. and came to change my life doing feminist media and working at the Women's Media Center and Feminist Press and now as an executive in corporate publishing, Feminist.com was a place that helped me see a role for myself in my life. An intergenerational community, a place to nourish feminist activism and advocacy, but also Our Inner Lives, which Marianne had the foresight of founding, to talk about how those who identify as spiritual are as seekers could also find that meaning, and that we're not separate from the movement of feminism, that we can all be together and have our different theories of change and approaches and be together and be united. I want to thank you for that because Feminist.com has provided for me, and so many others, a place to belong, a place to be intact, a place to feel that we don't have to carve out pieces of ourselves to fit, that we can bring our whole selves to Feminist.com. 

Thank you so much for this honor to be a part of this sacred circle. Thank you, Gloria, for having us in your beautiful home that is full of magic. It's medicine to be in this magical home with each and every heart and voice that is here. In these times that give me cause to weep quite often, the hope and joy that you bring, the good works that you do, the good news that you spread in the world really does help us and the next generations that are looking for direction for the future, it gives us hope to know that we can move forward — that this is temporary and the infinite human truth, which I believe is that through partnership, solidarity, and feminism, we will thrive. 

In terms of closing the circle, I just wanted to say the gift of space. Tressie McMillan Cottom just said the other day on a panel that there's a reason that the authoritarians want to make space unavailable to us because they actually realize that the gift of having space to collectively organize at places like Berkeley and the Free Speech Movement. The ability to have space to come together and to create revolution is something that they need to give us less access to so that we can't change things and we can't have movements. So I also just want to say that the gift of this sacred, cozy, beautifully designed space, and all of the heart that went into it, is really important to us at Feminist.com. And thank you for 30 years of this space, from the birth of Feminist.com but also to bringing us together because it's really radical that we are taking up space together and all of the different diversity that we bring to this space. 

One thing that gives me hope is the intergenerational space that we have. We were speaking earlier about the divisions that we have and how we need to find the places that we can be brought together and how our side doesn't tend to work well together, a lot of times to our own demise. And I think about how I'm really grateful to be from a culture that teaches how we value the voices of people who've had more time on the planet than we have, but then also having the opportunity to have both my great-grandmother and my grandmothers and my mom on the planet with me at the same time. To have that kind of matriarchy, even though they're all gone too soon, has really led me to see a part of my medicine, I would say, is kinship, to remind people that we're all relations. That's something that I've had one of my elders tell me: “Your purpose is to remind us that we're all relatives. That's what your ancestors want you to do.” 

What gives me hope is if we deepen those bonds and connect across our ages more and have the meaningful relationships of being together throughout a life, we can be even more powerful. It's something that's always been done by women, and I think that capitalism and patriarchy have made us move away from that. It's something that I'd like to see more of in feminism. This space gives me a lot of hope. And we need that wisdom. It brings my heart tremendous joy and tenderness to be saying, “We are all relations no matter what age we are. Each of us has a contribution that’s important.”

These remarks have been edited for clarity and length. Portions of these remarks appeared at Women’s Media Center.