The State of Feminism

This year has been a lot, and this weekend was a lot — two mass shootings that we know of. And I have been thinking about what we know, that mass shooters almost always are perpetrators of domestic gender-based violence. It's like clockwork. What if we took seriously gender-based violence, if we took seriously child sexual abuse, how would we respond differently so that these mass shootings also didn't occur? So I've been thinking about that and what, what it would take and what it would mean.

And then the second point I’ll make is, what's so clear is, we're living in fascism, we're living in an authoritarian regime here, and authoritarianism is on the rise all over the world. That is what is happening. And what is very clear is authoritarian regimes always, always use gender. That's always the first thing; that is what they do. They go after reproductive rights, they ban gender studies. In Hungary, in Turkey, they banned legislation on domestic violence, and Russia, the same. That's just what happens. And of course that's happening here. I feel like they understand the power of gender. And on the alternative, the reality is that the only way we will overcome authoritarianism, the only way, is feminist movements—intergenerational, intersectional. That is literally the antidote to ending authoritarianism. And they know that, which is why they're working really, really hard overtime to shut it down. But they will not be successful.

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