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She Said: Feminism Persists, Part 1
This is part one of a two-part series. Over January and February, I read two feminist-centered books: What She Said by Elizabeth Renzetti (2024) and Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit (2014). I also watched the 2022 film She Said. Below are the words that poured from me immediately after.
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Just in Case
A rape escape tutorial video came across my Tumblr feed several years ago with over 100,000 likes, comments, and reblogs. Many of the commenters expressed that they had wished they’d seen the video sooner: last month, last week, yesterday.
Tumblr is a social media site with an algorithm that can be turned off. It is not Facebook or Instagram or TikTok with their highly moderated For You pages. No, this video was merely making its rounds across dozens of blogs and inevitably found its way onto my feed. I committed the self-defensive moves to memory.
In twelfth grade, I wrote a paper and presentation on the sexualization of women and girls in the media. During the question period, a male student asked about the sexualization of men and boys in the media. I said something about it being more pervasive for women. After years of consideration, of ruminating back on that moment, I discovered a better answer; the issue does not have to…
