embracing the F-word

Throwback post! from girlpower1.wordpress.com.

Written on May 8, 2007.

Reading last week’s New York, I stumbled upon an article on Jessica Valenti which was interesting, particularly after our class discussions on feminism. As a freelance writer, author, and blogger, Valenti has been working to make young women embrace feminism. Three years ago Valenti founded her blog Feministing.com where her mission states “Young women are rarely given the opportunity to speak on their own behalf on issues that affect their lives and futures. Feministing provides a platform for us to comment, analyze and influence.” After scrolling through the blog, it’s really interesting to note that a lot of her posts are on the same topics that many of the posts in our girlpower blogs.

I think it’s pretty interesting to look at Feministing.com’s take on modern day feminism. These posts don’t seem to be about radical feminist actions taken by womens, and definitely no bra burnings in sight. So what I’m wondering is, is Valenti feeding today’s young women a watered down, more palatable version of feminism? Because from class discussions, it seems like we’ve come to the consensus that today’s young women would hate to be called feminists, so is the answer just changing our view of feminism?