RFR/CWSE Feminist Collection Submission

subject:
HOW DID I BECOME A FEMINIST and HOW HAS FEMINISM SHAPED MY WORLDVIEW?

submission:
- Submissions deadline is midnight of Friday, April 2, 2010.  
- Submission format is open-ended.  Essays, art, poetry are all acceptable. 
Written submissions: no minimum word count, 1200 maximum word count. Please attach your submission in an email as a Word file (.doc or .docx). Email all submissions to Jamie Ryckman at cwse@utoronto.ca with the subject, “Feminist Collection Submission”. Please include the name you wish to be published under and a short biography of yourself (approximately a paragraph). You may also include your email or website if you wish for them to be published with your name. We will acknowledge within a week that we have received your submission, and decisions will be made the first few weeks of April. 

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“I am happy because I am a feminist.”

 

When I had recognized myself as a 'woman', I became a 'feminist.'

 

             When I met 'feminism' at the first time, I was a twenty-year-old undergraduate student in Seoul, South Korea. There were a few feminist groups on campus which held seminars on women's studies and raised gender issues from the university to the society. Those days, I was engaged in a student Marxist group. As a member of the group, I had studied Marxist historical materialism and participated in demonstrations against the capitalist companies and government. I believed that the revolution of labour class was inevitable in human history and regarded myself as a warrior of the struggle. And, for me, feminist movement seemed to be not important for people's real liberation. Moreover, I thought that those who were engaged in feminist movement were naive and weak because they didn't suggest the universal perspectives for all people's emancipation. As many Marxists did, I believed that I and my colleagues were strong and we should have the spirit of unity regardless of individual's gender.

             However, an 'accident' that happened to us - me, one of my friends and some female students - in the spring of 1998 changed myself entirely. Actually, the 'accident' happened to my closest friend in the campus. She was sexually harassed by a male student who was a friend of ours. At that time, feminist movement against sexual harassment in the university had been emerging on my campus. And the public apology for the sexual harassment was a way of this movement. My friend chose the way because she hoped other female students would not experience similar 'accident' more. After that, real 'accident' happened to us. There were tens of opinions about the sexual harassment and the public apology. The open space for students in my college had been covered with hand-written poster and most of them focused on not the pain of my friend but the 'human right' of the male students. Someone likened the public apology to the 'witch hunting.' They were indifferent to the gender discriminatory culture in the university.

             Most painful thing among the happenings was the fact that most of my male colleagues of the Marxist group had a standpoint different from mine. They worried more about the male student's situation than my friend's. Although I had believed that I and my male colleagues had same dream to change the world better together, the dream was not same as mine. They, as male Marxists, wanted to make better world for all people except women. So, I couldn't help recognizing that "I am different from them and I am a woman." It was, actually, the first time that I recognized myself as a woman. This was the only thing that I obtained in the painful spring. And I began to search the 'sisters', my new colleagues.

 

 

While living as a feminist, I have learned the way of being stronger with other women 'together'.

 

             After the 'accident', I and my female friends made a study group. Firstly, we read a book about feminist thoughts because we needed to explain our experiences by the language of theory. Though we didn't have the background knowledge of feminism, we were very excited. We also read and discussed about gender issues such as family and gender, violence against women and gender division of labour etc. While studying feminism theory, we began to call each other as a feminist.

             At the end of my undergraduate, I began to operate an informal learning group which aimed at educational activities alternative to the university education. In this group, I and other feminist members made curriculum of feminism for undergraduate students and run training courses for the female mentors of universities. We not only worked together but shared personal experiences and life histories. And we empowered each other and constructed new world-view. Then, we made new names for ourselves. I gave myself new name, Ba-Ram which means freedom. In those days, I grew myself as a feminist and learned to be stronger with other feminists.

 

 

Feminism always gives me productive and positive energy.

 

             I am studying sociology of education and interested in women’s education and the relationship between gender and education. As a feminist researcher, I often feel angry and rage to this world. From violence against women to under-representation of women in the faculty and congress, women’s realities are still severe and harsh. However, I know that the lives of women are not always subordinate to the dominate power in this realities. Women are always struggling for the better world in human history.

             Because I don’t like to spend time with male co-workers, only few male friends remain beside me. Instead, I have a lot of female friends and feminist colleagues and I am always trying to empower my ‘sisters.’ In the relationship with them, I am happy and feeling stronger. Since I am standing in the resistant position against male professors in the university, the possibility of getting a job in the patriarchal academia is very slim. Instead, I am interested in living and researching alternatively in the male-dominated academic society and I have lots of ideas to empower oppressed women and to resist and transform the existing world. Above all, feminism makes me admit myself as I am. I am not a pretty girl. I am not a white and native English speaker. I am not a competent researcher. I am not a rich person. Though, I am happy because I am a feminist.

 

 

  

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I am a feminist from South Korea. My current job is researching on the meaning of education for women's lives. My hobbies are two: the first is thinking of how we change the world for women's happiness and wellbeing; the second is making projects to change the world with 'sisters.' I like to walk slowly and run for a long time. Everyday, I take meditation and bow 108 times as Buddhist practices. This is my favorite Buddhist aphorism: 'like the wind which is not caught in the net (Suttani-pata).'