Throughout the last few months I have learned extensively about the word "activist" and how diverse its definition can be. A quick Google search gives this definition:
"An activist is a person who campaigns for some kind of social change. When you participate in a march protesting the closing of a neighborhood library, you're an activist. Someone who's actively involved in a protest or a political or social cause can be called an activist."
Although this is a good base definition of "activist", I feel as though the term can be just as ambiguous as the word "feminist."
"Feminist" is defined as a person supporting feminism. Feminism is defined as (via Google) the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. If you ask anyone who identifies as a feminist what it means to them, their individual definitions will be more in depth and personal to their own experiences. When addressing social issues there will always be some degree of intersectionality. Simply put, intersectionality describes the phenomenon of how race, gender, class, age, and status overlap and influence our individual perspective.
This word, to me, defines something that is straight forward but for others that is not the case. Last semester I created a very simple video about the various myths of feminism which you can watch here!
I believe these two words go hand-in-hand. Feminist and activist. I've found that finding my role within these terms are not so much an act of choosing but rather discovering which issues spark energy within myself. I find myself ranting about a wide array of social issues and representation of gender roles in society daily! This technological generation is wonderful because it allows me the opportunity to reach out and connect with many people in a small time span. Creating this blog, I think, will help me better understand what goals I can set and achieve as an activist while simultaneously sharing my perspective of the world with the Internet!
