Feminist author and blogger Jessica Valenti wanted to know what words came to Georgetown students’ minds when they heard the word “feminism.” The responses from the predominantly female audience included words such as “angry” and “bra-burning.”
“Most young women are feminists, have feminist values, but are too freaked out to use the word,” Valenti said.
Valenti’s Tuesday night speech in McShain, which aimed “to make feminism more accessible to women,” kicked off Georgetown’s first annual Women’s Week, a series of events put on by the Women’s Center and other campus groups to commemorate Women’s History Month.
Valenti talked about how she founded Feministing.com after growing disillusioned with establishment women’s rights organizations, which she said “only paid lip service” to young women and women of color.
She also recalled being at the center of an internet controversy, which she dubbed “Boobgate,” after being accused of dressing too provocatively in a group photo with former President Bill Clinton.
“I was targeted because I was young, and because I was a woman,” she said.
Valenti’s frank discussions of sex and negative views on abstinence-only education sparked questions from members of the Catholic Daughters of America and Georgetown Right to Life on whether women with differing views on reproductive rights can be a part of the feminist movement.
“I’m not the arbiter of what is or isn’t feminism,” Valenti replied.
Shamisa Zvoma (MSB ‘08), a member of United Feminists, which helped plan the event, said that she wasn’t surprised by Right to Life’s attendance, adding that several of their members had attended United Feminists meetings.
In past years, the Women’s Center held one day of events in March to recognize Women’s History Month. United Feminists member and event organizer Marion Cory (COL ‘10) said that the Center expanded the commemorations to an entire week this year to add more diverse events, which include a Foxy Brown film screening Saturday, a women’s slam poetry event on Friday and a Women’s Leadership Awards Dinner tonight.
Jheanelle Brown (SFS ‘10), Media Relations Officer for the campus chapter of the NAACP, worked with the Women’s Center on an event concerning “the denigration of black [women] in the media,” which was held Tuesday night.
“I’ve never worked on these issues outright, but then the Women’s Center, and seeing exactly what they do, really seeing how it’s relevant, will inspire me to keep doing things in the future,” she said.
Women’s Center volunteer Danielle Furman (COL ‘11) said they planned to continue the collaboration between cultural and women’s rights groups.
“This is the first Women’s Week at Georgetown, but hopefully it will be a tradition that will continue for years to come,” Menezes said.
—Additional reporting by Ohm Gore
