5 things feminism has done for me

Vicky tagged me and asked me to describe five things that feminism has done for me. My initial responses were similar to hers and SkylarkD's, but I thought of a few others as well.

1. I can get medical treatment specific to my female physiology. Doctors realize that women and men require different health care treatments and prevention: Our differences don't end with the reproductive system! We still have a long way to go on this count, but I credit feminism with highlighting this issue. Menstruation and child-bearing are, while personal and private, no longer taboo. I suspect that men's health care stands to benefit indirectly from women's activism as well. I've noticed a lot more initiatives to raise awareness about prostate cancer in the past year or two. Could pink-ribbon events have helped create an environment where such illnesses could be publicly discussed?


2. I can take responsibility for my own safety and well-being. Now, feminism hasn't made me as physically strong as most men, nor has it managed to create a society free from violence against women. It has, however, allowed me to choose how to stay safe. I can take a self-defence class, I can walk alone during daylight in most places, and I can find people I trust and stick with them if I want to walk around in the middle of the night. I do not have to rely on the margin of safety that one man - husband, father, whoever - can provide.


3. Feminism first ensured that women were allowed to pursue whatever men could, and now it is ensuring that we are encouraged to do so. When I started university, I had no trouble finding a lab coat cut for a 32" chest. Later, I started work at a construction site, and had to buy safety shoes. I had some pretty specific requirements: I have wide feet, and I wanted lightweight shoes rather than thick boots, because the site was in a desert-like climate. No problem. There were shoes that worked for me, and I even liked the style. We need a world that integrates women right into the spectrum of things rather than as a special case. Thankfully, there are people building that world every day.


4. I have learned to count my blessings. I can vote and I can study in a traditionally male-dominated field, and I can wear skirts and frills and big old mack jackets, and I can be paid what my job is worth. I can climb trees and jump in mud if I want, and it reflects on my personality rather than on my gender. I grew up knowing all this. I also was brought up to understand that it took a lot of work to get here, and lots of people don't have the same rights as I do. Keeping awareness of my rights fresh can help me to use them to create positive change. Women (and men) sacrificed a lot to give me the right to vote. Ought I not to vote and to live my life in such a way that encourages equal rights for others?


5. I love my friends. While I am a fan of "girls' night out" on occasion, I like few things better than beer night with the boys. I love my guy friends. They are a bombastic, beer-swilling, chip-crunching sort, and we have great conversations that I just don't happen to have with my female friends. They make me feel like one of them, without making me feel like I should be male. Imagine this without feminism! Gender roles would steal all the fun. I would have to wear a dress (which I do sometimes, but not because I have to). I might have to keep my legs crossed at the ankles, decline the tequila shot because it isn't ladylike, and certainly I ought not to make armpit farts or have opinions on current political issues.
   

When I started to play the fiddle a couple of years ago, it never occurred to me that that was a privilege not granted to many Canadian women, generations back. It simply wasn't something women and girls did. I didn't even know that. I just played. I'm talent-limited, not gender-limited. That is a blessing.