I am speaking to young feminists. What the hell do I tell them?

This weekend, I am participating in an inter-generational feminist panel for the University of Texas at Austin Feminist Action Project Conference. I have to be honest that I am a bit nervous about it. If you had asked me to speak about youth engagement or supporting youth in foster care, I would be all over it. Those were my professional endeavors for five and a half years. Being a feminist is more personal. It is not a work title that I wear; it is how I live, how I vote, how I view the world. It is a part of who I am. I rarely offer the personal part of feminism to a face-to-face audience. I usually use the feminist lens to critique something that is happening. This is different.

For the past few days, I have been thinking about the message that I want to bring to the group. I haven’t found the right note that I want to hit in my sharing. Perhaps I can get away with not having a big takeaway message? (Ha! Probably not.) I keep ping ponging between the typical stuff, and it doesn’t feel right. We have all heard the inspiring message of, “We can change the world.” That message will only fuel you for so long. We have all gotten the message to be the feminist that you want to be, or be the change that you want to see as it were. That seems a bit unhelpful. It feels self-serving to share my own feminist story. I mean really. How far will that get another person?  

I can tell the group exactly why I am a feminist. I am a feminist, because the patriarchy hurts everyone. We are all placed into these narrow boxes of expectation. When we do not meet those expectations, because of what body parts we have, who we are, who we love, how we express ourselves, where we are from, who we know, how we look, what has happened in our lives, what values we hold, what jobs we find meaningful, then we are hurt socially, financially, physically, emotionally, and environmentally. And that must change. We all deserve the freedom to be who we are without penalty. I am going to be a feminist who critiques and works against the oppressive patriarchy until it is dismantled, and we are all free. (Maybe that is my message?) 

What motivates you to be a feminist? (I promise not to steal your message and use it as my own.)

- Lauren, an older feminist sharing her lessons with younger ones

UPDATE: The panel went really well. I got to share the turning points in my life that made me become a feminist and the  hopes that I have for the future of the feminist movement. If I had to pick a theme in what I shared, it might be that we need to expand the feminist conversation to include more oppressed groups and to keep the movement relevant. Everybody seemed engaged and ready to take that message forward. It was awesome!