I am a long-time reader of Feministing and finally decided to get an account on the new Community system. I wanted to share an incident that is both amusing and an indicator of just how much being an actively reading feminist has helped me to stand up for myself and for all women -- for all people, really.
I was working a temp job as a stocker for a traveling liquidation sales event that happened to have stopped in my city. I met some fun people and enjoyed the work, not minding at all that I was assigned to work mostly with men. One of the main supervisors, however, was a bit of a prick. I was packing the stuff into the boxes neatly and tidily, as I believe that integrity applies even when it has nothing to do with keeping a job or impressing anyone. I mean, why not do good work when you're being paid hourly for it? It does take longer than sloppy work and that leads to an increase in your paycheck at the end of the day.
One of the fellow stockers working with me was doing a bad job. Another stocker noticed the difference and graciously complimented me. I joked that it was all in the spatial reasoning. The supervisor said that it was nice that a woman exhibited any kind of reasoning at all.
Now, the me before I'd read up on the history of the oppression of women and current news on how bad sexism still really is would have shrugged it off in the moment, but then would have regretted it later. I would have kicked myself for not having stood up to someone who was abusing his power to mock me and half of the entire human race. I know this because I endured 3 months under the thumb of a boss at a loan company who did nothing but make sexist remarks, turn a blind eye to the perverts in the office who harassed me merely for being a young woman, and undermine my successes by insisting that I attained them because it was easier for women to do so. I didn't even have the courage to quit -- I had to underperform and be fired in order to leave the god-awful place (is it bad that I am pretty happy that he is now most likely bankrupt?)
The me now? Not so much.
In a tone rife with sarcastic comraderie, I remarked, "I see what you did there, a little bit of sexual harassment in the workplace, eh?"
He paled a bit at the comment and for the rest of the event, was nothing but respectful.
It only took a small bit of bravery to speak up in this case, as I had little to lose, but it felt significant to me in two ways. Firstly, I am sure the supervisor in question will think twice before belittling anyone else out to make a bit of cash by working one of the events. Secondly, I feel more confident and less scared to speak up for my rights.
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Good on you. I absolutely agree that reading Feministing and other feminist posts and blogs has really helped me to bring feminist dialogue into my real life. I'm the same, not backing down when people make jokes about how "silly" women are, etc. But again, this has only occurred after giving myself the strength to respond by informing myself of all the opinions and facts behind certain issues.
I always knew I was a feminist, I just didn't know why. This blog and others have helped me discover why and made me more firm in my conviction and more sure of myself in responding to injustice, inequality and prejudice where I see it.
The most recent example was when there was an email forwarded around my department with pictures of a tall fat woman getting married to a shorter, thin man. Lots of people were laughing out loud or saying "that's so gross" and things along those lines. I did a "Reply to All" and told them all that it's not funny to mock people because they're a different size, and jokes about how "gross" they are (she was actually really beautiful, imho, just not skinny!) are really inappropriate and add to the sentiment that women need to be thin in order to be accepted. I said "I don't care if I'm a buzzkill on this one", because it was important to me to ensure that people don't get laughed at for marrying someone they love! My mum is fat, and to imagine that if she and my father were to get married that she would be laughed at and mocked by people, FOR BEING IN LOVE, is frankly dispicable. Needless to say, everyone shut up about it. Then a colleague took me up on it, saying that if I think that's offensive then why do I watch South Park!
Anyway, that's my rant done. Sorry! My point was that it's so important to stand up for what you believe in, and having facts behind you (thankfully most blogs give you those facts) is very important.
Well done again! Keep it up!
*applause*