Post Punk Kitchen Forum

We have the running thread for those who challenge our feminism, I think it would be pretty awesome to have an ongoing thread dedicated to awesome things that are happening among feminism whether they be on an international level, a personal level, etc. We can talk about differences we've made in others lives regarding feminism, how we've grown with feminism, books, movies, documentaries, projects, activists, laws, blogs, etc.

I'll start out with a question. Do you think you've had a positive influence on anyone in your life who had some less than great views of women? If so, I'd love to hear about it!

shoutout to my boo, who is probably the most sincerely feminist guy i've ever met. he tolerates my incoherent rantings about misogyny and patriarchy and privilege and blah blah blarghgarbl shut up already

Oh thanks for this thread Mr Shankly!

Well I'm not sure I've ever had a real influence on anyone (let me think...), but I'm totally grateful to the one I generally see as the first major instigator of my understanding of the feminismt issues: my oldest friend was a tomboy (really seeing herself as a boy) and both the unfairness of the bullying she was facing, and her exemplary freedom of mind, naturally showed me the way of feminism!

Yet she has no idea of the influence she had on my life!

and I may have had an influence on others but... wait... not sure how

Shout out to my mum, my year 10 English teacher, my first uni friends and the PPK!

I think by virtue of just being a woman at a bike shop I can really help other women. One of my reps says he has 35 accounts and only knows of 8 women working in shops in any capacity.

Great idea. My feminist ideals have been shaped in part by the PPK, I feel like I've learned a lot from here that I've been able to take and use in other parts of my life.
I feel like I make a difference in my workplace. I am in a field that is heavily weighted towards being mostly men, and I feel like I challenge people's perspectives about how geeky/artsy/techy women can be. I make a point to volunteer at every "Take Your Kid's To Work Day", and to a bit of outreach with the grade 9 kids and hope that I can plant the idea in some of those young girls that being different, smart and okay with yourself is cool.

Also, my husband is a super awesome feminist dude. He gets angry about feminist issues right along with me, and is always willing to learn more about the plight of the modern woman.

Yay, I have a boo like this too! He's been known to go on his own feminist rants, always calls other dudes out on their misogyny, and has dropped friends completely because of their firmly-held misogynist or racist ideas. And it's so nice to know that anytime I have a complaint or a rant about something I've observed or experienced, he will back me up and engage in a dialogue about it rather than just dismiss me.

Also, I follow a ton of feminist/social justice blogs run by POC on tumblr, and I have learned and continue to learn so much from them about kyriarchy, intersectionality, transphobia, white supremacy, my own privilege, etc. It has definitely helped me become a better ally and a better femiminist, but I'm learning every day.

Feel free to drop any blog names here! I'm always on the lookout for some new ones.

Shout out to j-dub!

I would also like to find new (to me) ones. And I'm on tumblr a lot, so it would be great.

Blog name-drop: The Vagenda.

Does Caitlin Moran get much exposure outside of the UK? She is hilarious.

Seconding the shout-out to the Mighty J-Dubz <3 <3 <3 She is awesomesauce with an awesomecherryontop.

I know I'm tooting my own horn a little, but I am very proud of how many people I've recruited into clinic escorting. Aside from how important clinic defense is in itself, I think it's damn near impossible to ever feel apathetic about choice again having spent time on the front lines.

My BFF recently told me that I have been a major contributor to her feminist mentality over the years, which I think is super awesome. I remember two years ago she made some kind of crack about women who are "dressed like sluts and totally asking for it," but now that would be unthinkable to her. I feel like it's easy to just write people off as misogynists or whatever but a lot of people can and will change if you take the time to educate them.

Tumblr recommendations:
STFU, Sexists. Lots of great commentary on misogyny
Casual -isms. Brief posts about microaggressions, basically
I think brashblacknonbeliever can be really inappropriate sometimes but she ends up reblogging a lot of interesting discussions.

I gotta brag about my boo too. I think he first started learning feminist theory just to impress me but regardless he's pretty well educated about women's issues. He's a man of colour and we're really good about talking about privilege, kyriarchy, white supremacy, etc, he gives me a lot to think about in return and I'm definitely a better feminist because of him.

Also word on tumblr being a big help! I got a few to recommend:

http://thisiswhiteprivilege.tumblr.com/
http://wrcsolace.tumblr.com/
http://feministorwomanist.tumblr.com/
http://racismschool.tumblr.com/
http://muslimfeminists.tumblr.com/
http://fuckyeahchoice.tumblr.com/

British Olympic weightlifter Zoe Smith's choice words for men who berated her for not being conventionally attractive:

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love Zoe Smith. She's been an inspiration to me.

My sister has been a great positive influence on my feminism, constantly questioning why we see women being disrespectful towards other women regarding appearance and similar issues. Mr8 is a great feminist ally, as is my friend Damian.

what the fizzle are they even talking about, anyway? she seems quite conventionally attractive to me. are people actually giving her grief over the fact that she's muscular? that's just pathetic.

Oh man, this is amazing. Perfect. That also reminds me of Gabby Douglas' comeback about her hair. It wasn't as strong at the statement Smith made but I still liked that she wasn't letting people get her down.

that hair stuff sucks!!!

lets have a Mad-Scientists-Walk to assess our hair's rights!!!?????

(I'm ready; that's my everyday look - I'm rather proud of it and it makes me laugh each time I see my face when entering the elevator)

DRC and T, thank you. That is really lovely and amazing to hear.

I have a couple major ones. The first is my thesis supervisor, who retired right as I graduated and is the most amazing, no-nonsense, doesn't take patriarchy's shiitake woman I have ever met. And hilarious to boot! She also founded the women's studies department I graduated from and has done more cool things in her life than I can even imagine.

The second is my old (work) supervisor who has taught me so incredibly much about working in a good way and approaching people and situations with curiousity and assumptions of good intent as a way of solidarity-building. She also encouraged me to follow my passion and really helped me develop my analysis and the way I want to work as a feminist doing anti-violence work.

I think this is my new favourite thing on the internet.

I didn't think I had any influence on the people around me. Until... I heard my kids talking to their friends. The middle one is always reminding her friends what consent is and that everyone involved needs it. And she yells at guys on the street who behave in sexist ways.

My son refused to leave a girls side when she was too drunk to give consent. He just sat with her until they could get her safely home. When I asked about it he said that the guy she went with "was acting sketchy and she was not safe". I think raising children with the vocabulary to understand what these things are is a huge leap forward.

I hope that I've positively influenced some of my college students. I do recall in a class where they have to keep a journal that one female student wrote that seeing me, a single female, enjoying my life showed her that she didn't always have to be with a man to be happy. She said that before taking the class, she had always felt that she had to be with a man, even if he was horrible to her. That she would go from one relationship to another (in which the man invariably did the breaking up), usually with men who treated her very horribly. That definitely made me feel good!