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Riley Kramer

Dr. Aaron Kashtan

UWRT 1102

9 February 2017

Finding My American Identity Through Feminism

When I was growing up, I was that one girl in little league baseball. My Dad was a

traditional American, toting national pride and carrying his parents generation of conservatism,

though I was his modern exception. Until I was 10, my Dad had three daughters, but he treated

me as his son. I never thought anything was weird about that. I wasnt a tomboy by any means,

but it was so easy to go along with the different expectations my dad had for me than he had for

my sisters. As my brother grew, I was lapsed into being treated like one of my sisters and,

though I didnt know it at the time, started thinking like a feminist. Fighting as a feminist has

made me appreciate being American and taken me in the direction of political communication.

My sisters have never been activists, as I did most of the arguing. A day came when I

was sent to do the dishes while my brother and Dad went outside to throw around a baseball. I

was then called Daddys polite princess instead of his football buddy. Those changes were

when I realized that things werent equal. Though this was just me living with my family, my Dad

was giving privilege to him and my brother. My Mom never complained, since shes as

traditional as my Dad, but it was hard for me to stay quiet. I began developing a harsh

relationship with my parents and an even worse relationship with my brother. Theres not much

one can do to change things when theyre young, so all I could do was cause fights and act

petty. I even stopped calling my brother by his name and just called him Boy. As I started

noticing my brothers better treatment, I noticed that besides the obvious upper hand he was

given, he was encouraged to do different things than my Dad encouraged me to do. A few years
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later, I was able to realize this was gender bias. I also realized that this gender bias my parents

had werent because they were sexist or loved my brother more, but because they were raised

to have this predisposition and that this predisposition was a silently accepted practice in the

United States. As I tried to change their views, my approach shifted from arguing and pettiness

to example and conversation.

Feminism has had an unpleasant reception in the U.S. the past couple years. Words like

feminazi have embarrassed the people who consider the movement to be something beneficial

and proactive. These negative tags are connected to feminism to such an extent that now its

hard to not associate the two together. What feminism stands for is equality amongst people,

and the movement itself is something very American. The past century has been 100 years of

women's activism. From the earliest wave of feminism with voting to the second wave of

feminism with Title IX, equal pay, early abortion rights, and birth control; whats overall been

accomplished with feminism is rights for women. These accomplishments are American in

essence as they provide opportunity and the freedom of choice; two values that fuel the soul of

the country. While its recognized that all thats been accomplished with feminism are good

things, many dont see the dire need for feminism anymore. This was the issue with what I

personally encountered. My Dad, and later my brother, claimed that girls in the United States

are already equal. For people like this, theres been a new wave of feminism within the past 10

years, and thats what inspired me growing up.

My plight, growing up, was the refusal of my parents to admit that my brother was being

treated better than me and my sisters. How I shook their stance was searching around twitter

when my Mom left her account logged in. Many say that the fourth wave of feminism started in

2008 with the creation of twitter, and though I have no authority to agree, its absolutely what

shaped my teenage years. When I went on my Moms twitter that day, I ended up clicking on

trending hashtags and found pages of tweets about women, grown women, who had been

treated lesser than men. I found tweets about feminism from the old and young, men and
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women, and the poor and rich. Though twitter isnt the most poignant source of information, it

made me go up to my dad and ask him a question. If these women were experiencing things

like I was experiencing, being 2nd best to boys, was I ever going to be the one who gets to play

baseball again instead of doing the dishes? Though my Dad is traditional, what he realized from

my question was that by treating boys how my Dad was raised and how my Dad was raising his

son, he was creating a harder future for his three daughters. As a military man hes fought for

American freedom and him becoming a feminist has become another facet of defending the

freedom hes fought for.

My Dads conversion to feminisms improved my relationship with my family- despite my

brother being a little grumpy hes had to start doing the dishes too. In our house, by treating my

brother no different than how he treats my sisters and I, were expressing our American identity

and our beliefs in equality and the freedom of opportunity. Due to this, feminism is something I

directly correlate with my American identity and I see it in my writing. Im not shy with sharing my

personal experiences and I have a strong connection to my American identity in my writing. How

I communicate verbally isnt different linguistically because of feminism, but I would say being a

feminist has made me confident enough to speak with more clarity and its made me more

patriotic.

With my parents help, my hard works had no hurdles of gender bias or sexism to

impede its success and Ive found I can thrive better academically and emotionally. Ive started

toting the same national pride my Dad has because, with feminism, this country is a land where

women can fight against injustices and create change. Its where, in the future, my daughters

wont be treated any differently from my sons. Being an American feminist has inspired me to

pursue a career in political communications so I can use writing and social media to aid the

American progression of my generations wave of feminism. As I continue to grow, my

communications will make sure that my movement will cause exponentially more modern

exceptions.
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