Tune in at 32:30– we barely scratched the surface. For more, join us on December 1 at 6:30pm and the rest of our panelists: Yashar Ali, Kalil Cohen, Jacqueline Sun and Shira Tarrant.

Listen here, beginning at 32:30: Melanie Klein, Pia Guerrero and Hugo Schwyzer on KPFK’s Feminist Magazine.

Anita Sarkeesian and Melanie Klein on KPFK’s Feminist Magazine

Originally posted at Pigtail Pals by Melissa Wardy. Cross-posted with permission.

My view of a day spent in a Cape Town township, South Africa.

Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.  A day to celebrate economic, political, and social gains by women worldwide. Today we honor achievements, and remember the women before us who brought us to this day. Today. A day to celebrate women.

For the two years I’ve been on Twitter, I’ve found it to be a really great place for keeping track of news about gender issues and networking with other feminists.

But for new users, it can be difficult to use Twitter effectively. I often hear people complaining that ”all it is is people talking about what they ate for lunch”. I can also see feminists maybe getting turned off given some of the offensive hashtags that end up becoming trending topics, like #rulesforgirls and #ihatewomenwho.

Although I admit I tweet a fair bit about what I’m eating, there’s a lot more to Twitter than the mundane. I’ve tried to list the top Twitter accounts for feminists to follow in a variety of categories, in no particular order. I follow almost 300 related Twitter accounts and I found it difficult to narrow it down. I’d love to hear in the comments below which accounts you think should be added.

To follow the complete list of feminist accounts I follow, check out the list page here. And follow me and the latest from Gender Focus @jarrahpenguin.

Top Hashtags to Keep an Eye On

• #sheparty – This is a hashtag used for a weekly feminist discussion session hosted by the Women’s Media Center each Wednesday from 12-3 PM EST. It’s a great way to use Twitter to network with other feminists and chat with special guests.

• #fem2 – Probably the most popular catch-all hashtag for feminist topics.

Feminist Media/News

• @bitchmedia – The Twitter account for the Portland-based Bitch Magazine and its blogs.
• @msmagazine – Account for Ms. Magazine and the Ms. Blog.
• @changewomen – The women’s rights account for Change.org.
• @ShamelessMag – Account for Shameless, the awesome Canadian magazine for teen girls.

 

 

Margaret Atwood

Authors

• @rebeccawalker – Author of Black, White and Jewish and Baby Love, and editor of collections exploring masculinity and diverse family forms.
• @rtraister – Writer for Salon and author of Big Girls Don’t Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women.
• @MargaretAtwood – Margaret Atwood. She tweets her own stuff. And it’s awesome.
• @peggyorenstein – Author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter.
• @jessicavalenti – Founder of Feministing and author of some of my favourite books for introducing people to feminism.

Canadian Organizations

• @YWCA_Canada – YWCA Canada is Canada’s oldest women’s service organization, but they’re great at adapting to new technologies. In addition to tweeting, they recently came out with the seriously cool Safety Siren iPhone app.
• @LEAFNational – The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund works to ensure women’s equality through the law. I’ll also include a special shout-out to my local @WestCoast_LEAF here in BC.
• @EndingViolence – Battered Women’s Support Services does a great job using their web presence to work to end violence against women while also urging men to take on a role in the struggle.
• @cdnwomenfdn – The Canadian Women’s Foundation is always on top of the latest feminist news on Twitter.
• @WISHWellness – The WISH Drop-in Centre in Vancouver has a great Twitter presence and does invaluable work supporting and improving the health and safety of survival sex trade workers in the City.
• @AbortionRights – The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada works on protecting women’s abortion rights and improving access for Canadian women.

 

 

Hollaback!

US Organizations

• @PPact – With Planned Parenthood by the Republicans, the Twitter feminist community has rallied around the organization and its official Twitter account.
• @womensmediacntr – In addition to organizing the weekly #sheparty, the Women’s Media Center looks at women’s representation in the media and also runs the @nameitchangeit account to end sexist media against women in politics.
• @NowYoungFems – The NOW Young Feminist Task Force on Twitter.
• @femmajority – The Feminist Majority Foundation on Twitter. You can also follow their youth wing, who organizes the amazing National Young Feminist Leadership Conference, at @FeministCampus.
• @ihollaback – Ending sexist street harassment using mobile technology.

Canadian Individuals

• @AudreyHuntley – Audrey tweets about Indigenous justice, colonialism, racism, and equality.
• @AntoniaZ – Author of the Toronto Star Broadsides column.
• @jessyee – Jess Yee calls herself “a multiracial Two Spirit Indigenous hip hop feminist reproductive justice freedom fighter”, uncomfortable with the term “feminist” on its own, due to its tendency to adhere to privileged academic narratives. She’s just edited a new book on the subject, Feminism, FOR REAL.
• @judyrebick – Probably the most recognized Canadian feminist on Twitter given her history in the 2nd wave feminist movement in Canada.

American Individuals

• @ShelbyKnox – Shelby burst onto the feminist scene when she was featured in the 2005 documentary The Education of Shelby Knox. Since then she’s been a busy activist in the American feminist movement.
• @anitasarkeesian – Anita is the activist who comes up with all the great @femfreq videos to promote feminist media literacy.
• @sadydoyle – Sady’s the voice behind Tiger Beatdown, who showed herself to be an amazing Twitter activist when she started the #mooreandme hashtag campaign that forced Michael Moore to apologize for offensive comments related to Julian Assange’s rape allegations.
• @jaclynf – A frequent feminist media commentator and co-author of Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power & A World Without Rape.
• @jennpozner – Media critic and author of Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV.

 

 

Gender Across Borders

Global Feminist Focused

• @safeworld4women – Never miss an update on issues around violence against women worldwide.
• @awid – The Association for Women’s Rights in Development.
• @gabblog – Gender Across Borders is an international group of feminists who look at gender issues.
• @PixelProject – The Pixel Project uses online tools to raise awareness of and money for ending violence against women worldwide.

Feminist Blogs

• @Shakestweetz – The account for Shakesville founder Melissa McEwan.
• @feministing – The account for the popular feminist blog featuring news and pop culture deconstruction from up-and-coming young feminist bloggers.
• @FairandFeminist – Fair and Feminist has been extremely successful using Twitter to organize other bloggers for Blog Carnivals on topics like “This is What A Young Feminist Looks Like” and “I Stand with Planned Parenthood.”
• @feministfatale – The always entertaining account for Melanie Klein and her blog Feminist Fatale.
• @TheDailyFemme – One of my favourite feminist blogs for regularly covering original and creative topics.
• @the_fbomb – For those who think there are no young feminists, The F Bomb proves you wrong with its insightful posts by teenage feminists.

 

 

Melissa Harris-Perry

Antiracist

• @racialicious – The account for the blog that’s “the intersection of race and pop culture”.
• @MHarrisPerry – Anyone who’s seen her as a contributor on MSNBC knows how incredibly smart and insightful Melissa Harris-Perry is talking about politics, race, and gender.
• @TheRoot247 – Twitter account for the thought-provoking digital magazine The Root.
• @JessieNYC – CUNY Professor Jessie Daniels tweets and blogs about race.
• @colorlines – Up-to-the-minute tweets on racial justice issues and news.

LGBTQ2S

• @JoeMyGod – The Twitter Account for the thorough and entertaining blog Joe.My.God.
• @GLSEN – The US-based Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and it’s Vancouver-based counterpart @outinschools.
• @xtra_canada – LGBT news, based in Canada.
• @ItGetsBetter – Official account for Dan Savage’s It Gets Better Project.

Empowering Girls

• @pigtailpals – Melissa Wardy’s company and blog try to redefine girly to promote self-esteem and break down gender barriers for girls.
• @_GirlsAction – Group working on programs for girls across Canada.
• @girls_inc – Non-profit dedicated to empowering girls.
• @thelinecampaign – The Line Campaign does a great job raising awareness of rape culture and encouraging sexual empowerment.

 

 

Feminist Hulk

Making Activism Fun

• @andreagrimes – Andrea is a great feminist blogger but I put her in this section because her tweets are some of the most hilarious I’ve seen. She makes you laugh and think at the same time.
• @GuerrillaGsOT – Account for the feminist performance artists the Guerrilla Girls.
• @feministhulk – “HULK SAYS F*** PATRIARCHY. HULK HERE TO SMASH GENDER BINARY.”
• @feministbieber – “Letting go of my silky bowl cut was a big step, but a necessary one for me to wear the banner of the movement to end sexist oppression.”

Who else is a feminist must-follow on Twitter?

-Jarrah

I must admit that I get excited when I hear anyone embrace the term ‘feminist’, especially in the world of modern media; that is, of course, until that person refers herself as a ‘mama grizzly‘.  So naturally, when I came across an MTV interview in which Beyonce used the term to define herself, I was rightfully stoked.

I think I am a feminist in a way. It’s not something I consciously decided I was going to be; perhaps it’s because I grew up in a singing group with other women, and that was so helpful to me. It kept me out of so much trouble and out of bad relationships. My friendships with my girls are just so much a part of me that there are things I am never going to do that would upset that bond. I never want to betray that friendship because I love being a woman and I love being a friend to other women.

I have been a fan of Beyonce’s for years,  ever since Destiny’s Child’s second CD The Writings on The Wall came out in 1999.   They gave a fresh, young perspective on their experiences in the world as women and I sincerely respected their musical talent and honesty.    Those are qualities that I respect about Beyonce to this day.

There has been much debate within the feminist blog-o-sphere  about whether Beyonce’s lyrics (specifically those of Single Ladies) should be considered empowering.  Empowerment is the foundation for all feminist approaches and one might argue that for a woman to say to a man, “this is my bottom line, take it or leave it”, regardless of what that bottom line is, is the very definition of empowerment.  Clearly Beyonce is not a Women’s Studies major with years of feminist theory under her belt; however, she’s never claimed to be.  Despite the fact that she is not the first pop star to openly categorize herself as a feminist (TLC’s Chili, Lady Gaga, Ellen Page and Ryan Gosling are also on the f-train), Beyonce’s positive acceptance of a term deemed so negative by the media is most definitely praiseworthy.   Considering the fact that feminism has been (and still is) regarded as a movement that is no longer relevant, it is extremely important for celebrities to encourage a supportive conversation regarding feminism- as they can reach a demographic that otherwise wouldn’t think twice about it. Not everyone has the privilege of growing up with positive female relationships like Beyonce and I personally wasn’t able to foster my own until I took a Women’s Studies course; but the beauty is that while our phenomonologies are vastly different, we can still come together as empowered women willing and able to advocate for ourselves.

Young Feminists Speak Out; Los Angeles at Livity Outernational in Santa Monica, CA., January 20, 2011.

Related articles:

• Young Feminists Speak Out: Los Angeles
• This Is What (Young) Feminists Sound Like
• Young- and not so- feminists speak out in Santa Monica
• We Exist! LA Feminists Speak Out
• Youth, Waves and Twitter: An “Age-Old” Debate About Age and the Beginning of a Los Angeles feminist Network
• The Young Feminists Digital Fight to “Speak Out”
• A “mea culpa” from Hugo Schwyzer
• L.A.’s Young Feminists Speak Up – Ms. Magazine

Originally posted at Hugo Schwyzer by Hugo Schwyzer. Cross-posted with permission.

I wrote last week about Young Feminists Speak Out, an event I attended in Santa Monica. Though it was an important and interesting discussion, I noted that I was taken aback by what I interpreted as an ageist slight at “older feminists.” I mentioned posing for a Facebook photo with my colleague and friend Shira Tarrant, each of us with our middle fingers raised; the picture was captioned “middle-aged feminists flipping off ageism.” I posted it on Facebook within seconds, while the speakers were still speaking and the event was ongoing. Furthermore, while I tweeted my annoyance, I didn’t bring it up in the Q&A that followed, and I left the event early to have dinner with friends.

I’m fortunate to have thousands of Facebook friends, including a great many people in the feminist community and many, many former students. The photo ended up in everyone’s newsfeed on Facebook, and attracted many comments and much discussion. And the impression it left was that Shira and I, as “professional” feminists and professors in our forties, weren’t spending a lot of effort on connecting with the young people who were speaking. We had constricted around a couple of unfortunate remarks, and my choice to post the photo reinforced the notion that ageism had been the great theme of the event. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Writing at Feminist Fatale today, Miranda Petersen takes issue, rightly so, with how I interpreted the evening. Miranda writes:

The truth is age discrimination goes both ways. It’s funny; we addressed the topic of the “generational divide” to help break down some of those assumptions. Instead, we experienced first hand the lack of respect many young feminists are confronted with: either we are cast as ignorant or naive (e.g., “they’ve got so much to learn…”), or our integrity and motives are questioned (e.g., our justification for using “young feminists” in the title). There is certainly much learning to do on our part, and the distinction between age vs. ideological divides is worth some serious discussion. But how are we supposed to do better if we aren’t taken seriously to begin with?

Emphasis in the original.

Miranda’s right. I take full responsibility for posting a photo that was inappropriate and got a tremendous amount of attention. For the record, the picture was taken with my camera and was my idea; it was an impulsive and frankly juvenile decision to post it. I chose to do at the workshop what I try never to do with my students, and indeed warn against — taking one inflammatory remark out of context and focusing on it to the exclusion of everything else. For someone who considers himself a role model as well as an advocate for egalitarianism and social justice, for someone who works with these young people day in and day out, that was disappointing and inappropriate and I am genuinely, publicly sorry. I was wrong.

Ageism is a real issue. It does go both ways. And the annoyance at being falsely characterized as technologically incompetent hardly justifies tuning out the excellent points made by the many wonderful young speakers at last Thursday’s event.

I look forward to participating with enthusiasm and sincerity (and my twittering thumbs) at another such event soon. I will be participating with my colleagues and friends, for that they are, regardless of age.

Related articles:

• Young Feminists Speak Out: Los Angeles
• This Is What (Young) Feminists Sound Like
• Young- and not so- feminists speak out in Santa Monica
• We Exist! LA Feminists Speak Out
• Youth, Waves and Twitter: An “Age-Old” Debate About Age and the Beginning of a Los Angeles feminist Network
• The Young Feminists Digital Fight to “Speak Out”

From left to right: 1. Myra Duran, Tani Ikeda, Jollene Levid, Brie Widaman, Miranda Petersen 2. Tani Ikeda, Jollene Levid, Brie Widaman

Last Thursday I served as Co-Moderator, along with Melanie Klein of Feminist Fatale, for the “Young Feminists Speak Out: Los Angeles” panel/mixer, which I helped organize along with Morgane Richardson, founder of Refuse The Silence, and Myra Duran.

The event was inspired in part by a recent piece in More Magazine that featured Morgane, along with other familiar feminist leaders such as Shelby Knox and Lena Chen. Our goal was to continue the conversation on what young feminism looks like today, while also calling attention to the often-overlooked work of feminists on the west coast, and providing a platform for young feminist activists to speak out in a forum where they would be shown respect and be taken seriously.

When considering potential speakers we aimed to capture the diverse, intersectional nature of LA-based feminist culture. The panelists included Myra Duran, Grassroots Community Organizer, Tani Ikeda, Founder and Co-director of ImMEDIAte Justice, Jollene Levid, National Chairperson for AF3IRM, and Brianne Widaman, Founder and President of Revolution of Real Women. Together, the panelists were able to speak to a broad range of issues—many of which are often left out of the mainstream feminist dialogue—including access to education/the DREAM Act, citizenship status and reproductive justice, anti-imperialism and anti-militarism, the fight against trafficking of women and girls, queer sexuality and sex education, body image and the media.

Our effort to include such a wide range of issues and individual styles led to an intense and empowering discussion on the need to address the underlying capitalist, patriarchal structure of our society, and the importance of re-framing the discussion in a way that is inclusive to everyone, especially those outside academia and the feminist blogoshpere. At the same time, having such a diverse group of panelists proved how challenging it can be to try and neatly encompass so many different approaches and ideologies within a traditional framework, such as a panel discussion. It is possible that trying to include so many different and unique experiences may have led to a less-cohesive dialogue than we anticipated, and it brings up the need to re-think our organizing methods and recognize our own assumptions of the “best” way to initiate a dialogue.

One issue that was about as predictably contentious as could be expected was the so-called “inter-generational divide.” The More panel had addressed the topic in relation to perceived differences in how “older” vs. “younger” feminists organize (e.g., social media), and we wanted to know how, and if, this divide was relevant to the tangible struggles young feminists face here in Los Angeles.

While the panelists mostly agreed that the divide was more “hype” than reality, they did comment on the ways in which older and younger generations had benefitted from the mutual sharing of knowledge and organizing techniques (e.g., women in their 60’s and 70’s had taught younger women the benefit of “boots-on-the-ground” organizing, and the younger activists had taught them how to use Twitter). Unfortunately, this remark was taken by some as an ageist slight and was somehow distorted to mean something along the lines of “feminists over forty can’t tweet.”

I was surprised and disheartened by the backlash this topic received by some of our more established peers who were present for the discussion. In fact, the majority of the online discourse surrounding our panel had effectively been boiled down to an outcry against ageism, which caught all of the organizers completely off-guard. Only after the event was over did I learn that several of the feminists we look up to and respect had spent the majority of the discussion posting antagonizing pictures of “middle-aged feminists, giving the bird to ageism.” To me, the behavior exhibited by our *somewhat* older comrades, many of whom are professors, bloggers, and professional feminists, confirmed the argument that the newest generation is NOT taken seriously by the rest of the feminist community. Not only were our critics quick to judge, but they chose not to engage in the discussion, instead reverting back to their own online forums, and left early without introducing themselves or voicing their concerns.

The reason we organized this panel was to provide a platform for young feminists to make their voices heard; we are not the professors, we don’t run the non-profit advocacy groups, and we aren’t published writers, but we still have passion and ideas that are worth sharing. The truth is age discrimination goes both ways. It’s funny; we addressed the topic of the “generational divide” to help break down some of those assumptions. Instead, we experienced first hand the lack of respect many young feminists are confronted with: either we are cast as ignorant or naive (e.g., “they’ve got so much to learn…”), or our integrity and motives are questioned (e.g., our justification for using “young feminists” in the title). There is certainly much learning to do on our part, and the distinction between age vs. ideological divides is worth some serious discussion. But how are we supposed to do better if we aren’t taken seriously to begin with?

Regardless of the criticism (and, let’s face it, what would a real feminist gathering be without at least one serious rift or disagreement?), the event was an resounding success. And to be fair, to say we were not given any credit would be indulgent and inaccurate: see Hugo Schwyzer’s blog post for gracious and balanced account of the evening.

The fact that so many people of all ages and backgrounds were willing to brave the daunting LA rush hour to participate demonstrates the need in our community to begin building a network, a place where we can hang out, discuss, debate, and learn. I hope that this is just one of many future events, and many future discussions.

Related articles:

• Young Feminists Speak Out: Los Angeles
• This Is What (Young) Feminists Sound Like
• Young- and not so- feminists speak out in Santa Monica
• We Exist! LA Feminists Speak Out

Photographs taken by Marley Poyo.

From left to right: Myra Duran, Tani Ikeda, Morgane Richardson, Miranda Petersen, Melanie Klein, Brie Widaman and Jollene Levid

Thursday night, feminists drove from all over L.A. to be at the Young Feminists Speak Out event in Santa Monica.  While the panel (click here for a list of all featured panelists and their bios) focused on the new generation of feminists, people of all ages were in attendance to talk and listen.  The event was put together by Morgane Richardson, a feminist originally hailing from the east coast, Myra Duran and Miranda Petersen.  Upon moving to Los Angeles and noticing a lack of feminist gatherings in Los Angeles, Morgane was inspired to organize a diverse panel of LA-area feminists  and connected with Myra and Miranda to make the vision a reality. They are already working on more feminist events for the Los Angeles area.  Melanie Klein and Miranda Petersen moderated, and asked questions which ranged from how each panelist “found” feminism, to whether there’s a need for a current mainstream icon for the feminist movement.

One of the questions asked was whether there is an “east-coast/west-coast divide” in terms of organization, issues, and focus in the movement.  I was surprised to hear panelists disagree that a divide exists.  Ever since changing my major to Women’s Studies, I’ve wanted to do work for a feminist-focused company, and while there are some in Los Angeles, or regional offices for larger organizations, a great majority exist in Washington D.C. and New York City.

In fact, I felt the panel was a great example of this – while there are tons of feminists residing in L.A., this was the first time most were meeting, or had been in the same room together.  While I would like to attend feminist conferences, again a majority are held in large cities on the east coast.  Of course I’m not badmouthing these organizations for setting up in cities like Washington D.C. – being the political capital of the country, it makes the most sense.  However, it frequently feels there’s no equivalent of organizations of such a size in Los Angeles, or the west coast in general.

Another topic of discussion addressed that many still see Gloria Steinem as the face of the movement, and why there doesn’t seem to be anyone with that kind of visibility in recent history.  I think the fact that panelists had a difficult time naming any current famous feminists, is indicative of the lack of voice we have in the mainstream media.    Panelist Myra Duran stated she felt having a mainstream icon is no longer necessary – girls and women are able to choose their own inspirational figures.  While I somewhat I agree – I’m able to choose who to look up to; it wasn’t until taking Women’s Studies courses that I was even aware of who the current feminists were.  I didn’t know who Jessica Valenti or Ariel Levy were until their work was assigned reading.   Additionally, simply being able to go to college and the availability of these classes is a privilege, one that many women do not have access to.  Unless one finds feminism through family or friends, for the most part it’s a movement that must be searched out in order to find.  The injustices women face as a minority in this country does not garner much mainstream news coverage; Ms. recently pointed out that Nancy Pelosi was not once on the cover of Newsweek or Time, while John Boehner scored the cover of both news magazines when he won the mid-term election.  While the internet makes it much easier to find information on the current topics and history of the movement, it’s still important to reach those who may not even have access to the web.  During the “Second Wave” Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan achieved a level of visibility in the mainstream media that allowed girls and women who wouldn’t have otherwise identified as feminists to find information and understand how these issues personally affected  them.  I don’t feel like that is happening currently – to find feminist (or even just women-centric) news, the two places I look to are feminist blogs and magazines.

The panel was an important gathering of feminists, and I hope there are many more events to come in the future.  While I disagreed with some of the answers given, as panelists pointed out in response to a question asked by the audience, “there is no singular definition of a feminist.”  Feminists don’t always agree about certain issues – an east/west coast divide, or a face of feminism, but that is one of the best things about the movement – discussion, dialogue, and debate.

Photo taken by Marley Poyo.

Written by Hugo Schwyzer. Originally posted at Hugo Schwyzer. Cross-posted with permission.

Last night, I went with some friends to the Young Feminists Speak Out event in Santa Monica, co-sponsored by Ms Magazine and other progressive organizations. I knew several of the organizers through Ms and the Feminist Majority (the offices of which are walking distance from my house).

The gathering was at a fun and funky clothing store. Boys with long hair were jamming on guitars when I walked in and made my way to the “bar” for a diet Coke in a plastic cup. I joked to my friend Monica that it was like going to progressive events in the Eighties: the same music, the same plastic cups, the same sorts of flyers on tables. I had a flashback to Berkeley, circa 1985: back then the flyers at feminist gatherings decried militarism and encouraged organizing to support the Sandinistas and divesting from South Africa; today, they decry militarism and demand withdrawal from Afghanistan and the closing of Guantanamo. It’s a mighty over-used cliché, but plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

But the speakers were terrific, including Melanie Klein (of Feminist Fatale and a fellow community college women’s studies prof); Morgane Richardson, Brie from Revolution of Real Women and Miranda Petersen and Myra Duran, both from Feminist Majority. (I’m sure I’m leaving someone out.) I got to meet some great folks whose work I admire, like Pia Guerrero, the founder of Adios Barbie. We had many of the heavy hitters of SoCal feminist activism all together, and that was wonderful.

Events like these, as several people pointed out, are less common in Los Angeles than they are in San Francisco or New York. Angelenos famously have a reputation for refusing to drive long distances for events on weeknights, though that’s more a stereotype than reality. I had students who came from the northern San Fernando Valley and from east of Pasadena, spending more than an hour on freeways to get to the event on Lincoln Avenue. Whatever the reason, gatherings like this are rarer than they probably ought to be.

The discussion got off to an awkward start, as the older folks in the room picked up on what we know was unintentional ageism. One panelist in her twenties said that an “older generation of feminists had fliers, we have Twitter.” My forty three year-old self looked at my dear friend and collaborator Shira Tarrant, who was standing with me in the back of the room. Shira and I are old enough to be the parents of most of the speakers – and we were the ones with our iPhones and Blackberrries in hand, tweeting live updates. (Check the hashtag #femla.) It was an innocent but annoying mistake that we hear a lot: the speaker had confused the kind of tools we used for organizing when we were their age with the kind of tools we use for organizing now. At least in my circle of activists, some of the most social-media savvy feminists (the ones with heavy Facebook, blogging, and Twitter presences) are old enough to remember Watergate. We don’t stop learning new tricks when we turn 40, people!

Shira and I posed for a photo, playfully flipping off the camera, and giving the bird to ageism. I put it on my Facebook, and a healthy conversation about feminism and ageism promptly ensued. (And I’m happy to accept FB friend requests from readers, btw.)

Intergenerational conflict in feminist activism is famously oversold. The use of the term “waves” to describe different generations of the movement is also clumsy. Sometimes, young feminists cluster “older” Second Wavers together, so that everyone born between 1920 and 1980 gets thrown into the same category. Shira and I are old enough to be the parents of most of last night’s speakers — but young enough to be Gloria Steinem’s children, and Betty Friedan’s grandkids. To the extent that generational conflict exists, it does so in complicated and not easily reducible ways. Young people do tend, at times, to imagine that they are the first to have certain concerns, the first to do battle over what they see as new issues. Some of the time, they’re right: old problems do get solved, new challenges do arise. But when those new challenges arise, they often arise for the “old” as well as the young. We may all be of different ages, as I remind my students, but we often face the same problems. (For example, the idea that eating disorders and body dysmorphia don’t happen in the lives of women over forty is a commonly held misconception by the young. Wishful thinking or myopia, it just ain’t so.)

In the great scheme of things, we are contemporaries. And kids, take note: your teachers sometimes tweet more than you do.

But to reduce the discussion down to that one problem would be unfortunate and unfair. There was much in the presentation that was good and valuable. I was heartened to hear not only the commitment to intersectionality (meaning the insistence on connecting violence against women to a larger culture of racial, economic, and cultural oppression), but also to hear speakers like Brie and Melanie make the case that body image and self-esteem matter politically. Far too often, there’s a tendency on both the left and the right to be dismissive of eating disorders and body dysmorphia as serious, even central issues that deserve to be on the front-burner. The far left, stuck in a Marxist analysis, tends to think of these concerns as “bourgeois navel-gazing”; the right tends to think of them as questions of individual concern that don’t require a collective response. But as was pointed out last night, and as all of us who do this work with young women know well, self-esteem is always political. Young women who aren’t happy with their bodies, who feel overwhelmed by the pressure to pursue an unattainable ideal, are suffering. That suffering is real, and it’s not something that they can be dismissively told to “get over”. And if feminism is concerned with anything, it’s concerned with ameliorating — and ultimately ending — suffering.

I’m deeply appreciative of the young activists who organized this event, and I look forward to many more.