1. Define the word feminist.
The word feminist is described to be a common but collection of movement which fosters the awareness to women being equal to men.
2. Who has influenced your beliefs about women? How have they shaped your opinions?
One of my best influences regards beliefs about women and feminism, would be missy Elliot. Being a dark skinned African American and a plus size women, she did not fit into the traditional Eurocentric beauty that molds many musicians today. Her hit song ‘Work it” was to promote the ideal and empowerment of women, especially women of color. For example, her favorite line of the song “Girls, girls, get that cash, if it’s 9-5 or shaking your ass. A’int no shame ladies, do your thang, just make sure you ahead of the game”, was missy’s way of expressing her own kind of sexuality and creating a dialogue for us to rethink our analyses of women sexuality.
Based on her song, Missy has inspired women and men to challenge and reclaim their body as a site of desire and empowerment. Her opinions is what helped shape not only our own way of thinking but also help create a form of language for other women to start understanding and theorizing about us being who we are as equals.
3. Have your personal experiences, culture, and frame of reference impacted how you feel about feminism?
I was truly impacted through how I was taught going up and my life lessons; because both of my parents were not together, growing up was extremely different. For example, growing up at my dad, I wasn’t taught that I was totally equal to my brothers. I was being forced to sit out of certain activities and such because I was a girl. My father basically believed that women were to have a certain sweet image and that we should live in a black and white kind a world.
Although when I first went to high school, I notice how many women were pressured based on our gender and image. Many of the girls had either eating disorders, heavily pressure of sexual actions or some suffered from extreme unhealthy relationship whether they are inside the