My mom has always been a feminist (thought at this point I'm much more radical than she is-perhaps than she ever was), so I never had a click moment. I've just always been a feminist, thanks Mom!

I've always been a feminist, but I never thought to call myself such. It was only after college that I ran into some feminist sites online. Their beliefs ran so perfectly along with mine that it was brilliant. It was then that I realized that I was a true feminist and that I had sisters and brothers by my side. I hadn't exactly felt alone in my thoughts and feelings of the status of women in society, but it was a very warm moment when I found thousands of others who held my beliefs.

I came to feministing.com through CNN. I was watching a news report, and one of the women being interviewed was a writer here.

I chose "A super cool feminist woman (or man!)" because I first came to feminism through my mom (and a subscription to New Moon!). But I could very well have chosen "Online feminism/activism" because it wasn't until I started reseaching and reading online in college that I started to talk about feminism and understand it a lot better.

In highschool I respected and looked up to feminists but never considered myself one because I wasn't part of some sort of movement or group. My history teacher/ advisor/ mentor completely changed this idea for me with one story. She told us about a time when she went to a JFK rally with her women's rights group and casually joked with a friend (who happened to be a journalist) about how cute she thought JFK was. She was mortified to see the quote in the paper the next day. With this anecdote I realized that feminists aren't just extreme activists, but normal women and girls who want the best for themselves and the world around them while still sometimes having silly crushes on celebrities and world leaders...

I was sexually assaulted as a 14 year old, and never reported it, and it screwed me up, but then I got over it. My click momemnt was at my first semester in college, the most innocent, small town friend of mine was raped by a guy she liked and took advantage of her when she was drunk. But she didnt want to report it because it would "Ruin HIS life" I was shocked. And thats when it hit me - I felt the same way when it happed to me. My assaulter was a millitary man who was a friend of the family. When I finally did say something, no one believed me, so i dropped it.

Another mutual girlfriend of ours who was in love with her found the guy and beat the shit out of him. We went and reported him together for her benefit, and helped her get counseling. Since then I've been an advocate for feminism. Yay us!

I took a Women's Studies class my Sophomore year of college, but it wasn't until I found myself a victim of sexual violence that the importance of Feminist really hit home.

Better than any sort of therapy is the lesson that Feminism had to offer; that it was not my fault.

I became a feminist through Girl Scouts and the constantly hammered message that girls could do anything. No kidding.

When I was a little kid, my brothers were getting ready to go on a camping trip with Boy Scouts. I was so excited for when I'd be old enough to to it, too! And then my mom had to explain to me that there wasn't something like that for girls.

I definitely have Ani Difranco to thank for my feminism "click" moment. She allowed me to realize that feminism was not a dirty word and was, instead, something I totally wanted to be a part of!

I chose "A super cool feminist woman" because while listening to Ani DiFranco and other female musicians I was aware feminism existed. The lyrics were so real to me and just fit for me. I looked up to Ani for her strength and bravery, and just being a proud woman.

I could easily have chosen "sexism" or "Women's Studies" because I was raped and leaned on feminism to help me through the healing process (which I'm still healing) and I did take a Women's Studies class in college. But I was already on my way on the Feminism highway. It's been an amazing journey that I will continue for a long time. *corny smirk*

I was 7 years old, At the time I had three younger brothers; two more were born later. We were practicing to receive our First Communion. Sensitive to slights to girls, I asked the nun why the boys were going up to Communion first. She answered, "because they are closer to God, they can be priests."

Completely from feministing.com. I remember about a year and a half ago I still had the idea that "Feminism isn't needed anymore! Women have everything they need! Sexism doesn't exist!" etc. etc., and one night I found Feministing and pulled an all nighter reading post after post, and by then I obviously knew I was a feminist. ;)

I've still yet to take a women's studies class, but what made it click in my head was playing sports with a casual group, with no "competition". It soon was apparent to me that though we were doing it for fun, I still had a hard time getting anyone to throw the ball to me or take me seriously, and when I'd do something wrong guys would get angry. Then I started noticing how few of the girls who'd started playing were coming back, and how many chose to sit and watch instead.

The first time I was on eHarmony, before I was a blogger, a guy asked me, "Do you consider yourself a feminist?" Well, I'd never really thought about it, so I looked it up in the dictionary. Where it says that feminism is about equality for all women. So I emailed him back and said, Um, Isn't everyone? I'm a woman; of course I want equal rights. He closed me after it was clear that I wasn't on eHarmony to get married, have kids, and quit my job. Or put another way, that my career was of massive importance to me. Which is fine; we were incompatible. What's gross is that he had to frame it as "Do you consider yourself a feminist?" And that to him, a wife and mother wasn't a feminist, but a career woman like me was. He clearly wanted a woman to submit to his will from what he said before he closed me.

Anyway, that was my first major click that feminism was something I needed to pay attention to, but it wasn't until I'd been blogging awhile that I discovered the feminist blogsphere and really started learning. It hasn't been that long, really. "Full Frontal Feminism" is the first book on feminism I ever read.

Mine was down to my English teacher in first year sixth form. Not sure if I could call him a 'super-cool feminist', but he certainly was good at explaining certain concepts. Perhaps he'd be more of a 'pro-feminist' or 'feminist supporter'...anyway, no matter. We were studying The Handmaid's Tale, and when we got to the part where Ofred is given the illegal women's magazine to read, he explained why this magazine could be interpreted as a symbol of a sexist, objectifying culture.
He said 'What do you see in men's magazines? Pictures of women. What do you see in women's magazines? Not pictures of men. More pictures of women.'
And I was like 'Woah. That's true. Why might that be..?' Clickedy click click!
I think I'd been feeling like there was something wrong with the stuff I saw around me for a long time, but that moment just gave me something to grab onto and analyse, and that's when stuff started to make sense.
Thank you Trevor Macgee!!

We watched a video in sex ed that gave some sort of very high rape statistic. I turned to one of the girls afterwards and said something like "Can you believe it?" She responded with "Well, yeah, but it's probably exagerrated. I mean, you can't get a guy going and then just say no."

Mine was more of an evolution. I think in the 7th grade, I heard about feminism in school, and I was telling a friend that I was probably a feminist. And she said "I would be a feminist, but then I thought, if I don't like men, who am I going to like?" (implying that she would have to be a lesbian to be a feminist). To my mind that made sense and I didn't really think much about it until college.

I think one of my "Aha!" moments was when I realized that my much older boyfriend at the time was treating me like a mattress with a hole in it. I didn't have the language to verbalize why being his meatsock made me feel so empty inside. I remember watching a movie scene with him, and the shot was an overhead view of a woman in bed with her husband. He was going at it on top of her, and she was laying there with this empty look in her eyes, just staring at the ceiling, and I knew *exactly* what that look was. I dumped him just before I became really feminist.

I actually had to do a project where I had to write a 20-page paper in German (for my Minor capstone project) and I chose to do a short history of feminism in Germany and how it paralleled to American feminism. Before then, I never knew how necessary and relevant feminism was. I thought the battles were basically over, but slowly my eyes were opened up to the extent of the patriarchy.

Considering the fact that I grew up being bottle-fed Rush Limbaugh and that everyone in my family still believes that history will vindicate the Bush Administration, I think I've done pretty well for myself. I've also become the black sheep of the family, but really, I wouldn't have it any other way.

I remember reading the assigned excerpt of Angela Davis book "Women, Race, and Class" for my first womens studies class. I was so blown away that I had to start at the beginning of the book and read the whole damn thing. It is still one of my absolute favorite feminist books.

Er, being born?

I picked the last option "other." It's just imppossible for me to narrow it down - I was that kid in a stroller at peace rallies, and in a snuggly while my parents knocked on doors during elections (in Canada). My mom sang in an a capella group that covered songs by folk singers like Judy Small and played at union rallies and women's events. I can't remember a time when progressive politics and feminism weren't part of my life.

I probably first used the word feminist to describe myself when I was 10. In the years since, I've certainly learned more about the history of theories of feminism and feminisms, and yes, I did a degree in Women's Studies. I still read feminist theory for fun.

My mom graduated medical school back in 1964 when it was still a man's game. I'm not sure when I first heard the word 'feminist' but, with my mum, it never occurred to me to be anything else. It's funny-I'm the only daughter who mum seemed to push in that specific direction, and who adopted the label. I remember in about grade 4 my mum telling me I was old enough to start going by 'Ms.' instead of 'Miss', yet it never came up with my sisters.

I was also 14 or 15 when the Canadian abortion law was struck down, and that really galvanized things for me. When I was maybe...16? 17? and Backlash came out, my mum gave it to me for Christmas. My older, male cousin jokingly sneered "Oooh, are you a feminist?" (in that voice older male cousins and siblings use for things like 'Oooh..do you have boooyfriend'). I replied, matter of factly 'Yes' and he realized I wasn't at all embarrassed by it, so there was no point in teasing.

It was definitely a process for me, starting with reading about Plan B in Bust, writing a research paper on injustices in women's sexual health, and putting on The Vagina Monologues.

For me, it was becoming the only male on staff at a women's crisis center for rape and domestic violence. I worked with amazing coworkers, and as one of the staff directors I was influenced daily by the issues, as well as by the people in the frontlines addressing them.

baphomet, you just made my year.

Oh--and I almost forgot. Marrying a super-cool feminist, reading Barbara Kingsolver, and becoming addicted to Ani Difranco's music all helped, too.

I remember having a moment when I was in 1st class in primary school. Unusually, our teacher was a man. When, we were all being asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?�. Anyhow, I remember clearly that the boys were encouraged to think about becoming lawyers and doctors and the girls, well let’s just say we were encouraged to be teachers, nurses, secretaries etc. My internal response was “why can’t I be a doctor too? I am more intelligent than (fill in boy’s name!).� When I got home, my poor mother received an earful. Which is when my suspicion was confirmed – we girls really were expected to become teachers, nurses, secretaries etc.

Later on (4th class) we were divided up – the boys got to make what were then incredibly trendy nail and string pictures (this was a while ago!), and we girls were taught to knit and sew. Despite conveniently ‘forgetting’ my knitting/sewing I never was allowed to play with a hammer and some nails! I did argue against the sexist nature of the activity, by then my teacher had a hearty dislike of me anyway!

When the boys started to accuse me of being a *gasp* ‘feminist,’ being the honest girl that I am, I always responded with “of course.�

I remember having a moment when I was in 1st class in primary school. Unusually, our teacher was a man. When, we were all being asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?�. Anyhow, I remember clearly that the boys were encouraged to think about becoming lawyers and doctors and the girls, well let’s just say we were encouraged to be teachers, nurses, secretaries etc. My internal response was “why can’t I be a doctor too? I am more intelligent than (fill in boy’s name!).� When I got home, my poor mother received an earful. Which is when my suspicion was confirmed – we girls really were expected to become teachers, nurses, secretaries etc.

Later on (4th class) we were divided up – the boys got to make what were then incredibly trendy nail and string pictures (this was a while ago!), and we girls were taught to knit and sew. Despite conveniently ‘forgetting’ my knitting/sewing I never was allowed to play with a hammer and some nails! I did argue against the sexist nature of the activity, by then my teacher had a hearty dislike of me anyway!

When the boys started to accuse me of being a *gasp* ‘feminist,’ being the honest girl that I am, I always responded with “of course.�

I've identified as a feminist for as long as I can remember, because in my family that's just what you were. But it became a hell of a lot more meaningful for me during pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding. Those experiences made me aware of my body and its rather magical abilities in a dramatic way; they made me understand what it means to navigate a more-than-full-time career and the more-than-full-time activities of raising a child; they reinforced my awareness of the importance of total equality with my partner (and how unusual other people seem to find that arrangement). And they sure as shit showed me how sexist and screwed up our medical system is, not to mention pop culture and random people's sense of ownership over pregnant women's bodies and babies ...

Both of my parents are feminists, but my father wouldn't call himself one. I've always felt like I was a feminist because my mom was. She talked to me often about double standards and sexism and more importantly how I could stand up for myself as a woman. Thanks ma!

I clicked "book," but its a little more complicated than that. I remember learning about Susan B. Anthony in like 3rd grade, and that was the first time I heard the word feminist and I remember thinking how crazy it is that we ever couldn't vote! So I just thought to myself, okay I guess I'm a feminist.

I didn't think about the term feminism too much after that. I would yell at people for saying abhorable sexist things, etc. etc. but the title and the actual activism wasn't a part of it until I read Full Frontal Feminism. My sister gave it to me fro my 15th birthday. I read it 3 times in a row, started checking feministing, and really embracing the title FEMINIST and all the inner power and self-love that came with it. So thank you Jessica, your book made me a feminist.

I'm 25, and I think that for a lot of women in my age group, when we were told growing up that men and women were equal, we took it to heart, thinking that feminism was a done deal. Part of becoming an adult involved being exposed to sexism both through life experience (being in the work force) and through an increased awareness of the experiences of others, and as I have learned more about how sexism still infects our culture and our institutions, it has become impossible for me not to identify as a feminist!

I've always been a feminist--my mom (and dad) raised me to be one. I called myself one from the time I knew what the word meant. My mom didn't go to college, she was a stay-at-home mom during the first wave of feminism, but she's one of the strongest people I know and a great influence on my life. My dad also raised me to think I was equal to anyone and I could do anything I wanted--there was never a question. I'm pretty lucky, actually!

I'm not so sure it was a "click" for me, but I did write a piece on it a few weeks ago on my blog, which you can read if you like:

Here it is.

I'm really glad you asked this! I was always a feminist (I refused to learn to cook when I was little because then I wouldn't be able to cook for a guy. A food network addiction has since changed my cooking skills), but I never called myself one because I wasn't "active", it was just beliefs. But I was in an abusive marriage and I met this girl on facebook who organized a rally for support for South Dakota a few years ago and it just snowballed from there. Which I'm really thankful for, being around other feminists (and reading this blog and others) gave me what I needed to to leave my marriage and I'm so happy now. So I have to say lots of thanks (and thanks, Emily)!

Dr. Juli Eflin's "Each of you is a feminist" lecture that lead up to the Helen Longino reading assignment in her Philosophy of Science class was the first time I had heard a coherent definition of feminisim that wasn't straight out of the most exclusivist corners of the 2nd wave. It was the click event, though it was a week or two after that when I was certain I identified as a feminist specifically.

I guess I always considered myself a "feminist" in that I tried not to be an actor in patriarchy and so forth in my own life, but I became really interested/tuned into feminism while dating a woman (who happened to be a gender studies student at the time) who would get cat-called on the way out of her apartment building EVERY SINGLE DAY.

But usually by different people. Which kind of opened my eyes to the prevalence of sexism in that particular context, and then once I started looking for it, I was really flabbergasted to find how pervasive it actually is, and how easy it is to spot if you pay even a little bit of attention to it. So I guess that was my "click." I'm a little bummed at how naive I was -- but its interesting that you would pose the question because it didn't really occur to me that other people had "clicks" too.

I always considered myself a feminist and was down with feminism, but I didn't have "click" moment until when taking a women's studies course in college, we were assigned some bell hooks readings. Everything I read by her made me want to get up and DO something...constantly saying in my head "Yes! Totally! Right on!" while reading her.

It wasn't really one thing. Learning about and seeing activism on the internet, being exposed to great bands like Le Tigre, certain books and things like that.

However, I selected "dealing with sexism" in the poll. The reason is because I think in the end what made it happen for me was growing up in a very rural town and going to the school there, as a male, I was expected to act a certain way and fill a certain role. I continually rejected the gender roles and got ridiculed and bullied endlessly because of it. This really opened my eyes to the problem of perceptions of gender roles. Then I became exposed to the feminist movement through the other things I mentioned above, and the rest was history.

Always was one, always called myself one. Thanks, Mom!

When I was very small, and I heard the preacher say some kind of nonsense about man being the "head of the family," woman being the "help-meet," and divorce being wrong.

My dad was a drunken abuser and my mom was good and smart. I wondered why it should be that a bunch of men from thousands of years ago should get to decide the purpose of every woman's life, when we women certainly don't get to tell them their purpose in life.

I would have to agree with hawkinme. I think a lot of 20-something women are raised to be "feminists," but always with the caveat that the fight is mostly over. It wasn't until an American lit class in college that I realized this opinion couldn't be further from the truth. Toward the middle of the semester, we read Margaret Fuller's "Woman in the Nineteenth Century," which was published in 1845. Fuller spends most of the book debunking ridiculous gender stereotypes, and as I was reading, I realized "women still have to put up with EVERY SINGLE ONE of these 150-year-old stereotypes." That was my click.

I did not really have one "click" moment. Like another commenter, it was more of an evolution for me.

I was raised in a conservative Christian family, and neither of my parents would EVER call themselves feminists, but I was never discouraged from anything or pushed towards anything because of my sex.

I have always had a really strong sense of *fairness* so it was only natural that I eventually became aware of patriarchy.

I was in college when I really became interested in feminism, and gained exposure to different writers, feminist icons, theories and issues, etc. I've only ever taken one Women's Studies class (a literature course a friend and I took for fun), but even that got me thinking about so many new things, and my mind hasn't stopped since.

I always considered myself a feminist, but it was hearing Sleater-Kinney's album "All Hands on the Bad One" that made me sort of wake up and realize what that actually MEANT to me. I still contend that those ladies saved me from a passionless life.

I became a feminist, had that click moment, some time after I started blogging, when science/skepticism was my main interest. And chatting online on IRC or Stickam (something more than 1:1 lame "whats up lol" convos on AIM).

After clicking a certain amount of links discussing that one of religion's biggest flaws is it's obsession with women's bodies, I was spending as much time at Pandagon/Feministe/Feministing as scieneblogs.com and other science sites. I realized I had much more in common with the feminist community than the online forums of the skeptic/science community and the sexist crap they write pseudonymously in phpbb.

Soon I want to change my blog, have a non-science based title (can't think of one yet), and write more.

'Tis been a helluva transformation.

I just voted for "no 'click' moment," but it's not because I don't consider myself a feminist. It's just that I don't remember when I started thinking of myself that way. Women's Studies in college strengthened my beliefs, but in 7th grade Social Studies, when I had to do a paper about the Constitution, I wrote in favor of the ERA. In a high school "Gender Issues" elective, I was the only one of a class of about 30 (mostly girls) who raised her hand when the instructor asked who was a feminist. I think, for me, the concept of men and women being equal seemed pretty intuitive.

I chose "a supercool feminist," even though it wasn't a real click moment for me. The supercool feminist is my mom. She raised me to be unafraid of calling myself a feminist, but more importantly, feminist values are completely ingrained. Sure, you could say I was brainwashed (what if my mom were a misogynist?), but throughout my life, I have mini-clicks that reinforce my values. This site is a source. Reading Jezebel helps, too. Reading 'The Vagina Monologues' in college. Just keeping my eyes and ears open, reading, learning, being aware - being open to little daily click moments is important for me. But it all comes back to my wonderful mom.

I can't really say I had any "click" moment. At some point in my childhood/adolescence someone told me what feminism was, and I figured, "Hey, that makes perfect sense to me."

It was actually your book, Jessica. I saw you on Colbert and thought "huh, that sounds kind of interesting." So then I read it and realized that I had actually been a feminist my whole life but never used the word before.

It was a process. I blame my father, who made me a feminist in spite of himself.

For example, I was encouraged, mostly by him, from a young age to do well in school, to go to college, to be everything I could be, and that everything I could be was anything I ever wanted. My father, still somewhat sexist but with three daughters justified it as ensuring we would never be dependent on a man for support (he had witnessed my mother's twin go through abusive relationship after abusive relationship and didn't want that for us) but he still has very traditional notions of men and women. Yet as a kid I never really tuned into that part of his attitude, I just got the "you can be anything you want" attitude. The closest I got to his belief was when I called myself a feminist as a little girl and he told me never to use that word. He, of course, associated it with the stereotype of radical crazy women, and probably still does. I didn't call myself a feminist until much later, but my beliefs didn't change, just the label I gave them.

I think the encouragement to play sports came entirely from his lack of sons to teach sports. As soon as I was old enough I was shooting a basketball, holding a hockey stick, and throwing a baseball. He got me into boys leagues through contacts with coaches he knew, or onto other schools sports teams when mine had only girls cheerleading instead of girls basketball. My sisters who ended up being less interested in sports were encouraged to do so as well. In a lot of ways, in spite of his own attitudes that are still fairly fundamentalist Christian and patriarchal, he's the reason I'm a feminist.

That's a difficult question. I would say it was a process between 15 and 19, broadly, and I'd say my main influences in realising that something was very messed up in the world were the Deverry books by Katharine Kerr and Xena:Warrior Princess.

Maybe not the most common way a boy finds his way to feminism, but hey, it worked. I don't even know where I got the label from, actually. But it was never a negative concept for me, in Sweden feminism was quite in vogue in the 90s. Sadly, when feminists actually started saying that society should change, there was some backlash in the 00s.

I selected "dealing with sexism" although fortunately it wasn't sexism that directly harmed me. There were two 'click' moments. The first was when I was about seven and reading Enid Blyton's Famous Five series (a 60s British kids mystery series). I remember bailing my mother up in the kitchen to complain about how unfair it was that Ann was always treated as a maidservant by the boys, and her cousin Georgina (George) was allowed to go along on the adventures because "she was almost as brave and strong as the boys". My fabulous mother listened, introduced me to the concept of sexism, and has happily discussed it with me ever since.

The next moment was at 14 when I had a real 'click moment' about the sexism in the catholic church (which I was brought up in). I was probably already starting to call myself a feminist by that point (I had two years of girls' school at 12-13 which helped), but it was probably the first time I realised I could choose my environment - I stopped going to the catholic church that weekend, and eventually settled into another denomination where there were not only had women priests, but some amazingly strong, inspiring women who've shaped who I've become.

I've considered myself a feminist since college, but the truly crystallizing moment came for me 20 years later when I gave birth for the first time. It was like a light came on, literally illuminating for me how much hatred and disrespect our culture has for women, our bodies, and the work we do.

I voted "other" because I've been calling myself feminist since about age 5 or 6 and don't remember a specific "click" moment although there probably was one.

Reading Evelyn Fox Keller's Feminism & Science, I finally realized how so much of what our culture considers "objectively true" belies a uniquely male experience.

There was never a "click moment" for me... just a slow series of things falling into place re: sexism and engineering and my schooling process. I was actually inspired a little while back to make a comic about me becoming a feminist if anyone's interested

I grew up in a family with strong feminist values, although my parents never used the word "feminist" to describe their beliefs (that I recall.) My older brother informed me that I was a feminist when I was nine. I argued with him for a while, because I didn't really get what the word meant. Then I went and looked it up and realized he was right! And I've grown and changed and become much firmer in my feminist beliefs since then.

Now I like to tell people who pull the "I'm not a feminist, I'm an -equalist-" nonsense on me, "Dude. I came up with that argument when I was nine. I grew out of it, you can too."

I always considered myself a feminist, and my mother is a feminist and my father instilled in me a very strong belief in my abilities, as well. But my "click" moments, such as they were, came after having a baby. Like some of the other women, the experience of having your body become communal property and how the medical system treats women was pretty eye-opening. Also, trying to balance work and family life made me realize how much work we still have to do.

But one of the really significant moments came from something as trivial as my stretchmarks. I had never thought of myself as overly concerned with my body and I had never dieted. But I felt really bad about my postpartum body, and then I realized "I've just gone and done what society thinks is the most important purpose for a woman, and I feel bad because my stomach is saggy." And it made me realize just how much pressure is put on women to be all things to all people at all times and especially how much of our value as human beings is invested in our appearance. That was a real click moment.

I had grown up with a single mom who always promoted that "sistahs are doing it for themselves," line, but my moment, per se, did not come until 1993 and someone put Susan Faludi's "Backlash" into my hands. I read it in shock, and just...went...CLICK. And that was all she wrote. Well, metaphorically for me. Faludi keeps on keepin on and good on her for it. Thanks Susan!!

I'm with Sarah in NYC: Being alive is enough to make me a feminist.

I mean, being alive, observant, thinking about human Being and justice.

My Catholic faith has always been an impetus to participate in that process of living.

try "Gender studies" class. Women's studies is soooooooooooo second-wave.

I can remember being in a psychology class in high school and trying to explain to some other girls (and guys) in my class why it's ok if a girl decides to not shave her legs. The argument one of them came back at me with was something along the lines of, "if my dad saw a woman with hairy legs he'd puke." That moment made it clear to me that not all the world saw things as I did. And that some girls were learning some messed up messages at home.

baphomet, you just made my year.

I'm glad! I've since then pretty much convinced everyone else I know that they are feminists by showing them feministing. You and everyone else who blogs here has seriously been probably a bigger influence than you know. I'm now really hoping to incorporate feminist activism majorly into my adult life because it's so important to me. :) I just haven't EXACTLY figured that part out yet...but I figure I have some time.

I clicked 'book' but it was really a magazine article. About lesbian separatism and the ethics of sleeping with men. I was 11 or 12. It wasn't that I hadn't been against sexism before then, it was that it was a really minor presence in my life. I'm one of those people who is good at stepping into the author's shoes, so I actually gave lesbian separatism some thought. I decided against that bit, but it was that dramatic polemical article that really got me calling myself a feminist. (It wasn't just about lesbian separatism. That's just the part that made an impression. Wish I could find it and reread it.)

Shortly after that, I was reading everything I could get my hands on about men, women, power structures, heterosexuality, etc. Backlash was one of my earlier finds, and I remember discussing Susan Faludi with my oldest sister. My parents don't really consider themselves feminists (my mom sort of does, she says she won't call herself one b/c she "doesn't agree with all of their (feminists) goals" (she is pro-life)) but my mom is really pro-equality and my dad has gotten to the point where he sees a lot more sexism than he used to.

My baby sister APPALLED me by writing an anti-ERA paper in high school, but now she is a card-carrying fff-reading feminist, and she even writes about it in her school paper. I'm so proud!

I couldn't really think of a "clicking" moment. But someone mentioned Girl Scouts and if I had one that would probably be it. Girl Scouts are awesome, I loved it. :) Still best friends with two girls from my troop 8 or so years later.

lol, I was She-Ra for Halloween when I was 3, and the only other cartoon I watched was Muppet Babies, cause Miss Piggy ran the show... I hated Smurfs, because there was only one girl who always wore a skirt, and all the boys were named stupid stuff like, "Smart Smurf" or whatever. I came out of the womb wearing blue stockings lol....

I've always felt like I and every other woman and girl should be treated equally. I knew that the notion of "boys being better than girls" was bullshit and I've always pushed myself to knock down barriers, no matter how small. I'd have to owe that to my parents, who have always been unwaveringly supportive of me.

One click moment was when I was around 8 or so. I heard the word feminist and looked it up in the dictionary. I thought "Of course that's what I am!" But, like some other commenters, I had that kind of duh moment where I assumed everyone was a feminist. Why wouldn't they be?

I guess I became more feminist as time passed and I realized that some people didn't see women as equals. Or non-whites. Or LGBT people. This was absurd to me and I decided not to stand for that mindset.

We live in a backwards world, but I believe it's slowly getting better. Despite some massive steps backwards. I believe that most of the worlds problems are born of ignorance, so it's the least I can do to educate myself and others and to spread the controversial idea that we are human.

I suppose I have always been a feminisst. My click moment happened my 2nd semester of college. I took a women in religion class. It challenged my belief in a crucial part of my upbringing. I knew then that feminism was real and important.

Last year I read Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs, my first "feminist book," which led me to calling myself a feminist. Then I started blogging, which I suppose makes/made me a feminist activist of sorts.

I became an out-and-proud in-your-face don't-you-dare-be-sexist-'round-these-parts feminist after writing my English final this last semester on feminism in To Kill a Mockingbird when that was totally not the topic (shhh....).

I had an awsome english teacher who kept on giving me riot grrrl music/talking to me about feminist stuff!

I eventually came across feministing because I was curious about feminism and wanted to discover for myself what it was all about!

To this day, my english teacher remains a sort of mentor to me in feminist/life matters.

I think I've almost always considered myself a feminist. When I was in elementary school I thought it was outrageous that people thought that girls couldn't do everything that boys could do, I set out to prove them wrong. I think I became less vocal about it for a little bit in high school due to social pressure and wanting to fit in. My official "click" moment happened when I found Feministing. That's right! You guys are the ones who brought me back into feminism full force! I think that seeing the crazy amount of injustice towards women in the world galvanized me to be more vocal about feminism and to start trying to change things.

Well, I was actually very sexist growing up (I didn't have any direct female role models and I believed all the stereotypes of women being boring and trivial) but I objected to the inequalities that I saw (slut/stud double standard). I guess growing up and realizing all the stereotypes are B.S. and noticing all the sexism around me primed me but my click moment was meeting and marrying an awesome feminist.

you left out "common sense"

For me it's somewhere between "I always was" and "gradual evolution". My parents never described their beliefs as feminist (and still don't, as far as I've seen) but when I was little, my mom bought me a book called Girls Can Be Anything.

My various relatives always made sure there were good magazines in my household, and two of those influenced me a lot also. The first was Cricket magazine, which my grandfather bought me a subscription to. Growing up in Canada, a lot of the American history references went right over my head; however, when I read Sojourner Truth's "And Aren't I a Woman?" speech, I wanted to stand up and cheer.

I think the moment when I started to understand what the word feminist really meant was when I was about ten, reading one of Time's "whither the women's movement?" articles. They interviewed a bunch of women about the feminist label. There was a picture of a woman in a business suit, briefcase in hand (this was the eighties, after all), pausing to admire her daughter's drawing before rushing off to work. Beside this picture, in big letters, were her words to the effect that it's important to be willing to say, "Yes, I am a feminist". Although I wouldn't do the same until some time in my teens, at that point it clicked with me that the people who claimed that feminists were all dour, man-hating spinsters were just plain wrong.

Looking back, I can only remember living strictly by the "I can do anything I want when I grow up" code without really thinking it to be a big deal (but I suppose being raised by a strong, single mother definitely helped...and an obsession with Buffy the Vampire Slayer). As I grew older, I eventually accepted that despite what I'd learned in history class, sexism was still rampant in today's society. But I think my personal "click" moment about being a feminist, along with baphomet, would have to be when I came across Feministing last summer.

I had never really *thought* about the word feminism before, but when I came across a mention of this site in an NYTimes article (I believe it was the one about Jane magazine ending), I decided to check it out. An hour later, I not only realized that I had a title for all of the beliefs I had already developed, but a community of people to discuss them with daily.

So in conclusion: Go Feministing. :)

I chose a super cool feminist.

My mom has always been a very outspoken feminist and activist, so she has always inspired me... But I became a "hardcore feminist" after being sexually assaulted when I was 14. My Mom immediately found me a great therapist who was also a super cool feminist.

I owe them both so much. :)

Combo of a cool feminist (that's the one I chose), a book (Madwoman in Attic), and a Women's Studies class, though it was really just an English class--our school had no WS program back in 91.

The key was the guy teaching the course, though. As a guy myself, seeing a strong feminist male really helped shift my perspective.

I would say that a combination of my super cool feminist Mom and the effects of experiencing sexism are what brought me to identify as feminist. Mom took me with her on Take Back the Night marches, let me help her make posters for the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League, and took me to listen to Gloria Steinem. My mother gave me the tools at a very young age to recognize that the way people were behaving/treating me was wrong. I can remember telling my six year old classmates that No, boys weren't better than girls (despite what some of the boys were saying) but that it wasn't rational to fight back by shouting that girls were better than boys - boys and girls were equals.

If I have a singular click moment it was probably in first grade. The boys always declared the drinking fountain with good water pressure and cold water to be the Boys' Drinking Fountain and any girl who touched it would be contaminated with cooties. I got fed up with being expected to drink warm water after gym class just to maintain a girlish facade of squeamishness and tried to convince the other girls to join me in standing up to this pint-sized opression.

Although I guess I was always a feminist, I never considered myself as such until my friend Michael, a straight white man, told me about his feminism. I thought it was so cool that someone like him could call himself a feminist, that I decided to learn more about it and apply the label to myself.

I was always a feminist and just never knew it.
I have always been a very strong person.
Honestly Jess book Full Frontal Feminism is what made me realize how much of a feminist I truly am.
That book changed my life.
I also got a handful of my friends to read it and they have done a complete 360.
Awesome.

I have always been a feminist but didn't identify as one until college through a women studies class.

I had two "click" moments. The first was when I was eight or so, and my family was teasing my aunt about the time when she had said she wanted to be a guitar when she grew up (no joke). I asked my mom what she wanted to be, and she said that she had considered joining the airforce until she found out that women were only allowed to fly cargo planes. That's when I was first exposed to sexism and the idea that it wasn't "nice".

My first exposure to feminism was in sixth grade or so. A girl that I had a minor crush on had been teasing me and I called her a "wench." Being the awesome girl she was, she gave me a public dressing down and then explained in private why it wasn't okay to call girls things like "wench."

So, yeah, two awesome feminists.

I wish I could say I became a feminist because of my mother, my family, etc. I became a feminist, actually, in spite of them.

It wasn't until college, actually. I had been living with a man who was about 8 years my senior, but we were both undergrads. He was abusive, mentally and physically.

We took a brit lit I course together, during which we read Wollstonecraft. One day, we were leaving class and he and I were discussing the text. He was pretty derisive of its contents and made some comments about his expectations of me. As we drove home together from class, it dawned on me that Wollstonecraft's text still had validity. And that struck me pretty hard, considering when it was written.

So, it took a few months after that to come to terms with everything, from his abuse to why I took it. And then I dumped him, started taking theory courses...I began identifying publicly and openly as a feminist. Thus far, I've taught women's studies and am working on a feminist dissertation in English.

I still remember how he hit me and made me feel like I wasn't strong enough to live without him... and how I'll never, ever tolerate that shit again.

I don't recall an exact moment. I was always taught to be strong and independent and avoid the situation of some of the adult women around me who were desperate for male approval.

If there was a click moment though, it was from a print magazine. Maybe Bitch. The author said, off-hand, that the terms Miss/Ms/Mrs lacked the anonymity and normalcy of Mr. She said that it was impossible to escape this commentary on your marital status. Even with Ms, you are marked as a likely-feminist who chooses not to reveal her status.

That small thing gave me a better understanding of the subtle ways sexism pushes women into the periphery, makes them not-normal.

When Geraldine Ferarro ran for VP I was 8 years old and so excited!! A woman in the White House! Yea! We had a mock election at school (complete with voting machines) and when I was talking about how much I wanted her to win my best friend said, "She kills babies!" I remember saying, "No she doesn't!" and then going home and asking my parents. My best friend was talking about abortion but I don't remember what my parents said about it, probably didn't make a ton of sense at the time.

However, I was very determined to become a politician and at my 6th grade graduation, the second dose of reality came. Each of us had to go to the mic to say what we wanted to be when we grew up. I said, "I want to be the first woman President of the United States" and the audience laughed.

I've been a feminist as long as I can remember, and I thank my parents for not only being supportive, but for setting an example through their marriage (domestic and non-domestic chores divided by skill, not gender).

Anyway, I can't believe it has been 24 years...

Combination of two things:

1. Four years of receiving a kick-ass education at a woman's college, whilst forging fulfilling, emotionally complex relationships with other intelligent women.

2. New Year's Eve 2003 in Paris, where a friend and I were stalked by two menacing guys and pushed into a mob of angry, grab-happy drunken men who proceeded to sexually assult both of us, nearly resulting in rape. I fought back and was rewarded with severe bruising and scars that have yet to fade. In the face of such complete dehuminanization, I became a feminist for life.

By far the most influential person in my life has been my aunt Pat, who, although I don't remember if she used the term "feminist" in front of me, certainly identified as one. She was a pro-choice, union-supporting, pagan, nurse who spent her life working for both the rights of the veterans she cared for and the rights of her fellow women everywhere. She encouraged my growth as a woman in every way possible, gave me books to read, joined me in yelling "GIRL POWER!" and dancing around to the Spice Girls, told me stories from her life, engaged me in political discussions, never treated me as though I was too young to be included in things, and always made sure I knew that she loved me and believed in me. She died about three years ago, shortly before my sixteenth birthday, and I think every discovery since (Women's Studies, GLBT groups, political activism, Feministing.com) has been building upon the foundation she started for me. I think she'd be proud of me if she were here now.

And I think she'd probably read Feministing:-)

Jessica's Full Frontal Feminism did it for me!

I'm going to be honest. I'm pretty. I'm also smart. I went to a magnet school for really smart kids, and witnessing the sexism every day made me a feminist, guys were allowed to be cute and smart but girls could only be one it seemed, everyone always underestimated me AND my smart friends who are girls.

when I was ten I found out that women were not allowed to be pastors in our church (they are now) because my parents were involved in some of the discussions about changing the rules. I was outraged. At around the same time I became aware of the ways that boys in my classes were disciplining my performance of "smart" differently from the "smart" boys, and that made me angry too. When I learned the word for feminist, I was all over it.

I've been a feminist as long as I can remember. I did my fifth grade research paper on a hero on Susan B. Anthony, before her it was Joan of Arc and before her it was Xena.
I was raised in SF by my very liberal mother. I'm sure that had a lot to do with it.

Megan, Liza and Breanna - thank you thank you thank you! I can die happy now.

no click. i learned it from my mum, in the same fashion as tying my shoes and the like.

I picked "dealing with sexism". It all began two years ago when I was right smack dab in the middle of a really chaotic situation.

Around the holidays my brother guiltily confessed to our family that he was not getting married the following winter because his fiancé had caught him cheating on her with his fellow colleague. My family (myself included) were crushed, and as a result of this, we immediately began placing the blame on this other women, talking about what a disgusting tramp she was to ruin my poor brother's and his fiancé's perfect relationship.

About a year later, my brother secretly confessed to me that the women he was sleeping with had absolutely no prior knowledge of his engagement and that she was not at fault. I soon came to wonder why my brother hadn't intervened when my family had called this women a whore, and why hadn't my mother and father held my brother at least partially accountable for his crimes? That's when I realized how common it was for this sort of blame to be placed on the women and only the women, how easiest it must of been for my mom and dad to hate this other women rather than hate my brother. To this day I still feel incredible guilt for the things I said about this women and if I could come in contact with her in the future I would apologize to her for the double standard she fell as a victim to.

It was hard to decide how to vote. Growing up as the first child of a teenage mom, joining the military out of high school, and the general indignities put onto me as a woman made me act mostly feminist without realizing it for a long time. I started reading feminist blogs last year and gave me the guts to call myself one. The "click" thing, though, was was a conversation with my future ex-husband.

A friend (S)and I are in the car with him, and I say I love the field of yellow wildflowers the highway. S laughs and says she can imagine me in a flowing summer dress, skipping through the flowers. Suddenly, FEH insists that is the dumbest thing ever, no way I would do that, because I'm "Not a f-ing hippie." He refused to let it go, and got very angry. That pissed me off more than he knows, that he would dare to tell me who I am, who I have to be, with such angry certainty.

S was right, and I have been totally re-making myself as a granola-eating, carfree/bike riding, never-gonna-be-married-again, Feminist Hippie.

I don't know if there was exactly a single, unitary moment in time when I realized I was a feminist. A feminist male, that is, if I may use that term. I guess I really started becoming very cognizant of issues broadly pertaining to social justice and gender equality, because of a great girlfriend I had in graduate school.

She was awesome, and she really influenced me in many ways. Challenged me to view the world in different ways. To see things from different perspectives. I mean, I was never a conservative knuckledragger, or anything. Indeed my Mom was an educated and strong woman. But, there always an undertow on institutionalized bias and sexism in society, that one always has to recognize and be cognizant of.

I'm not saying that it was any one person or one thing that shaped my world view. Many women, and indeed many people, have had in influence on me. Its always an evolving process.

Other. Music: Sleater-Kinney, Le Tigre, Babes in Toyland.

When I was in the 6th grade (Catholic school HA), we did a play of "South Pacific" and in one song the girls come out dressed as boys, and then the boys come out dressed as girls. No one laughed when the girls came out, but everyone was in hysterics when the boys came out.

After allot of thinking on one was funny and the other wasn't, I realized that most people think that being a woman is degrading to some point, and it made me very sad. Afterwards I wanted to change the overall mindset society has about women.

Being male I've never had the experiences that many of you have been through, but reading over this page reminds me how important feminism is. Someone once said to me something along the lines "The trouble with feminists is they blame society for everything", and my response then, and confirmed by what I've read on this page is "Well - society IS fucked up, it IS to blame for most of the shit that happens in it. Blaming a fucked up society for the fucked up actions that result from it is a perfectly reasonable thing to do".

I've always been a feminist (though probably less dedicated/motivated/activist than many of the people on this board). I remember as a child I was told things like "women earn less than men" and I asked "why?" when I was told "they just do" I asked why again. The idea that men and women were not deserving of equal respect never occured to me, just like it always seemed stupid to me to hate people of other races. I don't know who taught me this, it wasn't my parents or any of my relatives.

But I did not identify myself as a feminist until I was around 20, as whenever feminism was mentioned in the media it was always in a very negative sense of man hating female superiority. It was only when I looked it up when I was about 20 that I realised "Oh - well that's what I believe. How can anyone NOT believe that?".

I must say that I was in complete denial until the age of 24. I grew up in a rural area, with very kind but 'traditional' parents.

I'm doing a Masters of Commerce in a major city now, and it just so happened that a radical feminist from the same Uni gave a guest lecture.

That lecture changed my life - for the first time in my life I realised that 'women are equal'. In some ways I feel ashamed that it took me so long, but I understand why I never realised.

Soon after my best friend since we were little told me how shocked she was that a mutual friend's fiance did not ask her father's permission for marriage. And when I told my own father about my boyfriend's promotion to manager, genuinely asked whether I was going to continue to work or not.

I've been a feminist for a while now. My experience leads me to think that the construction of our environment shapes so much of ourselves. Non-feminists are often simply ignorant I believe.

I chose 'other', as I don't really remember a click moment of realizing I was a feminist; but I do remember when I realized I was very different from most people.
When growing up I lived in a rural town and did a lot of so-called 'boy things' (playing 'in the dirt' at the local creek, fishing, etc), though it never occurred to me that they were 'boy things'. Neither of my parents went on to higher education, and at the time I was doing 'bad' in school (special ed, failed a grade, and was told constantly by my teachers I would never do 'any better') but my parents, though not identified feminists, believed that I could and I adopted a 'give 'em hell' attitude from my father. I suppose this instilled a certain strength. Fast forward years later with my first BF; I expected to be treated as an equal and when he tried to force himself on me at one point I let him know in no uncertain terms how I felt about it!
The 'click' moment of difference came in grd11 in a 'Family Studies' class where I did a presentation on women in the media. I had a large piece of bristol board with cut out advertisements on it to demonstrate how women were largely 'pieces of a body' in advertising and particular bodies at that. A lot of people in the class snickered and rolled their eyes, especially the guys. I still went on with the presentation, and did well (according to the teacher) but I do remember thinking 'how am I the only one who thinks this?'. This was also compounded by the -huge- teen pregnancy rate in my HS and it was always the 'teen mom's' that got the negative rep, not the fathers! A huge double standard to me.
I suppose it cemented when I hit university and had a roomie who 'hated feminists', to which I kindly reminded her 'it was because of 'stupid feminists' that you are able to be here in the first place'. She thought they were 'all crazy', even though we got along well and 'I' was a feminist. Then of course there is Feministing! This is my daily dose of 'right on!'. To know that there are other people out there, both women and men, who think like me.
I'm pretty sure then, that feminism and identifying as one has lent me some strength and the belief that I can do anything despite what my teachers, among others, said to me. And that's why, despite everything most people ever told me what 'I' and 'girls' can and cannot do, I'll be starting my PhD this fall - thanks feminism! ;)

I chose "a super cool feminist woman," but it was really a combination of a bunch of things.

I started listening to Ani Difranco when I was 12 (I'm now 16). I started listening to her for the pretty music alone, but (luckily) was soon exposed to so many ideas way too big for my little 12 year old brain. The politics she writes about always made a lot of sense, but I think the "click" moment with Ani was when I listened to her poem "Reprieve" for the first time. The line "I mean, why can't all decent men and women call themselves feminists? Out of respect, for those that fought for this?" really opened my eyes.

Equally important, I think, was my upbringing. Not only do I live in a liberal household (with parents who don't identify as feminists, but are pro-choice, anti-discrimination, etc.), but I spent my childhood riding horses, mucking out stalls, and running around covered in hay and dirt. Thanks to horses, I was always pretty disdainful of traditional ideas of beauty - why would anyone want to spend their time painting their nails and straightening their hair when running around the barn was so much more fun? My involvement with horses helped me question why girls were taught to look and act a certain way when it may not make them happy.

Those two things made me pretty feminist-friendly for a few years now, but everything kind of came together when I found Feministing and other feminist blogs about a year ago. The realization that there were others - thousands and thousands of others - that thought like me was pretty overwhelming, in an incredible way.

Wow, 100 comments!

I guess it was this awesome girl who "converted" me to the cause but, I suspect I always leaned this direction despite being a member of the wrong and sinister gender. There are two reasons, really... my mother and my sister... both robbed of their livelihoods in excellent careers, not by law, but by the far stronger influence of society.

I should qualify that by saying I don't buy into every last part of the modern agenda, to be sure, especially the extremist collectivist vision espoused by one of the official members of Feministing... and I don't like it when people simply use "feminism" as a synonym for "liberalism" when feminism certainly conflicts with other elements of today's Left.. but overall, I identify with the common-sense feminism as outlined in things such as jessica's books more than I do with any other ideology on the political landscape, so there you go.

It also has me constantly policing myself in my interactions with women, which is damn healthy for any straight member of my evil gender. (How far do I go? Is it cool to check out an attractive woman? Is it ok as long as I keep myself from staring luridly? Why do I find her attractive anyway.. am I just buying into bullshit Maxim/Cosmo artificial standards of beauty?) If you ask me, it is really guys who need to be exposed to feminism more than women!

Reading the book _Cunt_ in my senior year of high school triggered my click moment. Feminism floored me.

I didn't really have a click. I guess when I first read the word or heard the word feminist and found out what it was. So probably around 10 or so. I've always been a feminist, it's just who I am at the core of my being.

I wanted to be a feminist for my entire life because I knew it should make sense to support liberation of women from male control. Unfortunately, I was raised by an abusive woman who identified herself as feminist while working only for the rights of rich white ladies. I ran away from home and survived as a prostitute for a while, eventually recovering my sanity at the house of some really sweet friends and learning that there was work available to me that didn't make me want to kill myself. Unfortunately, the next people I met to call themselves feminists were of the 'sex-positive' variety and yelled at me for saying I didn't enjoy prostitution.

What allowed me to become an actual feminist was meeting a radical activist feminist who proved that the douchebags I'd met previously were not representative of feminism as a whole. My friend believed then and believes to this day that to recognize that patriarchy is oppressive requires one to recognize that classism and racism are oppressive. You can't just pick and choose the empowerment struggles that allow you to gain the rights you want and continue to disempower and take away the rights of others. This makes you a selfish person, not a feminist.

She also taught me that there are plenty of feminists out there who recognize that being anti-porn is not the same thing as being anti-sex (because porn is nothing like real-life sex), and that the voices of brutalized women need never be silenced by those who accuse us of being "prudes." And that Twisty Faster is fucking awesome.

For me, it was a super cool feminist woman - my wife.

Forbidden comma - Patriarchy, not men, is the problem. We aren't inherently evil because we have a Y chromosome. We are questioning and resisting patriarchy because we had someone who thought enough of us to share a woman's point of view. They somehow read that we were receptive and saw something in us that we couldn't. They brought out the best in us - something I believe was already there. In my case, it was my compassion that my wife appealed to.

No doubt, patriarchy is evil. Men are salvageable, though, so your last sentence is right on.

I help out in the office and heard two teachers talking. One of the ladies is from Denmark or Portagul or someplace. And the other is a Muslem I think. I heard one say that she wishes that feminists knew that most violence against women is because of feminism. The other one agreed. They were pretty upset. Not at each other but. One said I think the Muslem lady that she thinks the war in Afganstan and Iraq are cuz Muslem men don't ever want their women to become like American women. I didn't say nothing cuz I don't know what to say. just thot u should know.

Yikes, Sera! I'm sorry to hear that the first sex-positive feminists you ever encountered were those who were stupid and insensitive enough to berate you for not enjoying something you were doing for survival.

I believe that for some people, sex work can be a positive thing, but in the current state of the world it overwhelmingly isn't, and that must be rectified. Working towards an ideal is productive; letting that ideal blind you to reality isn't.

Partly it was due to coming across online activism, but partly it was due to working in the sex industry. I was only working as a web developer, but I liked the idea of working for a 'female positive' place, and a company in my city advertised itself as such (they are the same group who do Beautiful Agony, and IFeelMyself). I thought this was awesome.

Then I found out how the director _actually_ treated women. He was horrible, he'd scream 'Cunts!' at his staff, he was horrifically abusive. I became incrediably depressed between working for him and moderating the forums which were full of men who's comments I had to constantly delete as they asked for younger and younger women, demanded women shown with their boyfriends perform with girls instead, fetishised white women with black men and vice versa, and generally said things which made me literally weep, who advocated rape. Another staff member confided happily that it was female positive because she didn't have to sleep with the director. Women were always things to him.

The place was horrible, yet it is consistently represented as a guiding light of feminist-positive erotica - the truth was it only seemed that way because no one knew what the director was like or saw the behind the scenes stuff such as girls being forced to 'perform' with popsicles. Then there was meeting the men who ran sites like Abbey Winters, who insisted on deriding women over twenty five as old and ugly, who all had 'female' personas in business and posted on forums as women to justify their treatment (see? A woman says its okay!) but who treated their staff like utter shit. There were the comments from other staff, some frightened, some jaded, some saying that you should 'just ignore' how people were treated because 'if they can't stand up for themselves they deserve it', some who were upset that the director insisted on seeing naked photos of them when they were video editors, not performers. The place was fake. All of the profiles were fiction, the girls names, there were girls pretending to be bisexual because it made more money who felt used after a performance because, frankly, it just wasn't their thing, there were tired girls, I was asked to perform for the 'kink' market, because being thirty and overweight (I was 60 kilos, they wanted girls who were 45 - 50) I was in the fetish zone.

I crashed into utter depression, even after resigning, because as far as I could tell this place WAS one of the better ones, and everyone believed it was incredible, but it was horrible, horrible. It took me a long time to recover, and I came out a feminist on the other side.

I have always been interested in what are generally considered feminine activities, from a young age: make-up, fashion, you name it (although as neither my mom nor older sister have any interest in these, I was unsure where it came from.) Again, when I was younger, I viewed being a feminist as something I could grow up to be. My mom is a self-identified feminist, and for a while it seemed asthough I'd wake up one day, having completely lost my interest in shallow activites, become a feminist and (of course) keep my last name, as well as my mother's, if I ever get married. Flash forward to age 14, where I got really into Le Tigre, Bikini Kill, and reading up on the riot grrl movement. In grade 9 English, after reading Animal Farm, we had to do a presentation on some type of revolution, and I chose a feminist revolution. (One a side not, I am DISGUSTED to say that a group of boys in my grade nine class did a misogynist revolution.) However, I still felt as though I didn't fit the part. I like shopping, and dislike going out without blush and mascara. This year, a friend of mine lent me Full Frontal Feminism, and that was the real click moment. I definately realised that my attachement to more superficial activities didn't make me any less of a feminist, and hey, I have feminist opinions so why not call myself a feminist?

On a side note, as a 15 year-old, I find it cool that I am able to get my older sister into feminism and my mom BACK into feminism. :)

I clicked "other" because I can't recall ever not identifying specifically as a feminist... But I suppose the "click" itself came when my Sophomore chemistry teacher told me he was unable to answer my question about different methods of correctly solving an equation because "he couldn't explain my woman's intuition."

Reading Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.

Seeing Batman being all vital and ass-kicking, and Catwoman being dried-up and useless and very damsel-in-distress-like clued me into the fact that Something Was Wrong.

Via something as superficial as high heels.

When I was in my early teens, I was as stupid as it goes in that age. I tried to be a good girl, to please everyone and such. I used to wear jeans and hoodies of indefinable shapes and colours and my mother didn't like it so she persuaded me to get some nice clothes and shoes suitable for young ladies and I would try my best to be a young lady. Being a young lady meant in my mom's eyes wearing narrow shoes - she has a theory that I actually have disfigured and ugly wide feet because I wear wide shoes.
Well, it took no time before I got bunions and arthritis in my toes. I tried to be a good girl so I persevered for a while but then I just got pissed - why young gentlemen can wear jeans and hoodies in indefinable shapes and colours and comfy shoes? And why they are allowed to run around and jump and to live without bunions, anyway?
One day I stopped asking myself and just got me Birks. I also stopped listening to mommy and other people who 'wanted only good for me'. The damage on my feet is irreversible but it my mind got lots of food to grow on.

I must say that I love love love fashion. I make my own clothes, too. Oddly enough, as sewing is perceived as a womanly virtue (I hear), designing is not. When I told my mom that I would like to go and study fashion design and be a fashion designer, she replied that then I'll need a husband because I'll need to go to parties and social gatherings to represent my shop and without a man, I couldn't do it. Hey, yeah. My mother has a Ph. D. and is an editor-in-chief of a tiny but pretty progressive publishing house but thinks so 19th century.

One day I decided that it's not fair. That I'll have all fun life offers - in shoes that are comfy to my aching feet. That I'll print flowers on my fabric with stamps cut out of potatoes. That I'll go everywhere I go without any husbands or other males to take care of me. That I'll live my own life, not anyone else's.

It's maybe not feminism, strictly speaking. But, what the heck.

No click - I was raised this way! The odd part is, my mom isn't a feminist. She was emotionally abused by her mother as a child, and was always told she wasn't good enough, or stupid, or whatever. She decided she'd raise me and my brother to be the best we could be, and ended up instilling me with feminist ideals without even knowing it!

I checked "dealing with sexism," but maybe that item needs to be clarified: I don't mean "dealing with" in the sense of enduring (I'm a man), just in the sense of interacting with.

I always took a lot of feminism for granted, but I didn't call myself a feminist till I spent some time in Italy, where people tend to be, to say the least, less enlightened about such matters.* The odd thing is, I wasn't at first disturbed by talking with sexist men -- their views just seemed a little ridiculous, and not particularly dangerous, since most women I knew (raised in a relatively solid feminist environment) would have just laughed them off. It was meeting women who had been raised among these views that did it -- there was something so creepy about women who assumed that they needed men to do everything for them (or to pretend that they needed men even when they didn't) and something even more creepy about men preferring women to act that way. It made me realize how lucky I was to have been raised among better values, and that sexism was a really vicious force, not just an outdated joke.

*(this is the second time I've posted something negative about Italy on feministing.com, and I want to add, as an olive branch, that it's a beautiful country with delicious food and great weather.)

It's so GREAT reading all these clicks and nonclicks! I think a lot of guys, particularly the "nice" ones who've never really thought about it, could benefit from reading how many different ways and reasons people come to feminism.

I was raised by a feminist, but I didn't realize it at the time because my mom was also wrapped up in other civil rights stuff. Feminism just seemed like another logical piece of the whole some-people-treat-other-people-bad-for-stupid-reasons package.

I did accuse my 2nd-grade teacher of being a male chauvinist pig for not letting me play football with the boys. And I remember thinking people must be really stoooopid to be afraid of ERA.

I have no patience for people who think feminism has already done it's job, so they "don't need to be a feminist." It's like the people who yammer about the evils of labor unions while enjoying their 40-hour workweeks and paid sick time. Gah!

I've always been somewhat of a feminist/activist, but I didn't really make the decision to really get into feministing until I read Jessica's book. At that point I decided that it was okay for me to be loud and proud to be a feminist.