America's Biggest Threat: Little Girls

It’s been a tough week for 8-year-old girls in America.

In Virginia, Sunnie Kahle was denied return to her current Christian school for not being girly enough. In a letter to her grandmother--her legal guardian--the school inferred that Sunnie’s alternative gender identity was causing confusion among other students and that it was not in line with the school’s biblical teachings. Administrators admitted that she was a very good student and that they “love” her, but I guess not enough to let her keep learning in their institution…unless she wears a dress and grows her hair. 

In South Carolina, Olivia McConnell asked her state representative to sponsor a bill making the Wooly Mammoth the official state fossil. With strong historical and scientific support behind his young constituent’s proposal, Representative Robert Ridgeway brought it to vote in the House, and it passed 94-3. All was a go until Senator Kevin Bryant insisted on amending the bill to include a passage from the Bible explaining the creation of life…which is another banging-head-on-desk essay for another day. Olivia’s bill is currently stalled, not for lack of historical significance, but because a Christian fundamentalist cannot remember that religion has no place in our government, or that the earth is over 6000 years old. He must've missed third grade.

And in Colorado, Kamryn Renfro was suspended for shaving her head, which she did in support of her best friend who was bald due to the effects of chemotherapy treatments. Her crew cut was deemed courageous and supportive dangerous and distracting by school officials.

So we’re punishing young girls for being themselves, for honoring scientific discovery, and for standing with those who are too weak to stand themselves. We’re alienating them, diminishing them, and telling them to hush up and sit pretty.

What. The. Heck.

At an age where these girls should be encouraged in their research, individuality, expression, intelligence, initiative, and ability to connect with others, these schools and politicians are stifling their mental and emotional growth which so necessary is to become well-adjusted adults.

I don’t know the circumstances that led to Sunnie being raised by her grandparents, but situations like that rarely arise because the actual parents are doing an awesome job. So let’s assume she has had some emotional discourse in her past. If she does indeed have gender identity issues, kicking her out of school and away from her friends is not helping the situation. Remember, this is a Christian school... I guess they forgot that line in the Bible about “Suffer the little children to come unto me.” Nothing in that passage about just the pretty ones.

Kamryn said she shaved her head “because it seemed like the right thing to do.” And it was. That sense of empathy is to be applauded in a child, because it shows strong character. Instead of being sent home, Kamryn should have been given an assembly in which to explain her action and inspire her classmates.

And really, Senator Bryant. Leave your Bible where it belongs, in your church of choice and your own home. Keep it out of Congress. Try to learn something from this third-grader today. Olivia will lend you her science book. 

Don’t banish these girls for their haircuts and their boyish t-shirts. Don’t dismantle their budding interest in government and science while hiding behind your Bible-shield. The times, they have a-changed. 

Keep at it, girls. When grown men in positions of power are threatened by your drive, your passion, and your fortitude, you know you’re doing something right. 

Ms. Understanding

Yesterday I asked a classmate to critique a piece I had written for a graduate writing class. It was a speech in praise of a former high school teacher whom I admired for inspiring me to be fearless in pursuit of my goals. In this speech I used the word “feminism” and the phrase “proud feminist” to describe myself, and credited this teacher for inspiring those qualities.

My classmate suggested an editorial change: remove “feminism” and “proud feminist,” replace them with something less negative. Tone it down a little, she suggested.

I am equally dumbfounded and pained that today there are still educated American citizens who view feminism as a negative thing.

Changing those words in my speech was not an option; they were the heart of the theme of the entire piece. They are also a keystone in the blocks of which I, as an American woman, am constructed. Those words will remain.

By definition, feminism is “the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.” It’s about equal rights, folks. If you see equality as negative, you have some serious socio-cultural issues to work through.

A friend called this persistent ignorant misinformation a “cultural script,” thoughtless cliches that are easy to reference and regurgitate but aren’t based on any personal thought. If you once heard the word “feminist” associated with the groups of women who used to burn their bras in protest, or that horrible moniker “femi-nazi” and that’s all you’ve ever bothered to learn on the subject, let me assure you here and now that the feminist movement is so much more than undergarment pyromania.

Women who are directly benefiting from feminist action every day are doing so unknowingly and thanklessly. Let me attempt to end some of the ignorance.

Feminists are the ones who drafted and rallied in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, which stated "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." The ERA passed in Congress in 1972 (the year I was born), but was killed 10 years later when it failed to be ratified by a minimum of 38 states. 134 years after the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls we still had not reached full equality. But we trudge on. Feminists are nothing if not determined.

The feminist movement has been a long and arduous one, but the successes it has reached have been significant:

1920 Women gain the right to vote
1963 Equal Pay Act
1972 Title IX enacted
1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act
1986 sexual harassment deemed to be illegal job discrimination.
1996 Virginia Military Institute ordered that it must admit women

And the list goes on.

The feminist movement did not end with women gaining the right to vote. It did not end with the passage of Title IX, and it will not end when a woman is elected President of the United States. There is no singular final task to accomplish, after which “feminism” will retire.

The feminist movement continues, and must continue, in order to remain vigilant in maintaining the equalities that have been attained, and to be a watchdog against inequalities that continue to spring up.

If inequality is a cancer, then the feminist movement is lifelong aftercare. It is the daily surveillance for new malignant growth; it is the periodic education of new generations to the dangers of discrimination; it is the chemotherapy which goes to Washington to permanently eradicate practices which promote gender biases that threaten to kill a healthy state of equality.

I hope my classmate comes to realize how much she has gained from feminist action. Equal access to education and sports, voting rights, marriage and reproductive rights, and prevention of and legal action against gender-related job discrimination are all POSITIVE direct results of proud feminists.

Never be afraid to call yourself a feminist. Wear that badge proudly.