I consider myself a radical feminist. Perhaps that is redundant as feminism seems to be radical all on it's own. But what I want to talk about right now is women and self love and how that might not align with what we believe as feminists.

I remember the first time i guy looked at me like i was prey, he glanced me up and down and told me that he "would defiantly give it to me". He thought he was being charming, i just felt sick. I remember getting changed at least 4 times before going out because i was scared that if i wore what made me feel good about myself, i would attract unwanted attention. I remember having to spend a night avoiding my boss at a party as he kept trying to pull me into rooms alone, and feeling so intimidated that i felt like i had to ask his permission to leave. I've had to pretend that male friends are my boyfriend whilst out, fearing that this is the only way to get other boys to stop harassing me.

So, what exactly is neoliberal feminism? It is in fact the convergence of neoliberalism, feminism and capitalism ideologies. Neoliberal capitalism’s colonisation of the feminist movement has seen a new individualised mode of feminism where previous solidarity has replaced by individualism. The emphasis is no longer on a work to effect change for all women, but neoliberal feminism is beneficial to an elite minority who are unaware of the barriers working class and privileged enough to believe that even under current patriarchal structures, anything is possible for women,

There are women who love the women, but love the men more. They seem consoling and balletic, but are mask-less spectators proffering a speech about a pseudo notion of love towards women, while honoring men who cross-question the necessities of the same women they will forever claim they love. These women will conceal their emotions indicating any support for the woman with a past and a confession. Her confessions lie within the constructs of being believed and being somewhat forgiven by the women who needed her to retire from stories of abuse.

It’s no secret that "feminism" is something of a dirty word to a lot of people, to the point that “feminist” can be considered an insult (Waugh 2015). But where does this come from? Is the movement that started with women getting the right to vote (Ruiz) and progressed into fighting against environmental destruction (We Rise; Kapoor 2015; Ruiz), capitalist oppression (We Rise; Red Letter Press 2007; Kapoor 2015; Ruiz), and racism (We Rise; IWDA 2018) really such a terrible thing?

So for those that don't know, I am an Ismaili Muslim and, like the Christian concept of Sunday school, we have religious education on Saturdays. Now the teachers are expected to go through training to ensure that we teach the students facts and accurate information, rather than opinions or perspectives. However, when I went into this training I realized that there was a fault in the training itself. Within teaching the facts, we somehow twisted the perspective based on emotional bias. When I was pitted against the trainer and the other teachers trying to explain my perspective, I felt something inside of me shift. The perspective you teach the students, regardless of the intent, does impact their view and emotional outlook on life because your emotional outlook on life will end up showing.

Growing up I never gave much thought to the word feminism or the works of feminists. Instead, I believed that feminism wasn’t needed since women in contemporary Western societies had more freedom now than at any other times in history. My beliefs about feminism were informed by the readily available stereotypes circulating in society that characterize feminists as angry women, man haters, ugly women, outspoken women, and many other negative descriptive words. Listening to the connotations surrounding feminism, I was convinced that I wasn’t a feminist, for ‘I didn’t hate men, I wasn’t angry, I wasn’t ugly; I was contented.' All this further confirmed what I already knew: that I wasn’t a feminist. Moreover, none of the people I surrounded myself with claimed to be feminists, so labelling myself as a non-feminist made perfect sense.

I grew up very blind to the injustices of the world, or maybe I was pointed in the wrong direction.

Have you ever Googled "What do women want?" I have. It's a little disconcerting. Because, despite the fact that I didn't put the words "in a man" in my search, the first page of results came up with articles with titles like "What do women want in a man?" and "10 Things Men Wish Women Knew About Sex" (Guess what, we probably already know them. In fact, there are probably more than 10 things WOMEN wish men knew about sex).

While most people don't think of Major Kira when they think of feminism, I honestly think she should be one of the first examples. It's almost as if her brand of feminism is too quiet, too earned, too perfect. Her lack of struggles in this area make it seem like maybe her society is just the same as every other. With the deeply problematic history of Star Trek, in terms of the sexualization of women and even their mistreatment in some scenes, it also isn't surprising that Star Trek is not the first place that people look for feminist messages. So, why do I make this argument? Well, read on to find out more.

I don’t talk about true crime extensively on this blog, but I’d like to. It’s an important topic that can honestly say a lot more about the audience and fanbase than the crimes and criminals themselves. And I think this post about why I take interest in this unsavory topic in the first place is a good way to open the door for future conversation.

There are so many Disney movie reviews and theories out there that we all think we know what our favorite stories are truly about. But looking at it in an empowering perspective, may teach us lessons for our daily lives and how to over come struggles we face. So starts are DISNEY PRINCESSES IN THE LIGHT OF QUEENS series. Let's start off with one of the first ever Disney Princess movies—Snow White.