How I Became a Feminist (and You Can Too!)

"We can never go back to before." - Ragtime

I used to think I wasn't a feminist. I was for equal rights, I confidently told myself, not favouring women over men. I wasn't interested in getting into heated arguments about the glass ceiling or birth control. And I had never once burned my bra.

Part of this disavowal came from my annoyance with the possessive apostrophe in "women's history." Just because I was female didn't mean this was more my history than the male sitting next to me. I felt that with that apostrophe came the presumption that because I was a woman I should be interested in women's history. And I don't take kindly to presumptions. I was grateful for the civil rights this history had given me, but I was equally thankful for other gifts from my predecessors, like germ theory and the Emancipation Proclamation. I was a human. My history was the history of humanity - of women and men, West and East, Emperor and colonist, Native and settler. It was all my inheritance, and everyone else's too.

Hilarious History Vol. 1 - The Tennis Court Oath

The year is 1789. For context's sake, it is a few years before the French people will start singing about whether other people hear them singing and a little bit after those across the pond demonstrated their dislike of tea by throwing it into said pond. So, as you can tell, it was a time of great revolutionary fervour. 

The place is France. No need for context here, I assume you know where France is.

"Lest We Forget on a Day with So Much to Remember" - RB

I really hate predictability, so I wasn't going to write a 'Remembrance Day' blog post today. It felt too on the nose. But this year especially, Remembrance Day has multiple meanings for me, so what the heck - perhaps my conformity will surprise some of you and my reputation will remain intact.

Like most who study History, I feel a certain connection to this day and hope to somehow honour its significance each year. I guess having studied the past, we understand the importance of memory; and having read of the horrors of war, we understand the heroism of service.

And like many in my generation, my Grandfather served in WWII. He lied about his age and joined the South African Signal Corps. He was captured in 1942 and waited out the war in various POW camps. His battles didn't end with his repatriation, nor did his bravery. This is my first Remembrance Day without him.

Today is also the birthday of a friend who passed away in 2008. He was a deep thinker and liked the connection between himself and such an important date in history. There were poppies at his funeral. This is also his day, so I remember him, as well.

As an internationalist and a pacifist, I also have mixed feelings about a day that is often distorted by nationalism. I wish there were less flags and anthems at Remembrance Day ceremonies. I wish this was a day to talk about peace, as well as war.

Never such innocence,

Never before or since,

As changed itself to past 

Without a word - the men 

Leaving the gardens tidy,

The thousands of marriages 

lasting a little while longer;

Never such innocence again.

- "MCMXIV" Philip Larkin