I don’t know many people that actually enjoy the icebreaker activities that usually pop up during the first day of class. I certainly don’t, and yet on my first day of senior year I found myself entangled in a bingo icebreaker activity.
Each bingo square had a question in it that we were supposed to ask the other person. If they “had an 8 am class” or “got an omelette for breakfast” they would sign their name. Most of the questions were harmless and unobjectionable, except one: “Do you consider yourself a feminist?”
The polarizing effect of the question didn’t strike me until four people in a class of twenty raised their hands when asked if they signed their name in that particular bingo square. I like to think that everyone around me proudly considers themselves a feminist, but it seems the opposite is true, or at least was on display to me during that class.
If everyone understood the core tenet of feminism, equality for everyone regardless of what you were were called at birth, what you call yourself now, who you love, who you don’t, what you identify with and what has nothing to do with you, equality rests at the center.
It doesn’t seem like such a bad thing to get behind, especially since its goal is to empower every individual in every walk of life. Embracing this ideology, rather than the more radical or extremist versions anti-feminists might have you believe, will result in benefits for us all.
So, to answer the bingo square’s question, yes. I do consider myself a feminist. And so should you.