It's a tough question. This year has been disheartening to say the least, what with the conservatives claiming the term "Mama Grizzlies" and Christine O'Donnell's existence. I worry everyday about the slow and sometimes not so slow erosion of what progress women have made so far. My own generation seems compliant to shrug off feminism in all its messy connotations and I myself think sometimes the harder I fight the more radical it seems to even say you're a feminist. I worry most when women conservatives talk about the women who have "hijacked" the term Feminist to mean equal rights, the right to choose, the right for safety and equal pay and the right to fight patriarchy; which is what Feminism is.
But, hopelessness is not productive and one has to believe that the movement for the rights of any oppressed group is always alive; sometimes just below the surface waiting for the spark that will ignite a collective consciousness to make actual change.
I am thankful that I was in a position to receive reproductive care when I needed it. I am thankful that I have had an education denied to so many other women just because of where they were born. I am thankful for the "right" to question authority, for the right to protest injustice and the hope that women will someday achieve the post feminist mentality when the current patriarchal society comes to an end.
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