I was having breakfast in the dining hall, half asleep and completely, utterly unprepared for my day, in a hurry to get to my first lecture. As I wrapped up, I noticed a tag on a backpack a few feet in front of me. “Girl Power,” it read. I smiled. I was even more elated when I saw the bag belonged a boy. But, late for class, I cleaned up, packed up and proceeded to walk to class.
As I was walking down Commonwealth Avenue, the weird feeling of knowing something but not being able to recognize it washed over me. “Girl power,” I thought. What was that from? Why was I still thinking about it? And then it came rushing back.
When I was younger, my dad traveled for business a lot. My two sisters and I would always be sad to see him leave, but over the course of the trips, my mom developed a tradition that was supposed to get us excited for it being just the girls at home. In retrospect, I owe my mom a lot.
She would circle the three of us up, have us put our hands in the middle, and then count “one, two, three … girl power!” as we threw our stubby arms up. I can still feel what this emoted for me as a child if I think hard enough — a feeling of excitement, complemented with a quick smile and a sense of teamwork.
It became the catchphrase of my dad’s trips away. I distinctly remember painting ceramic signs that said “girl power” on them at Color Me Mine. I painted one blue, my middle sister one green, and my youngest sister one yellow, because we liked to pretend we were the Powerpuff Girls from that show on Cartoon Network. Yes, the ones with the superpowers that destroyed all evil. Yes, we were just painting ceramic signs, and yes, two-thirds of us were still scared of the dark.
As I looked back, I started to wonder if my mom had more purpose with that little catchphrase than I ever realized. I started to think about what girl power was to me then — and what I consider it now.
The jump from “girl power” to feminism is not a hard one to make. And the legitimate definition of feminism is is not hard to agree on either, Merriam Webster’s take being “the belief that women and men should have equal rights and opportunities.” So where was all this controversy coming from? I felt confused all of a sudden. Why was this even a conversation? Isn’t it pretty simple?
Later that day, when someone made a judgmental comment about a girl’s dress and looked at me to agree, it clicked.
While legislation is the technical fix to a lot of the bigger problems for women, like the right to have an abortion and the right to receive equal pay, it starts with the walk down Commonwealth Avenue on a Wednesday morning. It starts long and far before Donald Trump gets his grimy hands on any type of bill.
Girl power boils down to one thing — and it isn’t particularly profound: supporting something you might not live by simply because you aren’t the one living it. You don’t have to walk down Commonwealth Avenue naked to prove it — but ripping on an outfit you think is “too much for school” or making crass remarks what she does with who isn’t justified because you wear Birkenstocks and have a feminism pin on your backpack. It de-legitimizes your fight. Nationally broadcasting how strongly you support women’s rights is undermined when you can’t find it in you to silently support the girl next to you acting in a different way than you would — in a way that has absolutely zero impact on your personal life, but reacting in a way that does have an impact on what we are all trying so hard to fix.
My point is, the fact that this is a problem should be unifying in itself. We all know the feeling of walking down the street a little too late at night with our heads down, just trying to get to our buildings, or the one that comes with hearing a group of guys yell something when there’s a lot more of them than you.
These are the problems. Girl power is a balance of minding your business while also making business yours. Mind your business about the outfit, because she should be able to wear whatever she wants, and stick your nose in when a problem comes of it. Keep your mouth shut about her romantic partners until you hear a story that does not sound right — all while acting in whatever way works for you and you alone.
If you called her that, so can he — because that’s what feminism is about, right?
Best article yet!!! Your mom sounds awesome!!!