Feminism isn’t about bra-burning, brow-beating and man-hating, women active in the Boston University community say.
“You can be anti-bra and be a feminist but you can also be pro-bra and be a feminist,” said College of Arts and Sciences junior and Women’s Resource Center Activism Coordinator Elisa Gill.
On a campus with a 60 to 40 ratio of females to males, feminist energy and movement happens all over campus.
However, many BU females said this feminism doesn’t deserve the stigma, as the movement is one of logical reasoning and a push toward discussions on gender equality.
“Most college students nowadays are feminists- they have feminist beliefs, or one could say “equalist’ beliefs- an equalist is a feminist,” said CAS junior Sarah Meriman. “It’s just someone who wants equal rights for all genders. But people don’t necessarily see that.”
Meriman acts as the student health liaison for the WRC, located in the basement of the George Sherman Union.
The WRC is not an explicitly feminist community, but encourages discussions on gender roles in modern society, she said.
“We’re providing resources to women relating to health and other things, but also, the WRC has really become a place that fosters discourse about gender and sexuality more generally,” said WRC co-director Sarah Sullivan.
“We’ve found that people of all genders and sexual orientations have been interested in working collectively toward that discussion,” Sullivan said. “An open conversation about gender and sexuality is what this place provides for the community- to women and men alike.”
On Friday, the WRC celebrated its second birthday with a series of events leading up to the birthday party, including a poetry slam on maternal health, Love Your Body Day and a consciousness raising discussion led by assistant professor of sociology Ashley Mears on women and beauty in the fashion industry.
Although the WRC has been around in some form since the 1970s, the physical space was created only two years ago when petitioners received approval from the university, WRC members said.
The center is run entirely by volunteers and operates on a minimal budget, but has managed to play an important role in not only the feminist community, but also provisions of women’s health, student groups, political issues and the GLBTQ communities on campus, according to its Facebook page.
“Of course I would call myself a feminist,” said CAS freshman and WRC volunteer Diane Adamson. “I think there’s a misconception that modern women aren’t interested in feminism, which is true to a certain extent, but then look around here [at the WRC]. I bet 100 percent of these women will identify themselves as feminists. To me, feminism is a multi-faceted approach to improving the world.”
The role that the WRC plays on a campus that is more than 60 percent female is one of culture and open communication about different issues, members said.
“We are who we’re made up of, and we’re made up of people who are curious and really smart and very open to the world around them,” Meriman said.
“We’re a place to hang out, and we’re also a safe space where everyone can come here and just be themselves,” added Gill. “We want to be a resource for everyone, no matter who they are.”
While statistics show females are no longer a minority on virtually any college campus, the fight for equality in academia is still an uphill battle in other countries, and these issues are also encompassed in the feminist movement.
The WRC collaborates with other organizations at BU such as Amnesty International to foster activism and promote change on these issues worldwide.
“People should be treated equally,” Gill said. “I don’t think that’s a particularly controversial thing to think.”
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