feminist of the week: harper yi
Name: Harper Yi
Age: 20
Occupation: Student, Blogger, and Co-President at Her Campus William and Mary
Location: Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
Describe yourself in one word:
Assertive
What is your feminist philosophy?
Feminism is about constantly challenging the way you see the world and dismantling the institutionalised prejudices that create faults along the likes of sexuality, gender expression, race, class, religion, and body. It’s about freeing yourself and others from these notions in order to live a life of choice and allow others to do so as well.
Why is feminism important in today’s world?
Feminism will always be relevant so long as there are disadvantaged classes—and in a lot of ways there always will be. The poor, the non-native speakers or immigrants and those with disabilities will not stop from being at a disadvantage to the rich, the native language speakers and citizens, or the able-bodied just because everyone adopts a feminist perspective, but it is a solution to many of the ills surrounding those things. We must approach the world in a way that values each person’s dignity, agency, and humanity. And that is what feminism is about. It’s not adopting a stance toward assimilation or sameness or even contrarianism for the current power structures in our society but an acknowledgement and appreciation for the diversity that exists within our communities and an understanding of the realities they present. That means a disassembling of the way we think. I think questioning the things that we take as, “of courses” and “obvious” will always be important to society as a whole.
What is the most important feminist cause in your life?
It’s really hard to say, because there are a lot of really great ones and I don’t want to say that one is less important than the others. I will say though, that I think education is very important to the empowerment of women, and across the world women and girls are being denied their rights to an education, thus crippling them from leading a life of independence. I also feel very strongly that intersectionality is a very important aspect of modern feminism that should be embraced in order to build a better society.
When did you have your feminist awakening?
I think as I started to get deeper into the blogosphere I got deeper and deeper into it, but I don’t think I could pick a specific moment. I think reading Their Eyes Were Watching God in AP English Lit was a turning point, though. It so perfectly framed what it was to be a woman of color and I think that was huge to me. Because feminism is sometimes portrayed as a very white thing in America, which I later learnt was one of the issues that feminists have wrestled with and for the most part, conquered. It was an attempt to stay relatable and avoid divisive topics such as feminism in relation to lesbians or transpeople or women of colour or women of Islam. That acknowledgement of the diversity of experience was huge for me, as an Asian woman, to see in literature– and literature from the Harlem Renaissance! Learning how the author, Zora Neale Hurston had to fight to have her voice heard because she told a story about being a black woman instead of just being black—well that was huge.
What would have to change before men and women achieved true equality?
First, I think media representations have to change. They are extremely powerful and there is so much power in it—a power that many have denied exists for the sake of a cheap joke at the expense of women, or people of colour, or gay people etc. They are powerful and the media needs to hold itself to a higher standard. It is the media that shape our perceptions as children because it shows us so much of the world we have yet to experience first hand. Second, we need to encourage more critical thought, more questions and more analysis. Children grow up wanting the world to be black and white and it is only by teaching them to question where those boundaries lie that we can understand the diversity that exists between one thing or another. If we don’t encourage critical thought, and we don’t do it early on, we intellectually stunt another generation who will unwittingly comply with institutionalised acts of discrimination.
Why should men take up the feminist cause?
You know, I’m tired of being asked this because although there are a great many reasons why a lack of feminism affects men – economic, cultural, assumptions made about men because they are the supposed opposites of women – shouldn’t the fact that women are being systematically screwed over, undervalued, and victimised be enough for men to care? Because women, you know, contrary to popular belief, fall under the category of “people” and as far as I have experienced, when you ask men about these issues about feminist causes and replace the word “women” with “people” like, ‘Do you think that people should be held responsible for acts of sexual violence exacted against them?’ the answer is a resounding ‘No, that’s absolutely deplorable. Victims are victims.’ But then suddenly when it’s a woman they ask, ‘Well what was she wearing? Was she drunk? Did she flirt?’ Hi, women are people too, and we shouldn’t be treated as or thought of as anything less.
What’s your advice to other feminists?
Forgive people. And I don’t want to tone police because we have a lot of reasons to be absolutely livid and to express that, but I think that sometimes our anger outweighs our desire to help people escape the toxic system of thinking that leads a person to make a mistake and say or do something that threatens our way of thinking. We have all made mistakes. We will all continue to make mistakes. You have to be the bigger person and hold people accountable without giving them one more experience that makes them not want to listen to the very valid points we have. Respect the diversity of experiences that other people have and understand that it’s not someone’s fault that they think the way they were conditioned to. We need to be understanding of that if we want to encourage people to take up the cause of feminism.
