feminist of the week: jill m. fiore

Name: Jill M. Fiore
Age: 47
Occupation: Owner and instructor at Sunflower Yoga Studio; Instructor at IUP’s American Language Institute; Online instructor of English at Mt. Aloysius College; Online professor of English and Women’s Studies at American Military University
Location: Indiana, Pennsylvania, United States

Describe yourself in one word:
Resourceful

What is your feminist philosophy?
I consider myself to be a radical feminist. Radical feminism aims to challenge and overthrow patriarchy (a soul-destroying social order in which men dominate) by ending the culturally constructed and enforced bi-polar sex and gender system and oppression of women and calling for a radical reordering of society.

Why is feminism important in today’s world?
Our society is dangerously out of balance. Patriarchy and capitalism have created deep disparities in resources and power, prioritising a select few (predominantly white men) at the top of the hierarchy at the expense of everyone else and of the natural world.  Through feminism women come to understand their participation and complicity in the existing system of inequality, and they can withdraw their participation and support and begin to make different, more beneficial and life-sustaining choices.

What is the most important feminist cause in your life?
That’s very difficult to answer. There are so many important causes and so much need for change. Of course, I believe in reproductive freedom and the power of women to control their own bodies. But I also see a clear connection between patriarchal power and destruction of the environment.  The ongoing destruction and disregard for the natural world is poisoning our air, water, land and everything in it.  And so, I also believe we must work to curtail this mass destruction and protect our natural resources.

When did you have your feminist awakening?
I was 12-years-old and read my first issue of MS Magazine at the Richland Public Library in Gibsonia. There was a story on the pervasiveness of rape across cultures and a discussion of how this threat serves the patriarchy by keeping all women in check. From a young age I was disturbed by what I later understood as misogyny and its many symptoms (like rape). In my life I have worked consistently to face that harsh truth and to understand and work against the underlying reasons for it.

What would have to change before men and women achieved true equality?
Everything. Our society needs a reordering that eliminates the current patriarchal system and its many interlocking systems of inequality (think of the bars of a jail cell), including sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, etc.

Why should men take up the feminist cause?
Because the current system is so pathetic. Obviously, men and women both benefit in some ways from the stereotypical gender roles that cast him as the (masculine) active bread winner and protector and her as the (feminine) passive and protected caretaker. But what a tired old model. Taking up the feminist cause means tossing aside the (safe) masks of gender and endeavoring to live authentically. It demands more of everyone, but the payoff is that men and women both get to wake up from the nightmare we’ve all been perpetuating since the creation of patriarchy and create a better model.

What’s your advice to other feminists?
Think for yourself. Refuse to buy into heterosexual romantic love (which, for the most part, is a sham) as if it were the defining meaning of your life. Don’t define yourself by the standards of our toxic culture. Examine and disengage from your allegiance to all societal institutions, including religious, educational, political familial, etc. It’s one thing to belong to a nuclear family or a religion, but it’s quite another to buy into a certain definition and role dictated by that institution. Feminism gives women the power to wake up to our own oppression and set ourselves free!