hi all!  i’m a new contributor to the blog and here is my first contribution.

my name is andrea.
i’m 27 years old and i was born a feminist.

i say i was born a feminist because i really don’t remember there being a time in my life when i wasn’t aware that there was societal constraints on concept of femininity.  i eschewed barbie dolls in favour of my father’s record player.  this changed when the jem doll was introduced.  she was bigger than barbie and she had her own rock band…  she is still a hero of mine.
in my pre-teen years i read teen magazine and found out that my thighs should never touch, that i should play dumb in order to attract boys, and that only those girls liked sexual contact.  then i discovered sassy and my entire life changed.  christina kelly became my hero.  i began my worship of chloë sevigny because unlike kate moss, chloë made her own clothes.  the kurt & courtney cover story made me long for my own feminist boyfriend.

i was 13 when i first became aware of riot grrrrl.  i can’t think of any other way to describe the feeling it gave me, other than to say it felt like home.  i lived in the middle of nowhere so i wasn’t involved in a chapter and i wouldn’t get my hands on any of the zines for years…  but i still got it.

as i got older i began to read feminist literature and i felt alienated from the second wave thinking.  i think what bothered me most was the all or nothing sort of thinking - all women are your sisters and all men are evil.  it seemed completely ludicrous to me.  
i barely had any female friends growing up because i began puberty when i was ten years old and it completely alienated me.  i was the punching bag of who we would now call “the mean girls”.  so i hung out with guys.  through these friendships with guys brought the inequality between the sexes to light for me.  i saw my male friends be championed for their sportsmanship, their academic prowess,  their “toughness”.  where as my writing and my academic achievements were patted on the head and then ignored.  in fact my academic achievements were often downplayed by my teachers who occasionally accused me of “grade grubbing” because i tried my hardest and expected reward for it.

riot grrrl won my heart because of what it said to me.
it said fuck those who hold you down regardless of their gender.
it said some girls are bitches and you don’t have to love them, but try to understand where their bitchiness stems from.
it said that if you have ideas you should scream them out until people hear you.
it said that if you believed in something, you should fight to the death for it.
it said that if you are a smart girl you could take over the world.
when kathleen screamed in the song liar “eat meat, hate blacks, beat your fuckin’ wife - it’s all connected” it woke me up.  i began to understand that oppression of one is oppression of all.
riot grrrl also gave me a feeling of personal power.  it assured me that i had the power to challenge oppression.  this knowledge changed my life.

i now study sociology and i plan on using my knowledge to level the playing field for everyone everywhere.  i carry the spirit of the early riot grrrls in my heart.  i now strive to be the next naomi klien (who is very riot grrrl even if she doesn’t want to claim the label).

i’m proud to call myself a riot grrrl.
i’m proud to be a feminist.