Whenever I hear someone say, “Hey, I’m not a feminist,” all I can think of is, “someone hurt you didn’t they?” Someone said that you were gross, or that you were mean, or that you’re a bully, or that you hate men, or that you’re unhappy, or that you don’t shave your legs.

If you believe that men and women should be equal in any sense then you are a feminist.

[MUSIC] The thing is that a lot of times people don’t even realize how much the culture is dominated by men.

I know speaking for me - I can spend so much of my time obsessing about boys.

Is this guy calling me back?

What’s this email mean?

He ordered octopus, does that mean he likes me?

All these things and I will find myself texting my girlfriends about this all the time.

And then I’m like - we’re not talking about anything outside of dating a guy.

And that is an example of, you know, how the culture can take over and not realizing that.

And then we see that in movies and books.

In something like Sex and the City, which is a show I loved but they talked about this a lot and at one point Miranda was like, “All we do is talk about men, what about us?” And so I think with The Bechdel Test, it’s great for movies to kind of show, “hm, oh wait, these two women are only talking about Colin Firth.” I mean, I can talk about him all day.

Don’t get me wrong.

But, in a movie, that’s all they’re talking about.

They don’t have any hopes, dreams and desires.

Then that shows that the world just kind of revolves around men and that’s not true.

Women have a lot of things they think about outside of dating.

Outside of, like, making sure their male boss is okay.

And so I think you reflect that more and I think The Bechdel Test has really shed a light on that in a really positive way, despite some patrollers who hate it.

Good.

I’m glad you hate it; it’s making you think.

Thinking hurts your brain?

Your problem.

When I hear when someone says that they are not a feminist, I hear someone who doesn’t know what that word means.

Right, if you believe that your mother and your daughter should have equal opportunities and rights as men then you are a feminist.

How can you not be a feminist?

And I know that’s coming from a place where people are not aware of what the meaning of feminist is.

And they create a sort of persona about what a feminist is and make it an extremely negative stereotype.

When I hear that, it to me, it’s sad because it indicates how mainstream can take something, a movement like that, and they can make it into something that’s negative.

But in reality, a feminist is a person who believes in equality between the sexes.

Between men and women.

It is not something that says women are superior to men, or men to have to be diminished in any way.

It’s saying that there should be equality between the sexes, socially, culturally, politically across the board.

The Bechdel test is a litmus test that’s used to measure the presence of women within a work of fiction.

Basically what it’s looking for is three types of criteria.

It should have at least two women in it.

The two women should be named.

And they should have a conversation with each other that does not involve a man.

It actually is pretty strict and a lot of works do not actually meet the litmus test.

People talk about it most often in terms of film.

People have been using it to measure the most popular films that have come out within the last ten years and it’s a pretty stark reality that a huge percentage of films do not meet The Bechdel test.

Everybody has this idea of what a feminist should look like or act like: abrasive, man-hating.

But that’s not how feminists actually are.

It’s just how it’s portrayed in the media.

If a young girl told me she wasn’t a feminist, I’d say that’s cool, you can come to it in your own time.

But I guarantee if you really knew what feminism was all about, you would change your mind.

I’m Kristen Korvette.

I’m the founder and editrix of Slutist.

And I also teach Gender Studies at the New School.

“Slut” is a word that has been used to police and punish women for decades and at Slutist we want to reclaim that and reclaim the feminine power within it.

And it’s really a place where you can all come together and have disparate viewpoints about feminism and living a feminist life.

My last event, Legacy of the Witch looked into the ways the word “slut” and the word “witch” have been used to police female sexuality.

I expect someone to come in, see a lot of empowered nudity, avant-garde art, radical performances, and leave with a sense of community.

I wish I had been told at twelve years old that my virginity didn’t define me.

That I wasn’t a whore if I was interested in exploring my sexuality.

And that it didn’t decrease my value as a person, nor did it define me as a person.

We need feminism because there is so much more work to be done.

Particularly within mainstream feminism where white, rich feminists still have this say about what feminism is and what the issues are that rise to the top.

My feminism will be different from your feminism because everyone comes from a different place, from a different lived experience.

I look at that as intersectional feminism, which means that there are intersecting forms of oppression, that everyone is going to experience the world in a different way based upon race, and class, and cultural background, and ability.

The one thing feminism can do is unite people from these disparate backgrounds in the shared goal of gender equality.

[MUSIC]