“Unintended Consequences, Or The Making of a Feminist” is my original piece for this
project. Conceived as a short memoir of my experience on the receiving end of
sexual harassment and bullying, it became the jumping-off point for this
exploration because in many ways it showed the consequences of not being
perfect, of trying to be the object that everyone expected me to be. The boys
in the story marginalized me for not meeting their standards of beauty and
social graces, the adults turned a blind eye, as they believed that boys would
be boys and didn’t need to be taught to be better, and my own parents were let
down by my less than perfect self. As I became more aware of the way that my
story fit into a greater context of sex and gender discrimination, I began to
fight against it, and slowly began to shift from being a victim to being
someone willing to fight against it. Although I am by no means a traditional
activist, I am a feminist, an identity I embrace wholeheartedly, and I have
every intention to carry the idea that all people should be treated with
respect, equality and kindness into every area of my life, including into the
classroom.
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| The setting for the story. |
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