Who is a feminist today? | Photo courtesy of the Dahong 2015
Over a hundred years ago, Clara Zetkin pushed for an annual international event where women could demand rights and freedoms from their governments. The 1970s saw feminism rise in full force with the Women’s Movement and the new millennium has brought a general sense of gender equality in society. Clearly, greater equality has been achieved, but caveats remain.
International Women’s Day is observed globally – officially and unofficially. Women march or receive flowers, perhaps attend a networking event and some engage in political rallies. For the rest of the year, the pervasiveness of kyriarchy continues to shape reality for everyone and in all domains. It is a kind of inequality that is difficult to attack directly, as it sits just below the surface.
Jasna Stojanovic, a Vancouver-based photographer, remembers growing up in the former Yugoslavia, where International Women’s Day was recognized and celebrated.
“The efforts and courage [of women who fought for equality] should be honoured and remembered,” Stojanovic says. “Reflections of inequality are still in many aspects of our lives, like income and domestic abuse.”
Other traditionally marginalized groups, be they cultural minorities or LGBT2Q+ groups, have found role models in past and current feminists. Trans* filmmaker, Gwen Haworth is one.
“I believe that most of my possibility models are self-proclaimed feminists,” says Haworth. “Queer communities in particular have benefited from both the Women’s Movement and the Civil Rights Movement.”
Vehicles for story-telling
One avenue for exploring social inequalities has always been through the creative community. Today, independent filmmakers, photographers, and other visual artists can challenge traditional points of view and tell unique stories from traditionally marginalized perspectives, without relying on mainstream channels of communication.
“I’m not really interested in working in Vancouver’s film and television industry,” says Haworth. “The industry has higher budgets, larger crews, and therefore the projects are quite polished; however, the content is generally overly-simplistic when portraying issues that are a degree or two removed from the status quo.”
Representations of women’s rights and the LGBT2Q+ community are frequently conflict-based stories, with a level of sensationalism geared towards mass consumption but not necessarily a constructive outcome. Having creative control over independent projects that resonate with one’s personal experience or community life allows for a nuanced portrayal of individual journeys. For Haworth, filming She’s a Boy I Knew was a project that embodied that personal journey, with a message of hope.
“I decided to make She’s a Boy I Knew – portraying a complex family journey during my gender transition – in hopes that it could be useful for families that may one day find themselves in similar scenarios,” says Haworth.
Long-held beliefs about the types of topics that female visual artists can tackle also continue to block many opportunities for work. However, for female visual artists who are traditionally pegged by their gender to tell specific stories, new channels for reaching customers, audiences, and promoting their work can be used to challenge the status quo.
“Traditionally, women-photographers are assumed to engage almost exclusively in wedding photography and babies portraiture,” explains Stojanovic. “As demanding as those areas of photography are, they are not the only ones where female photographers excel.”
As time marches on, attitudes change, technology provides new vehicles for story-telling, and women and other traditionally under-represented groups are on the rise.
“I see that female presence in photography is, fortunately, growing,” says Stojanovic. “It is most important though to respect and value one’s work primarily for its quality, regardless of gender.”
Work as empowerment
Entrepreneurship is a difficult road for everyone, but certain industries come with additional challenges. When Brenda Wong, 51, started out her career in Vancouver’s entertainment industry in the 1980s, she had a lot working against her: a woman in a man’s world, Chinese Canadian and from a poor family. But it was the tenacity of her East Van upbringing that got her to stand on her own two feet.
“When you’re ethnic, female, and not that tall – 5’3 – I had a lot not going for me,” says Wong. “But, when you’re born in the East End, you learn that you have to fight for everything and I was not going to lay down.”
Wong remembers lying about her age in order to get her first job for $2.10/hr at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown. After being continuously embarrassed by her PE teacher for not having enough money for gym gear, a T-shirt and shorts, Wong became keenly aware of her isolation as female, ethnic and poor.
“That was the moment where I decided I would never be embarrassed again – never. So at 13 I lied about my age and said I was 14 to get a job, and I never looked back,” Wong says
Today, after three decades in the entertainment industry, Wong has come out on the other side. A self-proclaimed feminist, Wong recalls being called “dragon woman” and “boss lady”, even “bitch” and “ball-cruncher”, but she’s not bothered today.
“I have been working for a long time, and have the benefit of time behind me. I am now being judged more by my skill level than by being Asian or a woman, and I demand that,” says Wong.
Feminist echos
Women, be they immigrants, visible minorities, marginalized group members, or otherwise, still face uphill battles and pervasive kyriarchy. But they also take encouragement and inspiration from the feminist global community’s century-long fight for equality.
“In our recent history some brave women fought hard in difficult times to improve quality of theirs and our lives”, says Stojanovic.
“Many women before us made it possible for us to do anything we want, and I was lucky to attract wonderful mentors”, says Wong. “I am definitely a feminist. I will always mentor and forge women forward.”
By Jesenka Duranovic
