A few years ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner, two inspiring feminist activists whose words have changed the world in stunning ways.
Separately their accomplishments are remarkable, and collectively, they've powerfully come together to give women a voice and make social change more than just a buzzword. In addition to their own individual books, Jennifer and Amy co-authored Manifesta, which was highly endorsed by Gloria Steinem, Eve Ensler and Naomi Wolf, as well as thousands of young female and male readers; in 2010 Jennifer and Amy released Manifesta's 10th anniversary edition.
Their latest effort is Soapbox Inc. -- a feminist speaker's bureau that is growing dramatically to now include what Amy and Jennifer call "Feminist Bootcamps." Next month, young feminists from around the country and Canada will join Feminist Summer Camp 2011.
We recently reconnected to talk more about Soapbox, the upcoming Feminist Summer Camp, and their vision on the next wave of feminist activism.
Laura Cococcia: What was your initial inspiration behind creating Soapbox Inc.?
Jennifer Baumgardner: After Manifesta, we got a lot of offers to speak around the country. After doing a dozen or so, we were approached by a well-known speaker's bureau to represent us. We signed with them, and soon realized that we didn't need a bureau. We knew how to do all of the stuff they do (make contact, promote, negotiate fees, handle travel) and had our own ideas about the way it should be done. We believed in being flexible and open -- interacting with students informally, for example, instead of just doing a keynote -- and we liked to schedule satellite events around the original event in nearby towns.
So, we decided to create our own agency and handle tours for others. Initially we were 80 percent of Soapbox bookings. Now we are 20 percent and we book others far more. That was in 2002 and we've been going strong for a decade.
LC: Looking at the lists, it's evident you've created powerful partnerships with remarkable speakers and an equally solid list of organizations. How do you see Soapbox evolving?
JB: We are in the process of changing (evolving) Soapbox right now. Amy and I created the feminist boot camps, summer camp and winter term, and want to possibly franchise them or find some way to produce them regionally. We are both doing less speaking and our interest for Soapbox now is to turn it into a one-stop shop for feminism. We are working on expanding the camps, creating academic modules (short videos about feminist issues), and creating other feminist initiatives.
LC: I'm curious about the story behind Feminist Summer Camp. What's been most exciting about getting the program launched? The most challenging?
Amy Richards: Feminist Summer Camp is an extension of what we have done for years -- exposing what feminism looks like in real time. It's also an inverse of what Soapbox traditionally does: rather than bring the speaker to a campus, we are bringing the campus to our speakers or, specifically, to the messages and ideas current in feminism.
Each semester we get a fired up group of students who come from all over the United States and Canada. Seeing them make connections between what they have theorized about and what they will eventually do in life is so rewarding. Watching them connect and form into a cohesive group is also exciting. We have been a part of many such groups ourselves and know how important it is to have these milestones and also to be rewarded with a like-minded community.
Logistically it's a lot of work to bring 20-40 people to NYC for a week of feminist activism. It's quickly overshadowed by how thankful everyone is -- including us -- to have had this experience.
LC: How can readers help support the work Soapbox, Inc. is doing?
AR: Soapbox is a platform and source for feminism today. The best way to help Soapbox is to incorporate that into the values and practicality of one's own life. In lieu of that, it's also helpful if you can mention Soapbox to anyone in need of an infusion of feminism. Specific to our Feminist Summer Camp and Winter Term, we are always looking for new New York City-based groups to host us -- particularly those groups that practice and preach feminism. We'd also love to team with those in need of an intern for a day to help expand our mini-internships. We are looking to reach those who need or want us the most, primarily, those wanting a stronger connection to feminism today.
You can read more about Amy and Jennifer's work on their Soapbox Inc. site.
For more interviews with others who are aggressively working to make a difference, visit The Journal of Cultural Conversation here.
Follow Laura Cococcia on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lauracococcia
I believe many men think that if women are empowered they will then suddenly become obsessed with a desire to rule men. This is nonsense. Women simply do not want to be in situations where control and abuse can hurt them. Be it financially, in a job, or relationship. Many women are still encouraged to settle for disrespect in these areas.
They have to be educated so they have can rely on their own resources if necessary. What's wrong with standing together as partners on equal footing? Intelligent and loving women are not attracted to men who act like frightened and threatened mollusks. Always looking out from their shell to see if some woman is trying to usurp their "superiority".
Truly appreciate your support!
Modern feminism isn't about equality, it is about exacting power over men.
At one time I was an ardent supporter and called myself a feminist. I no longer do. Modern feminism isn't about equality or fairness, it's about advantage.
What really turned me against modern feminism is The Huffington Post. I read an article by Amy Siskind where she claimed 20% of all men are rapists. Here is a link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-siskind/20-of-college-men-are-sex_b_844813.html
Then I read another piece by Liz Mandarano - where she does a great expose on the abuse of protective orders in divorce: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liz-mandarano/the-worst-thing-a-woman-c_b_837636.html
Then I had a worker of mine get a child support order for a child he would have had to father at the age of 9. We had to garnish his pay 50% - and it took him over a year to sort it out legally, even though his age and DNA did not match. He lost his house and his car, and a year of his life. That incident prompted me to investigate "paternity fraud" - and I found out that one can be named as the father of a child - even though one has never had sex with a woman, and in some states, there is no legal recourse for the male.
Rather than work against women, though, they worked for better laws that didn't have the unintended consequence of punishing the innocent.
Women made the Family Medical Leave Act happen. It was spurred by the needs of women, but benefits men, too. And when these women made it happen, they made sure it applied equally to men.
Men avail themselves of FMLA less often for a variety of reasons, from simply wanting to not take as much leave to subtle/not subtle societal and corporate pressure to "be a man" and not take the time. But I know men who sued over it and won...and I backed them all the way.
Be part of the solution...rather than adding to the problem in new and prejudicial ways.
There are women who falsely cry rape, and I despise that because they make it harder for real victims. But do you advocate we should eliminate rape laws and brand all women the same because of the abusers of the system?
Your feelings are understandable, but channel them for solutions, not for more anger and bias.
Personally, I have seen the outcome of the destructive societal double-standard treatment of women.
It's about time we stop it and I appreciate your heroic work.
We must question the mindset that hurts overwhelming numbers of families and relationships in this world. I am talking about power imbalances which are truly unacceptable. Who in their right mind would leave themselves and their children financially vulnerable, without resources, to abusive controlling partners? Yet this happens every day, everywhere. Education is the answer.
Women are never taught to beware of the "master of the universe" types when trying to find "love". Also, they are taught to idealize the very men who may come to hurt them. They are conditioned to marry the man of their dreams and then trust them. Too often this trust is betrayed. What to do after having children and things get ugly? The entire family suffers and it is very likely that their own children may follow this same path of horror.
This imbalance of power is despicble. When each partner knows they can survive without the other, there is an abiding respect which people enjoy. If the traditional trajectory of woman as family servant, sperm receptacle and baby-maker was so wonderful, we wouldn't have this current rate of divorce.
This gender division is not just threatening it's destructive and we have the track record to prove it. We spend our time on these petty issues under the flag of equality while encouraging a one sided attack on men. Real equality is something we have to work at like a marriage, you don't just yell at your partner and insult them for 50 years. People need to understand men and women. Call it a humanist development camp, so we can make better people, not gender warriors.
If feminism persist in demanding even more from American men who are in my opinion among the most accommodating and kind to women in the world, then we the backlash against feminism will only grow. We need to stop focusing on empowering genders and focus on empowering the bonds between men and women. Building mutual respect instead of just respect for women. Prioritizing our relationships, marriages ,and families like good adults should. Learning about one another so that we can make each other happy, not just please women because their grandmother might have been unhappy as a home maker.
Yes a new feminism would be interesting to see but the time for gender dividing movements should end quietly. Men are not trying to oppress women nor return them to oppression. This is not the equivalent of a ethnic conflict, it's gender. Genders are equal in number and nobody can get through life without a good amount of contact with the other. We should not keep this division alive its unhealthy and destructive to our families and happiness.
In gender practical segregation is impossible and we will inevitably rise and fall together. We have always been partners, it's time we start acting like it.
I have met so many women that say they don't like other women. That's not healthy or positive for women in the world. We need to unite and develop the sisterhood we all share!
I am jealous that you got to meet Ann Richards, my hero.
Men have been submissive for a while now and it has not resulted in a revolution in family stability or happiness because it was one sided. The only benefit has acceptance of two parents working themselves to the bone trying to balance work and family. We glamorize status and income while dismissing the stress and lack of time to invest in our community's and children.
It was a trade off, and we need to see it that way. We should start looking at duty and responsibly instead of just power and control. The fact is most of us will work humble jobs as subordinates to someone for most of our lives. A fetish for dominance as a universal ethic is impractical. Mutual submission in the form of compromise seems to be the foundation of stable long term relationships which are vital to individual and collective well being.
I was surprised by this, and based on some of the negative comments I've read, some others may be surprised by this as well.
From what I can gather these camps do not close anyone out:)
= making money on saying nothing.
"All sex, even consensual sex between a married couple, is an act of violence perpetrated against a woman." Catherine MacKinnon
"Romance is rape embellished with meaningful looks." Andrea Dworkin in the Philadelphia Inquirer, May 21, 1995..
"In every century, there are a handful of writers who help the human race to evolve. Andrea is one of them."--Gloria Steinem (one of the feminists mentioned in the article)
"[R]ape represents an extreme behavior, but one that is on a continuum with normal male behavior within the culture." Prof. Mary Koss of Kent State University (1982)
"I feel that 'man-hating' is an honorable and viable political act, that the oppressed have a right to class-hatred against the class that is oppressing them." -- Robin Morgan, (editor of MS magazine)
Now, while it's easy to just Google "feminist quotes" of course many of these won't represent all feminists. However, you and I both know radical feminism was once a big part (and probably the most vocal) of feminism.
One thing I have learned in reading about stuff like this, is that feminists themselves cannot seem to agree on what it means. I hate the word because it is too general. I prefer to talk about specific issues. But you asked for ANY feminist literature, so there you go.
If you truly believe feminism (shudder...I've grown to hate that word) isn't a men vs women thing and that it's for everyone, I want you to prove it. For every article you write about empowering women (through questionable means I might add), I want you to write an article about empowering men. I'll give you some ideas: Get more men into college, make elementary schools more boy-friendly, get more men into nursing or teaching, work to make family courts less biased, advocate to give an equal number of scholarships to men only, advocate against colleges cutting mens' sports to comply with Title IX...I guess that's enough for now.
If I see just as many articles like this then I might start to believe you. While we may still disagree about gender roles in general, at least I won't view you as hypocritical.