from the editor

Feminism...

...It’s a solid word. You can’t say you’re a feminist with a question mark at the end. To me, it’s like saying, “I’m a Woman,” or “I’m a Southerner,” or “I’m a Taurus.” It is definitive. Strictly by definition, we know feminism as “the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men.” It feels good to belong to a collective consciousness that knows there is no question that women are due the same rights as men. It is inalienable. Or it is today, thanks to the women (and men) before us. Women are strong and unified in our sisterhood. And that is so clear in the pages of skirt!, in the editorial direction, in the publisher’s herstory. So let me take a moment to complete the sentence that our profiles this month completed: “I’m a Feminist because…though in retrospect my parents embodied fairly traditional roles, I was blissfully ignorant to gender inequality as a child, when my definition of the world was forming. I was a ballerina and helped my dad in the workshop. I wore dresses and chugga boots. I watched Little House on the Prairie and Nova. I played Barbie. I climbed trees. I was a princess. I was a tomboy. I’m a tangled collection of all of the possibilities of being. Thanks Mom and Dad.”

laura.blume@skirt.com