Read on Twitter
The thing about feminism is that like literally everything else in the world—it isn’t perfect. And if every Woman who wanted to run in this province chose to run solely on someone else’s definition of what their feminism should look like, we wouldn’t have any Women running at all
Unfortunately, Women don’t have the luxury—in this province and elsewhere—to wait for perfection before they step up. Sometimes you find yourself among people of a certain stripe and the opportunity comes along for you to take a chance.
There are some people who might never run under a certain banner for a variety of very principled reasons. And there are other people who are willing to pick their battles so they can get closer to the decision making. Which one is easier/more noble?
Every party in this province has exhibited completely harmful behaviour and positions and if you think any party are free from some pretty serious flaws then we are kidding ourselves here.
I won’t tell anyone what their feminism should look like because behind every Woman’s decisions are some often complicated and heartbreaking push and pulls. There is a thin line for sure between enabling patriarchal institutions and challenging them.
But I do believe the ways in which we challenge them will look different and we won’t always agree on their effectiveness. I don’t think all women are or should be allies, but when it comes to you’re either with me or against me mentality, I struggle with that.
For the most part, for me, there are too many difficult political/social/historical realities for me to judge Women based solely on one factor. We all have different thresholds of tolerance though, and I respect that. There are some compromises that are simply too big for some.
Your idea of perfect, right, wrong, feminism, patriarchy, *whatever* might be slightly or wildly different than mine and that can have a whole ton of implications but that’s...politics.
Anyways, we have some pretty passionate people who are navigating a really imperfect system right now. Some Women don’t have the luxury of picking every battle before they go to War unless they want to be left behind altogether. Not saying it’s right.
I support a living wage & I’m willing to do everything I can to continue to flesh out that argument to the party I’m aligned with. But I won’t abandon the progress I’ve made or walk away because I don’t fit the definition of someone else’s activism.
I support uncomfortable convos. We don’t have enough of them. I don’t have all the answers but I won’t tell another Woman what to stand for—all I can tell her is what I stand for. Maybe it’s the same, maybe it’s different. But it’s not nothing.
