Somehow I don’t
feel surprised when reading your comment on that girl from that hardcore band
in Kuala Lumpur that she’s not a feminist, and you quickly giving respond like
there is something wrong with her. But dear, isn’t that being a feminist and
not being a feminist is a choice? Isn’t that having a believe or a faith
towards something has nothing to do with your choice of music either? I mean, I
don’t see a problem at all with her statement of not being a feminist. At the
end of the day, it’s how you live your life NOT on what label you claimed you
have, right?
Yes, I could
understand that line ‘how could you not be a feminist in this patriarchal world?’ but I also understand why is that
being a feminist is not something positive and often scary for most girls.
Because if you don’t like what you see on things called ‘feminist’ in your
daily life, how on earth you could feel related or even belong to it? And
that’s exactly what happened to me, since the first time I heard someone called
me a feminist because of my zine.
I remember
reading in a book where there is a new wave of repression towards woman by
other woman is where they feel bad because they don’t want to be a feminist.
During those moment where many woman in this world starts to have more
opportunities and choices and being a feminist suddenly sounds like a must to
celebrate this slightly bigger freedom than before for woman, we don’t realized
that at the same time we start to put pressures to other woman about being what
they are. So what is the different than being repressed by man to do that they
want us to do than being repressed by another woman of being what they want us
to do?
Do you know that
I always raised objection every time people called me a feminist? Do you know
that I never claimed myself as a feminist although most people see my zine as a
feminist zine, or some girls think I’m a hardline feminist because of my way of
life and lots of other perceptions towards me that’s all pointing at one thing:
a feminist. It’s all because I see and experienced mostly how wrong people
think and act towards the label feminist itself here, in Indonesia. And I
believe this is also happened in other countries in the world since this word
feminist being introduced decades ago.
For me, feminism
is about having the right to do what you want to do in life, while not
embarrassed or forsaking what is unique and wonderful about being a woman.-Kim
Coletta
That is one
definition of feminism by Kim Coletta of DeSoto Records. I adore her for making
such a spot on definition because she describes it exactly what I always have
in mind, after all these years of being bombarded by accusations and
misunderstanding of doing a lot of female centric stuff in my life.
And yes I am a
feminist by Kim Coletta definition.
-Your girlfriend
September 2013 by: Ika Vantiani
