So, this is something a little bit different from my other posts. This is a collaborative piece that Poppy and I have put together. We have known each other for simply years, since we were tiny tots and now, we have both grown and developed and have found our passions. We thought it would be a fun idea to share and talk about these views with you all. So, I hope you enjoy and let me pass you over now…
Hello to the lovely readers of Best Life With Becca, I’m Poppy.
I have hopped onto Becca’s blog to discuss an important passion of mine (and hopefully yours too) F.E.M.I.N.I.S.M. More specifically, I want to explore why feminism is essential for achieving ‘your best life’. I hope that this little thought piece will stimulate something in your soul as you learn to flip your perspective into a more positive state of mind.
Firstly, there are many different strands of feminism that float about, however, I want to remind you of its core values:
1. To achieve socio-economic and political equality between the sexes.
2. To acknowledge that all women have different lived experiences and identities (due to social and cultural contexts) therefore without embracing intersectionality*, we will never fulfil the true essence of feminism.
So why is feminism essential for achieving your best life, you say? Feminist energy is powerful, it is a force to be reckoned with. Some of the most exhilarating self-realisations come from a community that wants you to achieve your undoubted greatness. In a nutshell, it is gals supporting gals, women empowering women and feminists inspiring feminists. Anyone who believes we should all be equal is a feminist and like the label or not, you are now part of the fuel which ignites a potent fire within many of us to strive for that equality we’ve been missing out on for far too long.
Feminism strives to create safe spaces for the young and old to flourish in their sport, career, side-hustle and/or skill set by harnessing the positive energy of the individual and sharing it as a collective. These uplifting and supportive environments provide the needed contact time that humans inherently crave and validate any, if not all, emotions regarding your self-worth, your purpose and ultimately, your happiness. This sense of empowerment, especially among women, allows us to lean in and take up space in traditionally male-dominated areas. This, in turn, develops a narrative of relinquishing ingrained notions of misogyny and gendered expectations that always leave women two steps behind, in comparison to their male counterparts. Take the Lilo and Stitch phrase, “Ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind”, feminism is trying to encompass just that in society. At the end of the day, we are all one big family and part of our belonging to this world is to care for one another. As a result, a group of like-minded individuals can set out to live life to the best of their ability by asking for help and access to opportunities that tend to be out of their reach. This is how a real sense of social collective grows and thus, the power of the individual thrives into something quite beautiful.
In many instances, the best way to achieve your best life is through education. You need to educate yourself in order to understand what your purpose is and how you will achieve that. Just like working towards living your best life, feminism is also a path of learning. If you want to see the good in what life can offer you, I implore you to read ‘Feminism is for Everybody. Passionate Politics’ by Bell Hooks in order to understand what disadvantages you may currently be subjected to. This easily accessible read “encourages us to demand alternatives to patriarchal, racist and homophobic culture and thereby to seek out a different future”, a brighter future filled with happiness and light.
One last thing… if I could offer your one piece of advice, it would be to cherish those in your life who empower you to do better and use their energy to uplift those around you. We are all capable of making magic, sometimes we just need a little bit of encouragement.
Love Poppy x
*Coined by black feminist scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, Intersectional Feminism argues that one must consider how social factors such as race, class and sexual orientation as well as gender all intersect with each other, therefore, affecting the type of structural and systemic oppression and inequalities of an individual’s lived experience.
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Thank you so much Poppy. What a truly insightful piece on how feminism can help us to live our best lives. I really enjoyed learning about the core values of Feminism and how we can all support and help one another, through this community holistic feel. Also, who doesn’t love Lilo and Stitch! 🙂 I will definitely be using my time and energy more to focus on empowering and supporting everyone around me. I hope you all can do the same.
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Want to know more about the writer?
Poppy is currently in the midst of a passion project: POPPYMILLAR.CO which is a creative space that reviews female-empowered events and discusses art on her blog. Her main loves are learning languages, feminism and making butternut squash tacos with a zesty red cabbage salad and plenty of guac. She’d be chuffed if you subscribed to her monthly newsletter here! Think fun event + read-worthy article recommendations, memes, ramblings and much more. (Go on… you know you want to).
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