Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Chicago: LUCY

Lucy is 24, a native Chicagoan, and an assistant editor for the post-production company Optimus, which produces commercials. She is an aspiring film-maker and screenplay writer and is our dear friend who came with us on the Southern stretch of GIRLdrive: through Austin, New Orleans, and Memphis. (The photo on the left was taken in the Marigny in NOLA.) Months later, we finally had a chance to sit down with her and ask her what she thought:

On feminism:
"Even after being on the road trip and knowing you guys so well, I still kind of don't know what that definition means...but I feel like, how can you be a woman and not be a feminist? I guess being a feminist is not ignoring the fact that if you're a woman, you experience things a certain way, no matter what, no matter whether you want to face it or not."

On mothers and mentorship:
"I'm lucky that I have a really good relationship with my mom, and she's been an incredible mentor to me...but I don't want to always go to my mom for everything. I don't do what my mom did and that's partially on purpose. I want someone else who will be not only a teacher, but a friend who has empathy. It's hard for girls to even find out what they want to do...and I would be more unhappy if I had to be the assistant to a man. [When I assisted men]...they wouldn't trust me with a lot of things and I would allow myself to believe that. I would slip into this weird submissive thing where I'd be scared to screw up."

1 comment:

YDSLutherans said...

I think Lucy makes a really good point. I can call myself a feminist all day long and truly feel that I am a feminist, that women are not only equal to men, but bring something unique to the table but then when I am working with a male supervisor or really any male (on a class project in college or something like that), I find myself deferring or asking questions I don't need to ask. And this is as a gay woman! But that just goes to show how far I/we have to go in realizing all the time that we are experiencing life as women (as Lucy points out) and not to fall into these habits of acting out inferiority because we've been conditioned to do so. I guess what I am trying to say is that if feminism is the awareness of being a woman and how that affects your entire life, there is also some sort of responsibility that comes along with that awareness-- a responsibility to try to live that identity in positive, empowered ways.