Young seedlings of an old movement

Story by Vivian White
Photography by Suzanne DeZeeuw

The feminist movement is responsible for a multitude of great social changes. Just in the last 80 years, Americans have seen women move from gaining the right to own land and vote to becoming world leaders and astronauts. The improvement in healthcare alone has changed the lives of women all over the world.

But as hard as these women have worked, internal conflicts threaten to degrade their good intensions. While making huge strides in its goal of equal rights for women, feminism has, at times, neglected to take into account the diverse lives and issues that are so intricately woven into the fight for equality. Many would say that the feminist movement as a whole has proven more exclusive than inclusive and that it is not possible to detach homophobia, race and class conflict from sexism when trying to expand the rights of all women. But young feminists at Sacramento City College are making that connection.

Destiny Flippo, a 20-year-old self-described feminist, was attracted to the National Organization forWomen (NOW) because of what they were fighting for and all that they had accomplished. While attending the meetings, however, she noticed the lack of diversity. She felt that the feminist movement should be more accessible to all women, particularly minority women who are most often discriminated against.

“I found that the feminist movement has done beautiful things for women, but has long forgotten women of color,” said Flippo.

With a dream of mentoring young minority women, she recently founded POWERR, or the Progression Of Women of Color Empowering Equality and Racial Rights. Working closely with the Sacramento City College NOW chapter, she hopes to address the issues that women of color face and deal with daily.

“No one will want to be a part of an organization that does not specifically deal with their issues. So POWERR is my solution to the diversity issue that the feminist movement has,” said Flippo.

The first project she organized was designed to raise campus awareness about the discrepancies in salary between men and women of different races at the pay equity bake sale. They sold cookies for $1 if the buyer was a white male. White females paid 72 cents and Hispanic females only 52 cents. It sounded like a great deal for women, until they found out that they are only being paid that much for every dollar that their white male counterparts are making. She started turning wheels in heads and dialogue between individuals, which is a huge first step towards creating the much-needed social changes.

POWERR meetings began on May 2, 2002, and Flippo has been busy discussing ideas and uncovering issues that need to be addressed. By next semester, she hopes to be in full swing, starting the mentor program for minority teenage girls.

“It will focus on the importance of education and show young [minority] women how they have a million choices and options in the world,” said Flippo.

From a different perspective, Delaenya Stapleton, a women’s studies major at Sacramento City College also embraces feminism, but is concerned about the movement’s sexual ignorance. In a recent women’s studies class, she observed that the subject of sex and sexuality made most of the class immediately uncomfortable.

“As women, sex isn’t something we are ‘supposed’ to talk about. Well, what I want to know is who said so?” asked Stapleton.

Stapleton, an active participant in the fetish community, sees herself and other women shunned by feminists because of their exploration of sexuality. Traditionally, feminists have maintained that sadomasochistic activities are a by-product of the patriarchal society that we live in and are therefore not valid. Stapleton sees this as hypocritical.

“If a woman actually admits she enjoys sex, then she’s a slut. If she says she doesn’t, she is a prude. Then there is a whole other category of women who explore their sexuality freely,” said Stapleton.

She hopes to encourage the feminist community to embrace what she feels is an important issue for women, the claiming of sexuality. Currently, she is writing an article on the importance of sexual freedom and feminism as well as talking with both communities about women’s sexual rights. Her awareness as a feminist has been a process that has come with education. She is now passing on her knowledge and educating two very diverse groups in an important way.

Both Flippo and Stapleton have been motivated by the president of the California NOW chapter and Sacramento City College women’s studies instructor Megan Seely.

“These students rock,” said Seely. “They recognize the inequities and threats that exist for women today and have decided to be an active part of the solution. They are examples of what feminist activism is all about.”

Seely also sponsors the City College NOW chapter and has recently helped to organize the Safe Walk program that escorts women to their cars weekdays from 8-10 pm.

“This is so grassroots,” said Tia Koonse, president of Sacramento City College NOW. “Right now we’re figuring out a system that works so that we can do it next year.”

Koonse spends every weekday night in the administrative building of City College with any number of her eight or nine current volunteers escorting women to their cars in William Land Park across the street, as the area is outside of the campus police jurisdiction. In just the two weeks that the program has been running, volunteers gave gone from walking only four women to upwards of 15 women to their cars per night. Koonse is currently working to build support from the campus so that the program is sponsored by and run through Sacramento City College and has begun to make contact with criminal justice students and faculty to make the Safe Walk program part of the Service Learning program for criminal justice students.

The diversity of needs and experiences in the feminist community is exceptional. These young women are creating grassroots level movements to create positive change for the feminist movement in order to better incorporate the diversity among women and their individual needs. In the great feminist tradition, if the world does not make space for you, you will just have to make your space in the world.