🔮Mother, Maiden, Crone

Friday is movie night.

My mom and I slouched on the couch. We flip through our various subscription services, while the warm, buttery aroma of popcorn floats in the air. My dad leaned back in his faux leather chair, content to snore his way through the entire movie. Of course he was asleep!

We were watching Captain Marvel (2019); A feminist manifesto that disappointed comic lovers and movie goers alike. As an impressionable preteen girl, fully immersed in her ‘not like other girls’ phase, I had not problem joining in on the hate wagon.

‘Captain Marvel is over powered!’

‘It’s Unrealistic!’

‘What a Mary Sue!’

I roll my eyes, watching the half-baked plot unfold before me.

However, when I turn beside me to judge my mom’s expression, I didn’t see the same distain. What I had judged as ‘unrealistic,’ was something that resonated deeply with her.

In a flashback, Carol Danvers crashes her go-kart while racing with the other boys. She is scolded for it, but she gets back up again.

What I didn’t realize is that my mom was that girl on the 80s go-kart track: taking off her helmet after beating all the other boys in a race and shocking them with her gender.

Man, my blog is starting to look like Tumblr in 2014…

…I like to think I’m funny. 

Anyways…

Feminism is a tricky topic for me, as for my entire life, I’ve been surrounded by ‘strong women.’ For a long time, I honestly thought that it was a topic of the past, a movement we’ve grown past. However, this is simply not the case.

Feminism is a complicated concept, and that’s why we’re learning about it!

Driving Question

How Has the Feminist Movement Impacted Members of Our Society?

To begin, I’d like to show you a rather sad looking mind map — these were the first things that came to my mind when I was given the word ‘feminism.’ Let’s just say that I had room to grow… a lotta room, because the “Barbie Movie” is one fifth of my understanding…

Ok, ok, I’m not that bad. My mind was just pretty blank that day… or should I say jet lagged, because when we started this project, I’d just gotten back from a one month long trip in the Philippines! 

(This is a picture of a volcano in a lake… in a volcano, in a lake… pretty cool.) 

My trip was pretty cool; I saw some of my family (my lolo – grandfather – had 13 siblings 💀), there were lots of stray cats EVERYWHERE, and I accidentally ate a pine nut and spent a night in the ICU, which wasn’t very fun 🙁

But overall I had a great time! What wasn’t great was catching up on all the homework I missed 💀 I’m still so behind 💀💀💀 So I’m going to try to keep this blog post brief. 

(Me in the month of January, coming back from my month long vacation, suddenly being forced to balance 2 weeks worth of catch-up, 7 courses, 3 choirs, band, basketball, applications, laundry, and scholarships, coming home at 8pm everyday 💀)

…Anyways, with the Philippines on my mind, we started to learn about feminism. 

We began by looking through the different decades of feminism. I found it interesting how slowly the movement progressed, and that it took decades, if not centuries of attempts to get to where we are today. 

We then read a first hand account about feminism, from a progressive figure that we all knew about ; Michelle Obama.

Reading this book made me realize that although I’ve heard about Michelle Obama, and knew that she was a progressive figure, I didn’t know what she’d done to become that person. 

Despite the book being really really long, I enjoyed most of it. It was nothing I couldn’t handle, especially when I was listening to it at 4x speed while reading at the same time… IT WORKS OK!!!

Although it did get repetitive at times, I found it refreshing seeing the world from Michelle’s POV. As a minority myself, her words meant a lot to me; it’s comforting knowing that I’m not alone in some of these experiences, and that others experience it too. 

Which leads me to our final product; an essay/research paper. 

Inspired by going to the Philippines and Michelle’s narrative writing, I knew I wanted to tell the story of the women in my family. 

Little did I know, that story is very very long, so I guess I understood why Becoming is 165,000 words. My grandparents and my mom immigrated to America in the 80s, when my mom was only 2 years old, and I’ve grown listening to all the unique stories they experienced in that time. I originally wanted to weave together how feminism and ‘being a woman’ has impacted all three generations of my family, hence the ‘mother, maiden, crone.’ But as I was interviewing my Lola (grandmother in Tagalog) and my mom, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to tell that story properly in a single essay, and especially not for a school assignment that was due in a week. 

So instead, I pivoted to focus on only my Lola’s experience in the Philippines, and analyzing how her upbringing impacted her way of life in the long run. After actually visiting the country and experiencing the social climate there, it was very interesting to hear her story. 

I also did some additional research on the political and cultural history of women in the Philippines, and I found it very interesting to weave together my Lola’s story and those sources. 

In the end, I’m very proud of my essay, although I wish I could’ve written more about my family’s experiences.

Maybe one day I’ll write a book about it…