Gender Reflection Essay

I have a clear memory of being no older than 6 or 7 and playing on the playground with my friends at lunchtime. It was a scorching hot June day and school was drawing to a close for the summer. All of the boys in my class were taking their shirts off as they had all likely seen the father figures in their life do at some point. I remember my friend Kristin gripping the bottom of her shirt with her tiny fingers and pulling it up over her head like all the boys were doing. I remember a teacher running over and telling her what she had done was inappropriate. I remember Kristin putting her shirt back on quickly, looking embarrassed and confused. She asked “Why?” to which the teacher responded with “Girls and boys are different. We leave our shirts on.” This was my first instance of awareness of gender differences. That day, I was taught on the playground that boys had more freedom than me. None of us had developed breasts yet or even knew what breasts were. All we knew was that for whatever reason, boys were

It wasn’t fair that if I yelled back at a boy who had just groped me without consent while I was trying to get my books out of my locker, I was just a “crazy feminist” and, you know, “boys will be boys.” None of it was fair. I knew that living in fear simply because of my gender (and sexuality, but that’s a story for another time) was not alright. My senior year, the SAFER club (Students Active For Ending Rape) came into existence. We met weekly and discussed many issues surrounding intersectional feminism. Mostly, we worked to lessen rape culture within our school and our other communities. What began as a group of several girls talking at lunch soon grew to a club with nearly half of the school attending a meeting at one point or another. We were granted money from the state to hold a summit, in which we had guest speakers come and talk about their experiences. It was empowering and