Friday Feminist Fuck Yeah: Our young feminist readers! Who exist!

Even if USA Today says they don’t!

Yesterday, USA Today ran an article about how young women don’t identify as feminists anymore. Feminism, the article claims, is “over the hill.”

As Jos wrote in response to that article, there’s nothing new about the “feminism is dead” trend piece: people have been announcing the death of feminism pretty much since the day after feminism was born. The numerous and frequent announcements that feminism is dead or irrelevant are, in my opinion, part wishful thinking, part backlash, part laziness and all stupid. They’re also demonstrably wrong.

And while it’s incredibly annoying, as a young feminist woman, to be told over and over again that I don’t exist, I take comfort in the fact that, as evidenced by the movement of my fingers over my keyboard as I write this, I do exist. And you know what? So do hundreds of thousands of other young feminists out there.

How do I know that? Well, a bunch of you come to our blog every month and read feminist analysis of news, current events, politics and pop culture. You comment on that analysis and contribute your own at the Community blog. You come to our happy hours and bring us to your college campuses. You write us emails to tell us when we’re doing a good job – and when we’re not.

So unless this has all been one giant, incredibly elaborate, painstakingly orchestrated hoax, or unless we’re all a figment of Christopher Nolan’s imagination, I’m pretty sure we all exist. We, the young feminist writers of Feministing, exist. You, the passionate, engaged, committed, readers of Feministing, exist. And we all care about gender equality. We might not all call ourselves by the f-word, but we do all agree that sexism sucks, and that the fight to end it is ongoing, and that it’s a fight we care deeply about and want to be a part of.

So here’s to you, dear readers. Thanks for proving USA Today wrong, today and every day. To you, to your existence, and to ours, and to our feminism – I’d like to give a hearty and heartfelt fuck yeah!