Emory Boll
‘18
18
Are you a feminist?
Yes
How do you define feminism?
As a straight white man, I think I have a
perspective as someone who is not usually
oppressed. Feminism to me is equality
of genders. It is not just for women; It’s
for everyone. By looking at the system of
oppression, violence, and discrimination that
women suffer, men are used as tools in that
system which damages them and women.
When did you realize that girls
were not equal to boys?
I have grown up around many strong women
figures. My mom is my role model, and she isn’t shy about conservation on racism and sexism. So I have been around
with these concepts for
a while, but it didn’t really hit me
until my sophomore year.
When you know something I talked to my friends who are girls
about how they were
perceived by men, and the response
exists,
if
you
don’t
do
something
I got surprised me. They
felt unsafe to walk around on the
about
it,
you
are
allowing
it
to
streets and were worried
about sexual harassment or getting
catcalled. Those were the
exist, especially if you benefit things I have never worried about
before. Another gap
from it. So I, as a man, benefit between women and men is that I
don’t feel objectified when
from that. I benefit from sexism in someone talks about my body, and
there’s a lot less malicious
stuff about men on media. My most
society, so I have an obligation to time I went to a diversity leadership
tangible memory was the
do something about it. As a man, I Andover. After that conference, I
conference last year at
came back and organized
can be an ally. Part of being an ally an activity during assembly which
was to illustrate the gap
is addressing the other privileged in experience between different
demographics. During
groups that you belong to. that activity, I realized how
disadvantaged my women
friends were, but at the same time,
they were capable of so
many different things.
“
”
How does the idea of feminism personally influence you?
I start to give a lot of leeway towards listening to people and strive to be more aware of it. I also try to address toxic
masculine behaviors that I recognize it in my men peers. If my friend makes a sexist joke, and I don’t say something, I am
allowing it to continue within what I know, so I will never let my friends get away with that behavior in my presence.
What’s the thing that can make people feel more comfortable with feminism?
I have been thinking about this recently considering how divided our country is politically right now. The problem is that
if you take someone who is straight or white or male, or all three together as I am, and are raised within the system that
caters to them, it’s impossible for you to recognize on your own that the system caters to you. It’s hard to tell the privileged
group to throw away the things they are comfortable with. If we let people talk about the things they go through, they will
realize these are real issues, and they then cannot laugh off these concepts because they relate to them so much more.