“Everyone can be a feminist
and we need feminism to
achieve equality.”
21
Romina Beltran-Lazo ‘17
Are you a
feminist?
Yes
When did you
realize that
girls were not
equal to boys?
I was really into
sports when I
was little, so I
felt like I was
strong, but when
I grew up, I saw
women were
often associated
with negative
words like soft,
fragile, weak
and I started to
feel conscious
about these
descriptions.
How did you find out the feminist idea?
My mom is really into female rights in Mexico because Mexico has a sexist culture. It always has a culture that
the more women one man gets, the better he is. My mom would stop me wherever I criticized another girl,
and I grew up with my mom telling me that women should hold together because they were often oppressed.
When I came to Putney, I became more aware of social injustice and did a lot of research on it to support my
community.
What challenges do you encounter when you present your feminist ideas?
A lot of my best friends back in Mexico are pretty sexist. They talk about physical appearance, materialism, and
how they are presented in social media. A lot of them don’t even realize how bad they are oppressed by men and
many of them are eager to be housewives. It makes me sad because they can do so many things but they aren’t
exposed to feminist ideas like I am. I also hate that people relate feminism with oppressing men. I think people
are not educated enough about this idea and they need to restate feminism by talking to feminists more.