Women's History Month Event: “I'm a Professional Feminist, Ask Me How!”

The Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies at Butler has invited me to Butler University for a lecture/talk/hopefully conversation on titled,“I'm a Professional Feminist, Ask Me How!” It will be on March 1st at 6 PM in PB156. I have no idea what that means, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. :)

Here is part of the description of my talk:

In this talk Arreola tackles the question: “What is a professional feminist, and how does one become one?” She argues that a professional feminist isn't “just a Gloria Steinem or Jessica Valenti,” but rather includes those of us working in a feminist manner in our studies and at our jobs.

This is a talk I've been working on for a few years. It's been mostly conversations with students, friends and other interested parties who wonder why I call myself a professional feminist, what one is and how someone becomes one. It will also stem from fears I had as a young feminist about "How the hell am I supposed to get to Gloria Steinem status in order to change the world?" And today's college feminists may be thinking the same thing about trying to be as awesome as Jessica Valenti.

Without giving away too much of my talk, let me say that we need Glorias and Jessicas. We need that public intellectual who is ready to go to bat on CNN at a moment's notice. But we don't need to be a Gloria or a Jessica to kick ass. And harkening back to Gloria's book Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, we need to find ways for those everyday rebellions, be a professional feminist in our own ways. We don't need to be the next anyone, just ourselves.