Students show what feminism means to them

By Alexander Kim, November 6 2014 —

The University of Calgary Women’s Resource Centre (WRC) brought back the Who Needs Feminism? campaign Wednesday, Nov. 5.

Volunteers from the WRC set up a photo booth in the Taylor Family Digital Library for the first photo booth event of the year. They asked U of C community members to complete the sentence “I need feminism because…”

Participants wrote their answers on a whiteboard and were photographed. The photos were then shared on the “Who Needs Feminism at University of Calgary” Facebook page.

WRC coordinator Nanako Furuyama said the campaign aims to start discussions about what feminism means to students and to challenge common misconceptions.

“There’s no one definition of feminism. Each individual can define what feminism means to them,” Furuyama said.

Eighty-five people had their photos taken on Wednesday and over 300 photos have been taken in past years.

WRC volunteer Sharleen Nijjar said Wednesday’s event was well received.

“I was quite surprised by the turn out! I saw a lot of understanding about the issue and [participants] seemed very passionate,” she said.

This year’s responses include “I need feminism because inequality is still an issue,” “I shouldn’t be afraid of being harassed when walking alone,” and “I’m tired of justifying why I’m a feminist.”

Furuyama said feminists are often mischaracterized as “man hating [and] bra burning.”

“We basically want equality and equity for everyone. Feminism is for everybody, including men, women and all genders,” said Furuyama.