GirlDrive: Mapping Feminism

On October 15, 2007, long-time friends Emma Bee Bernstein and Nona Willis Aronowitz set out on a road trip across America. They aimed to interview and photograph young women across the country, finding out what is important to them and what they think and feel about feminism. They aimed to reach both self-proclaimed feminists and the “I’m not a feminist but” contingent.

Now one year and many miles later, they are planning to publish a book which will include photos, essays, interviews, and diary entries from their trip. I recently got a chance to chat with the women of GirlDrive about their project:

D: How did you decide to embark on the GirlDrive project?

E&N: We met as young girls at a social action Jewish summer camp in Massachusetts, and came from activist families with feminist mothers. In November 2006, a whirlwind string of events caused us to reconsider our connection to our feminist mothers, each other, and our generation. Nona's mother, the feminist journalist and cultural critic Ellen Willis, had recently passed away, which had not only stirred up a lot of thoughts about what feminism meant to her but also prompted many of her mother's feminist friends to reach out to her. Meanwhile, Emma received a fellowship to attend the Feminist Future Symposium at MoMA, which was the first time she realized how important feminism was to her understanding of being an artist and art historian, and she got a chance to bond with her mother, feminist artist Susan Bee, for the first time.

We decided it was about time to address how our generation of young women related to feminism, and to have an inter-generational conversation about it while our foremothers were still around. At the same time, we were both young restless college graduates who just wanted to take a road trip across America. It was the 50th anniversary of the male-dominated On the Road, and we knew we had to do our own road trip, grrrl style.

D: You've been on the road talking to young women around the country about their understanding of feminism. Have you found the definition of feminism to be consistent among these women or are they greatly varied from person to person?

E&N: Stereotypes came up again and again, because many of us grew up with the same media influx and history books.  Depending on region of the country and city, there were cultural differences that were reflected in those stereotypes, too. But once young women got past what feminism was supposed to mean, or what they thought we wanted to hear, their personal definition usually reflected their own experience.

D: Have you noticed any trends about how our generation perceives feminism?

N: Of course--this is the subject of our book's conclusion, which we are still parsing out. There are many who would say that feminism is outdated and not relevant to anyone but white middle class women. Instead, many young women choose to challenge gender norms in general, not getting stuck in old definitions. There were of course many trends, but what seems to characterize our generation is a wariness of identity politics, skeptical attitudes towards labels.  While we often found young women to be jaded about the utopian visions of previous social movements, they were stilll finding other ways to adress issues important to them in their communities, and to challenge the status quo using new tools and technologies, especially the blogosphere and internet communities.

D: Have you learned anything new about your own brand of feminism? Have your opinions changed or broadened during the course of the project?

E&N: We have always had our personal definitions of the word and how it fits into our life experiences, but our perception of a "feminist" has certainly changed.  We have been surprised to learn that while an outspoken, East Coast queer woman can hate the word "feminist," a devout Christian woman from the South can embrace it.  Our parameters have widened and we have become a lot more open-minded about what the future of feminism will look like.

E&N: Nona and I are participating in a bunch of feminist panels this year around the country, offering our generation's take on many issues like pop culture, art, politics, and history.  Nona is remaining in Chicago, while Emma is pursuing a fellowship at the Guggenheim in Venice, and then returning to New York City.  We are also pursuing our feminist interests through our respective careers--Nona is continuing to write for publications such as The Nation and VenusZine, and participating in an online think tank funded by the MacArthur Foundation on Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook, while Emma will be coordinating events as one of the regional directors for the Feminist Art Project in New York.

You can learn more about GirlDrive at girldrive.blogspot.com/.