Morgan McGrath (’17) and Rosie Major (’18) are two of the most bubbly and friendly people I know on campus. When I found out that they were joining forces to start a feminist book club, my first question was, “How do I sign up?” The response from students has been incredible; within the first 24 hours of promoting their idea, they had already gotten 30 people to sign on. Now the number is around 50 and continues to grow. Read on to find out about how it all started and what their goals are for the next few months!
On their official name:
M: “It’s The Notorious FBC (feminist book club).”
On coming up with the idea:
Last semester Rosie and Morgan had regular, often passionate talks about feminism while eating at Turner. Over winter break, they both read many books about feminism and would share their thoughts with one another. Their frequent dialogue inspired Morgan to jokingly suggest starting a feminist book club at Nummit one day, but Rosie thought it was a great idea, so they decided to pursue it further.
The Student Activities Office was so supportive that Rosie and Morgan were encouraged to make it an official student group and invite students, faculty, and staff to join.
On the importance of this group on campus:
M: “If people are curious about what it means to be a feminist, intersectionality and feminism, how different groups interact with one another, or other hot topics in feminism, this would be the place to talk about that.”
R: “If you look at the state of politics right now, so many of the issues are pertinent…There are women’s issue organizations, but there is not a feminist student organization on campus.”
On their goals for the group:
M: “To expose more people to these texts that have largely shaped the past few years of my life.”
Morgan expressed how, before coming to Davidson, she didn’t know how to define feminism and the concept of it was scary and intimidating. After taking a GSS class freshman year she was hooked, but she understands that not everyone has the opportunity to take a GSS class. She believes this book club would offer similar benefits and opportunities for discussion.
R: “I think it is important to start a conversation in the student body about different kinds of issues and how all of those issues interact with one another. There are so many organizations that are targeted towards specific issues, but none of them are talking about how each issue intersects and why that is relevant in society…I am very fortunate that I am a feminist, but I haven’t been affected by a lot of the issues that the current wave of feminism holds really important… that doesn’t mean that they are not still important to talk about. Because there are still so many people that are affected by them in so many ways.”
On what the group will be reading:
They understand that at this point in the semester most people are starting to shift their focus to finals, so they are planning to lay the groundwork for the club this semester by reading short essays.
M: “It would be unfair for this to turn into a class where we say you need to read this by this time, so we are planning on dispersing the reading and the people who feel really strongly about a certain text or are interested in talking about it will meet. We are not going in with an agenda or views that we want to get across. It is more about opening up a conversation so people feel comfortable navigating where their views are.”
On what feminism means to them:
After we all laughed at the grandness of the question, they each gave me their own response.
R: “My definition is equality of the sexes in all aspects of life…and when I say sexes I mean if you identify as a woman you should be equal in the terms that all women are equal. So there are a lot of ways you can take that, and it shouldn’t affect one class or group of women in ways that others aren’t.”
M: “It is so ridiculous that there are still areas where women don’t even have a chance to strive for equality, so making those resources available, recognizing that if you give the same thing to men that you give to women, women are starting from a lower point. We should have unrestricted access to succeed.”
On book recommendations for a feminist newbie (a.k.a. me) to check out:
R: Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit.
M: Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay.
Some final thoughts on feminism from Rosie:
R: “Everyone has their own reason for following feminism and their own way of doing it. There is not one right way to be a feminist, which is true about most things. There is not one right way to be anything.”
We wish these ladies the best of luck and look forward to joining the club!
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