Feminism holds different meanings for today's teen girls

Ask a teen if she describes herself as a feminist: You'll either get a puzzled look or she'll snap her head back as if you just slapped her.

Still, it's not a label teens want to slap on their backpacks. It feels awkward, like putting on the stiff high-waisted jeans from their mother's teen years.

Jessy Brunette, 17, counts herself lucky to have spent her high school years at Marymount Academy, Sudbury's only all-girls school. It enabled her to play a variety of sports and it has eliminated certain issues that might have been there at a mixed school.

"I'm very glad. You don't get teased by boys. No dumb gossip. It's pretty natural. None of us are really stressed about boys. We're more focused on our school work. At least I am," Brunette said.

Is she a feminist?

"No, not at all. I think women should be equal to men, but I'm not like, boys are bad," she said.

She doesn't know any of her classmates who would use the label.

Feminism has come up in her English class and it really turned her off.

"We talked about crazy feminist ideas. Changing words like history to herstory," she said.

Feminism isn't needed in Canada, Brunette added, but rather it should be encouraged in Third World countries where "women get beaten."

For many teens, their primary experience with the idea of feminism has been during English class discussions about gender neutral language.

Sitting at the food court at the Southridge Mall, 14-year-old Amanda Lavalle explains to her friend what she has heard about the f-word. "No, you're not a feminist, Lindsay," Lavallee says. "It means you're all for women's rights and stuff. Like you think it shouldn't be mailman or snowman. It should be snow-woman."

This stereotype of feminists as a boy haters and word meddlers turns off some of the girls, but so do other stereotypes.

LINK: Excerpt Sudbury Star