accidental feminist

I’m a naughty girl February 28, 2006

…and not for the reasons that people who might find this post based on a google search for “naghty” would think. No, my dirty little secret is that I went out last night; that’s right, a school night. In fact, my evening ended up being a feminist field trip of sorts.

First, it was off to the Sarah Vowell reading. Megan and I were imagining the difficulties of two lesbians meeting for a blind date there. “I’ll be the one with the short hair and khakis.” “Okay, I’ll be wearing a fleece vest and a t-shirt that says ‘feminism is the radical idea that women are people’.” It’s like meeting at Buckingham Fountain during “Taste”.

So Sarah was awesome. Really unassuming and unpretentious and nerdy. I’m sure that she was a little nervous knowing that she was missing “24″ to do this reading, but she didn’t show it. Her depiction of her poor social skills (the self proclaimed Mt. St. Helen’s of conversation: dormant, luring old men to build log cabins on her slopes, then erupting with a fury over a topic about which the people she is with most likely do not share her passion) was especially touching to me. It drives me crazy when people tell me that talking a lot at parties or uncontrollably seeking to be the center-of-attention in a room full of strangers isn’t “shy”.

Little did I know that my evening had only begun…

I made my way over to a friend’s birthday party at around 10 PM. It was supposed to be winding down, but having a newcomer show up reinvigorated the scene. the other guests (and host) were all Orthodox Jewish women, and we ended up ranting about our common struggles: the need for self-actualization, our drive to succeed, being fed up with the “system” of institutionalized Orthodoxy that sometimes seems to simply be perpetuating itself instead of championing the true, and radical, ideals of Judaism.

My favorite part of the evening came when something I had been feeling for the last year was vindicated. After writing a few Productions (God forbid you call them “plays”) for a local Orthodox girls’ high school, and trying to form an improv comedy troupe there (I remember Jazmin’s excited optimism about my plans: “I can hear Terri Gross interviewing you now”.), I was systematically ousted for my radical ideas, such as satire and theatrical realism. I internalized this and began imagining that they viewed me as some sort of outside agitator. And, according to my mother, I built up the image of myself as the ousted rebel based on my own sense of rejection, and not on the reality of the situation.

Well last night, when the issue of my parting of ways with the school came up (and being around 2 AM, everyone was getting a little free with their language from lack of sleep), one of the women there commented: “Yeah. They said you were too controversial and a rabble-rouser.”

Me: What? Are you joking?

Her: No. That’s what they said. That you were a rabble rouser.

Me: When?

Her: At the meeting.

Me: What meeting?

Her: One of those meetings about the school.

Me: They called me a rabble rouser?

Her: Yeah.

Well, besides for the fact that the term rabble rouser is awesome, I have now affirmed that I am not some crazy narcissist (I mean, I probably am, but not in this case), and that my feelings of marginalization were not only founded, but can be found in the filed minutes from this meeting:

Item 1- Dorm toilet needs fixing asap
Item 2- Senior Trip fundraising
Item 3- Rachel Klein is a “rabble rouser”

Is rabblerouser.com taken?