believe it is time for women to remember
it’s time for us to remember who we are
and where we came from time to reclaim
the legacy and the lineage in the
history that could only ever be ours
because it is important to know that
feminism is memory and just so we’re all
on the same page feminism simply defined
is just the belief in the social
political and economic equality of the
sexes the reason why we have the term
feminism is because presently we have
not achieved this equality not in a
single country in the world and when it
comes to equality of the sexes there are
two raining schools of thought one is
that it’s an impossible feat and it will
never be accomplished and the other is
that it’s this distant dream something
that we might experience one day in the
future but what we are saying is that
it’s not just wishful thinking it is
something that has been accomplished and
achieved in our past in our human
history and because it has been done
before it can be done again this
expression feminism is memory is a truth
that women are Native Heritage have long
tried Hassan because as Native American
writer and poet and activist polyp gun
Allen once said the root of oppression
is the loss of memory you know feminism
has been around as long as women have
been around we have known civilizations
that have championed the inherent power
of women and included that power within
the structures and rules and regulations
of their society despite our history
books telling us something different or
leaving the story out altogether yeah
this is important to us because we are
the founders of a feminist media company
and we have spent the last two years
traveling the world documenting young
female revolutionaries leaders and
activists and we can tell you firsthand
the fight prepare
can be very frustrating and one of the
best examples of this frustration that’s
how the young woman that we documented
would share with us how their mothers or
the women who came before them had
better lives and they did they had more
freedom and more liberties than they do
now and we question how can this be so
if we look at other human liberation
movements we can recognize linear
progress decade by decade laws and
rights and proving why the social
consciousness evolves but with the
women’s rights movement it’s the one
that stands alone and it’s cyclical
nature of progress and why is it that we
haven’t been able to consistently move
the needle forward for women because
patriarchy it’s the system that
champions toxic masculinity while
diminishing all that’s female and not
only does this system seek to diminish
the female experience it aims to remove
it from our collective memory patriarchy
knows no loyalty whether you be
conservative or liberal Muslim or
Christian spiritual or atheist from the
east or the west it doesn’t matter
because we’re all operating within this
system of course we recognize that some
countries and regions are more
progressive and other shut out to
Scandinavia or Canada but we are all
still in this fight and to be clear we
are not saying that it is men against
women rather we are saying it is hyper
masculinity pinned against femininity
and both women and men suffer within the
confines of this system but for women
depression does go much further it’s our
very femaleness that is hated our bodies
our appearance our nature and even our
souls have been under massive attack
across the globe to various standards
and degrees women’s bodies are
commoditized and thought to be the
property of others from daily instances
a sexual assault to rape to the lack of
access to education to being paid an
unequal wage for equal work to only be
in value
you’d as wives and mothers that many
countries not even being able to choose
when we want to be mothers not to
mention femicide I mean how incredulous
is it that we have a term in our
modern-day lexicon to help explain the
mass killing of women for souley being
women this is an epidemic that Alison
and I have reported on and documented
from Brazil to Turkey for example in
Brazil woman dies every 15 minutes the
hands of her domestic partner in Turkey
around 1100 women have died too at the
hands of men in the past five years I
mean how infuriating is this it
literally makes my blood boil and on
that note something else we’d like to
address is that another thing patriarchy
would love for women to forget is that
we are fully entitled to the entire
spectrum of human emotion so to our
women let us say this if you are angry
go ahead and be angry into the men who
love women if you’re pissed be pissed
because the appropriate emotional
response to the atrocities that women
have been enduring for as long as we can
remember is anger it’s righteous anger
yeah and we acknowledge that anger and
protest and actually have long existed
and still exist take these photos women
protesting in the 1920s and 30s women
protesting in the 70s and women
protesting just last month you know all
these photos that we source our from
around the world and it’s sad to see the
similarities amongst them from decade to
decade to decade it is our hope and it
is our belief that if we can share the
knowledge that feminism is memory it
will help us build upon our successes it
will help us keep us from fighting the
same fight generation after generation
because it is our desire to see a time
when our daughters don’t have the same
protest photos another way that we can
really ensure that
progress moves forward is to fully owned
that we do not have to wait until
everyone is comfortable with our
activism before we take action think
about it this way imagine any other
marginalized people group who’ve
experienced depression would they wait
until the repressor felt comfortable
before they move forward no it doesn’t
work that way the oppressor should feel
uncomfortable because they are wrong the
oppressed should feel vindicated and
validated we women don’t need permission
because we are standing on the shoulders
of the women who came before us a new
fault for us we are supported and we are
surrounded we need to keep this at the
forefront of our memories yes one of the
great feminist psychologists of our time
said something to this point her name is
Clarissa pink Ola SDS and she said when
a woman is exhorting to be compliant
cooperative and quiet to not make upset
and go against the old guard she is
pressed into living a most unnatural
life the worldwide issue for women is
that under such conditions they are not
only silenced they are put to sleep
another way of understanding that is
that their memory is erased as women we
cannot wake up to who we are until we
remember who we are it is this
remembering that is the alarm clock and
this alarm is firing for all of us right
now in this very moment and we
acknowledge it is not easy to wake up
often for women who do they have to
challenge the romantic relationship that
they’re in the god they praised to or
the government that they adhere to the
system touches almost everything and
it’s very difficult to step outside of
it but the great news is is that waking
up is a total game changer there is this
proverb that declares be sure and know
the truth will find you out that’s the
proverb or you can borrow from what
Gloria Steinem said which is the truth
will set you free but first it will piss
you off
let the resonance of this just linger in
your being for a moment because what
this is saying is that what is true
indeed can never be permanently unknown
so what that is saying is that the truth
about women can be unleashed you know
the same only the strong will survive
how often do we hear this it is it is a
statement that speaks to the resilience
the power of resilience tenacity and
endurance we women of the here and now
we are the impossibly strong we are the
revolutionary daughters of women who
have survived thousands of years of
systemic shutdown thousands of years of
patriarchy trying to not only keep them
silent but keep them asleep women are
people whose time has come it is time
for us to be seen as equal there’s time
for us to be recognized as a powerful
and dynamic beans that we are and it is
absolutely our time to be remembered
thank you [Applause]