Reading about NARAL's president, Nancy Keenan, stepping down , and the growing gap between older and younger feminists, has me thinking: when is it time to step back and make room for younger activists?
Last year when Jessica Valenti announced that she was leaving Feministing, I was surprised to see that some of the readers interpreted it as "Jessica is aging out of feminism." or rather feminist blogging. But it did kind of seem that way. To learn that she's still a few years younger than I am, well, it doesn't motivate me to participate in a community where there's a chance I'm seen as old and irrelevant.
Granted, no one is standing at the gates of feminism with a sign reading "over 35, do not pass," but it increasingly feels that way. Also, I think one has to consider each woman's personal narrative: not everyone magically becomes politically aware at 19 or 25 or some other predetermined after high school and before that first "real" job where one is likely to experience "real" discrimination. (Not that any kind of discrimination is less real.) Some women discover feminist writing in their forties, or grew up in the decades before online activism and never had an outlet for it. Where do those women go when online feminism appears to be the domain of twenty-somethings?
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