youngblackfeminist: Welcome to Meet a Young Black Feminist! Today is our tenth and final interview
youngblackfeminist: Welcome to Meet a Young Black Feminist! Today is our tenth and final interview, with the wise and fearless artist and activist, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh! Read our interview below. ___ Would you call yourself a feminist/Black feminist/womanist? If so, why, and what does it mean to “be one” to you? I call myself a feminist. This is a label I only recently began to take on over the years as an adult. I think that being a feminist is similar to being an activist in that you must actually do something. Holding the idea in your head that the genders are equal wasn’t enough for me. I had to be actively and boldly doing something to help push gender equality. That could be simply calling out sexist comments, jokes, or microaggressions when you hear them. It could mean taking steps within your personal life to reject sexist norms. It could mean creating an art project to tackle the ways women are sexualized and mistreated in public spaces. For me, it meant beginning to do all of those things. How did you come to feminism? Raised in a household that supported it, introduced through social media, or life experiences eventually paved the way? It was a little bit of all of those things. What’s great about social media is that it makes it easy to find or build a community. For young women who are looking for like-minded people who are discussing and challenging society’s treatment of women, the internet allows you to quickly find that community and contribute your own voice. And that emboldens you. I was definitely raised in a household that, while wasn’t explicitly feminist, supported free thinking and challenging the status quo. My mother influenced me to not just create art, as she’s an artist herself, but to create art that addressed race and gender. But it was simply growing up as a girl and living as a woman that naturally, and most forcefully pushed me to feminism. In general, what is one major thing you’ve learned about womanhood so far? How about your womanhood in particular? One major thing I’ve learned about being a woman is to be true to who I am and what I want. There are many times when I’ve tried to compromise myself for the sake of a job, a lover, or even just a conversation. When you become increasingly more comfortable with who you are and what you really want, you become less willing to bend in order to please someone or something else. If you could say one thing to a budding Black feminist, or just a young Black girl, what would you say? Don’t be afraid of having presence. Don’t shrink yourself as a way to make those around you more comfortable. Be bold with your talent and your voice. This world, and the spaces that make up this world - classrooms, the workplace, sidewalks, sometimes your own home - will try to make you feel insignificant and unimportant. Don’t let them. Make the world pay attention to you. Also, tell your homegirls you love them. For thousands of girls growing into womanhood, street harassment becomes a stronger reality every day. What advice would you give to a woman dealing with street harassment externally (in terms of responding to cat-callers) and internally (responding emotionally/mentally/spiritually after street harassment)? Dealing with street harassment in the environment can be frustrating because it seems to be never-ending. It’s a constant stream of abuse and sexual harassment. When you respond, when you feel safe doing so, it’s important to be firm and direct. To call out the harasser in a way that shames him. If someone gropes you, or is following you, call attention to it. I have to say though, that there is no right way to respond to street harassment. There is no right response. If in the moment you feel like cursing and screaming at a guy who just called you a bitch or hissed at you, then that’s fine. If you feel it’s best in the moment to just keep walking and not say anything, that’s fine. If you feel like lying and telling him you have a boyfriend just to diffuse the moment, there’s nothing wrong with that. Whatever you feel comfortable and safe doing. I do think it’s important in the overall response to street harassment that women and/or by-standers stand up and make it clear to the harassers that what he is doing is unacceptable. But, it happens so often, and not every instance has to be a woman proclaiming her humanity to some stranger. Sometimes you’re tired. Sometimes you just want to keep walking. Emotionally handling street harassment is not a blanket suggestion for everyone. It’s good to talk to people. Even though street harassment happens in public, it’s usually something that happens to you as an individual and you end up carrying the emotions alone. Talk it out with someone. It’s also good to practice affirming yourself, self care (whatever that personally means to you), and just finding some love and comfort to counter the negativity. A common critique against anti-catcalling measures is the claim of “feminist overreaction.” Or, otherwise known as: “it’s just a compliment.” While it is understandable men often take this viewpoint, have you ever faced these critiques from women? If so, what would you (and what have you said) to these claims coming from other women? My response to anyone who claims that street harassment should be taken as a compliment is that having your body sexually objectified by strange men on the street does not qualify as a compliment. Genuine compliments from men or women are taken as such. Street harassment is a large issue that includes women being killed for rejecting a man’s phone number, or being cursed out for not smiling at a man’s advances. Street harassment is the result of a society that has normalized sexually objectifying women so that men (and women) feel entitled to a woman’s body. It’s this normalization that reduces crude, abusive comments and behavior towards women to “compliments” - “compliments” that women should be so grateful to receive because society values a woman’s worth on whether or not a man finds her attractive. This ain’t an exaggeration, nor an overreaction. It’s true. Do you believe women of color, and Black women in particular, have more complicated and/or unique experiences with street harassment? If so, how? We do. Black women’s bodies have been historically hypersexuaiized and abused. Street harassment is the same - we face harassment at much higher levels than white women. But it’s not just being black. Black trans women experience violence at much higher rates than anyone. Being black and trans, or black and gay, or black and poor - all of these intersections of a black woman’s identity affect how much abuse she is subjected to. Has there been/is there any women in your life who has served as an inspiration for you? If so, who are they, and what have they taught you? I’m grateful to know many outstanding women in my personal life. My mother, my grandmother. My best friend. There is a community of artists and creatives and Brooklyn that include a lot of brilliant and interesting women. I’m excited for them. I can see them having made major impacts on the world in the decades to come. There are key women who are important for most of us - Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, bell hooks - but it’s the women that I see around being fabulous, and smart, and taking no shit, that inspire me in my everyday life. How do you want to grow as a woman this year? How about the rest of your life? I’ve always thought that even if what I do changes, my career or the type of work that I make, what I always want to be sure of is the type of woman that I want to be. I want to be sure that even if I reroute the direction of my work, I do not get derailed from the course of who I am as a person. And that’s someone who travels, who reads, who speaks confidently, who loves fully, who is self-possessed, who is not afraid. It’s not easy to see just how you’re developing into the person you want to be as you move with the mundane to-dos of everyday life. But it’s important to trust that who you are now is wonderful, and enough. And you’ll continue to grow and evolve and get better and better. Just keep going. That’s what I believe for myself. -- source link