Allison is an Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese Culture and Women's Studies. She has her Ph.D from Yale University and is a cultural anthropologist focused on contemporary Japan. Allison conducts research on the changing norms of romanic relationships and the legal aspect of intimacy. She teaches courses on romance and intimacy, law and culture, and family life, some of which focus on Japan on East Asia.
ABOUT ALLISON
I didn’t hear that term for a very long time either, I think I came across it when I was fifteen or so. I wasn’t raised by people who necessarily called themselves feminists, and they shielded me from a lot of the injustices of the world. But my parents raised two daughters to be independent, strong, kind, and respectful people because that is who they are. I don’t ever remember being told to play with certain toys, or to wear certain things, or to act a certain way because I was a girl, and I was supposed to. I remember fishing trips and Barbie mansions. I remember playing Power Rangers and playing house. I remember winning first place in the county-wide Science Olympiad, and my parents were just as proud as when my art won Best in Show. The values of feminism were infused throughout my childhood, but the word was unfamiliar until those values proved problematic as I moved through early adulthood. I clung to feminism because it was in line with I already knew to be true.
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In all of the interviews I conducted, I was given a definition that included the action component. I’m not sure if that’s common among all feminists, or if it’s because all four of us are committed to activism, and see that as a necessary link to the term. I can recall so many people, particularly from high school, that claimed they were a feminist, but didn’t speak up against misogyny, and even perpetuated it at times. I didn’t want to be associated with that, but I was committed to the term, and that was very difficult. There will likely always be “feminists” like this, I don’t see that going away. But hopefully the true definition of a courageous, open-minded, and active feminist becomes the stereotype most people associate with the term.
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This vocabulary is very empowering. Most young adults now, I hope, feel they can stand up for themselves because they can accurately point out the problem. We have clearer definitions of sexual harassment and assault, and at the moment there are a lot of people finally understanding those definitions. We’ve come up with terms for the ways men speak over women, and for so many other inequalities that exist. I think this is a huge accomplishment because even if a person is unfamiliar with a specific term, we have the means to define and explain it. And when there is a word for something, there are examples of that which people can easily draw on for those who want to deny it exists. These words have started conversations and legitimized difficult concepts. It is very comforting to be an activist in a world where names and examples of problems are readily available.
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And two generations later, I not only have more options, but I have a lot of female examples of those options. In the shows and movies I watched, the women were lawyers, police officers, managers, surgeons, as well as teachers and nurses, which I think are now reclaimed fields. And while it is so encouraging that women are now present in these positions, that is superficial, because the foundational injustices that kept them out in the first place are still making it very difficult for women in the workplace. Pay is still unequal, sexual harassment is an ongoing battle, hiring and promotional practices are still discriminatory. These issues haven’t gone away. But I think superficial changes may be necessary before foundational changes can be made. Those foundational changes are the next step, and they are what the newest generations really have to focus on.
"I never wasn’t a feminist. I don’t remember being explicitly taught that term. There are all sorts of things I don’t remember being taught that are thoroughly natural and obvious in my life. Being raised by a single mom put me in a certain kind of position. My mom is very obviously a feminist. She doesn’t have the same last name as I do. I was raised hearing stories about these absurd, misogynistic policies that she had to deal with. I have a pretty good memory, and I don’t remember ever hearing that term for the first time and asking, ‘what is this?’ It was always the case for me, which is surely not typical. I was taught to have a particular attitude toward the world and to have a certain set of expectations. I think it was infused throughout my childhood and early adulthood."
"My definition of a feminist would be someone of any gender who believes that there are social structures in place explicitly or implicitly designed to naturalize differences that are not biological. A feminist is someone who is aware of the social construction of gender and the way that it is operational in society, and who is then committed to addressing inequalities. There is that actions part. There are a lot of people who call themselves feminists, and tremendous variation within that population. It would be nice if all people who identified as feminists were progressive and open-minded, but unfortunately that’s not the case. I don’t see any powerful stereotypes that are actually true. Like any political identity, people can claim it with very different definitions."
"I think a lot of the underlying root causes of feminist activism are similar, but they’re not really the same. It’s amazing to me how much earlier generations of feminists have done to improve things for at least some of us. So many problems seem to still exist. For instance, when my mom, who is seventy-five, left high school in urban Philadelphia from a White, middle-class family, she was literally given two options: she could be a nurse or she could be a teacher. In one generation, I had many more options. I don’t know how typical that is, but I’m really aware of those differences. Thirty or forty years ago, people who looked like me would probably not be here in this position. Most of the people in my classes, including me, could not have been in my classes. I recognize that some things have changed, but at the same time there are these really major underlying issues that continue to persist. These are not only superficial changes, but they aren’t necessarily foundational changes."
"We’ve come pretty far in the sense that we have popularized the vocabulary. Discourse and terminology are really important. We have many things to address and to fix, but we have some really powerful vocabularies that are relatively popular now. If you don’t have a name for a problem, it’s hard to point that out as a problem, even if it makes you feel queasy. Even if you understand intellectually and emotionally what’s going on. On some level, there’s a small amount of comfort that we now have the language to describe trauma and bigotry and violence directed at people of color and women. Even if it’s being made fun of, that terminology is known. That feels like some sort of an accomplishment to me."