Episode #8: How Feminism Changed Me

In episode #8: How Feminism Changed Me, WTF: The Other F Word, Dra. Leslie C. Sotomayor II and Dr. Katy Ballard initiate a conversation about how feminism shapes the way we see, teach, research, relate, and live. The episode begins with a question: How did I become a feminist? At its heart, this episode explores feminism as more than theory. It is a lens that moves beyond the classroom and into relationships, families, work, cultural institutions, and community life. Feminism is not only something we study. It is something we practice. It gives us language for what we have felt, frameworks for what we have noticed, and community for what we are still becoming. It can change how we teach, research, love, listen, question, and show up for one another.

Questions to consider:

- When did you first begin to recognize feminism in your own life?

- Was there a class, mentor, femtor, conversation, or experience that helped you find language for something you already knew?

- Who has seen possibility in you before you could see it in yourself?

- How has feminism changed the way you think about your work, relationships, family, or community?

- Where do you notice emotional labor being carried unevenly?

- Whose voices are heard in the spaces you move through? Whose voices are interrupted, overlooked, or left out?

- What would equity look like in practice in one relationship, classroom, workplace, or institution you are part of?

Sources mentioned in this episode:

Collins, G. (2009). When everything changed: The amazing journey of American women from 1960 to the present. Hachette UK.

Gay, R. (2019). Bad feminist: essays. btb Verlag.