Over three hundred participate in Princeton Feminists photo campaign

More than 370 students participated in the "Princeton Feminists" photo campaign last week, which occurred during late meal hours from Feb. 22 to Feb. 26. The campaign was organized by members of the fall Pace Center Breakout Trip "Sex, Sexism and Sexuality in the 21st Century."

According to one of the project organizers Stephen Chao ’19, the campaign chiefly consisted of an effort to raise awareness about feminism at Princeton by taking photos of students and other members of the university community holding up boards on which they wrote their respective answers to the hash tags #I’maFeministBecause and #MyFeminismIs.

Another one of the project organizers, Jamie O’Leary ’19 said that the photos were uploaded to the group'swebsite and were also posted on the Princeton Feminists Facebook event and the Women's Center Facebook page. They werealso sent to the participants, who were encouraged to share the photos on their personal social media accounts. She added that the group plans to print the photos and post them around campus sometime within the next week as well.

Maya Wahrman '16, another member of the Break Out Trip and a project organizer, noted that the website had 14,415 views and 1,142 visitors as of Monday.

Wahrman added that the main purpose of the photo campaign was to make feminism a present topic of discussion.

O’Leary commented, “It’s less about thinking about feminism itself and more about the kinds of conversations that feminism provokes.”

“This is so that people, whether walking through campus, or scrolling through Facebook, see this and have to think about this, and talk about it. Whether or not they decided to participate, it’s compelling everybody to be a part of it in someway,” explained O’Leary.

Chao said that the Breakout trip that had inspired the Princeton Feminist project revolved around visits to more than ten organizations that work with gender equality.

O’Leary noted that when she visited each of the organizations and asked what feminism meant to the people who worked there, she realized that there was no standard definition of feminism and that the term had different meanings for different people.

Chao said he found that the most interesting responses he encountered during the campaign were when people wouldn’t identify with the movement for valid reasons. He recalled speaking to somebody who identified as a queer person of color and made the comment that although they supported equality, they could not identify as a feminist because feminism had not been created for people like them.

"My favorite moments have been when someone says, ‘This campaign is great, but I think it’s missing this.’ And that’s when you can say, ‘Well that’s why you can be a part of it and paint your own picture,’” commented Wahrman.

Jonah Herzog-Arbeitman '19, one of many male students who participated in the campaign, said that he supported the project and emphasized the importance of publicizing the scope of the feminist movement.

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Herzog-Arbeitman explained, “Feminism is not a movement for only women; it's a movement for anyone who believes that women should have the same rights as men.” He added, "I believe that everyone should be a feminist because feminists stands for equality, the most basic tenet of human rights.”

Preston Evers ’19, who also supported the project, commented that as a man, he doesn’t think that he’s ever had an at-length conversation with another man about feminism. Having helped man the campaign's table in Frist Campus Center, he noted that he felt discouraged by how many people didn’t want to participate.

“The disinterest and discomfort I saw reflects, I think, the lack of priority and value people assign to women's rights and interests. It was profound for me to experience firsthand the indifference and opposition, as opposed to simply being aware of it,” commented Evers.

Head of Rockefeller College and English Professor Jeff Nunokawa said that for his photo, he wrote "world of my mothers."

He explained, “My mom did a lot for me. She brought me into the world, raised me right and taught me right from wrong. My mom happens to be a woman. The least I can do, by way of paying her back for all she did for me, is to support her gender as best I can. Why do I think men should be as interested in feminism as women? I think feminism is about fairness, and I think everyone should be interested in fairness.”

O’Leary said that there currently is no group on campus that promotes gender equality that includes both men and women. She noted she hopes the photo campaign will help engender an interest group for the issue.

“I would love to see a group that is completely student-run that is started about gender equality and to harness the kind of manpower that is collected in this campaign and put it into action,” added Wahrman.