I recently talked with Nona Willis Aronowitz, who wrote a book called Girldrive. She and her friend Emma Bee Bernstein (R.I.P.) drove across the country to find out what American women think about feminism and whether it relates to their lives in a meaningful way.

What does feminism mean to you?

Read about Nona's experience on the inkpop blog:
Life as a roadtrip writer
Nona Willis Aronowitz and Emma Bee Bernstein criss-crossed the country for Girldrive
http://inkpop.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/life-as-a-roadtrip-writer/

Feminism, to me, is not a matter of females being elite or even equal to men. To me, feminism is being okay with you as a female. It is not allowing someone to set you back, just because you're a girl. It means strong, independent females, who don't NEED people to be okay. They're girls who can take care of themselves, without feeling bad about themselves because they're not pretty enough, or thin enough, or chirpy enough. They don't need to have things and people to feel okay. They don't need a male to be happy. They're girls who are content the way they are, with who they are, and don't let anything hold them back. They strive for what they want, aim for the stars.

Feminism is not an ELITIST thing. It's being strong and secure as a girl and not allowing anything to set you back. :]

I think feminism is about power, and that sounds bad, but that you yourself feel powerful and that you can do anything. It's something that makes you feel like you rise up above everyone else.

I think feminism is about being equal to men and being able to be who you want to be as a woman without anyone else, including other women, looking down on you for making those decisions. So what if you want to be a housewife? It's your decision. It's not lazy, especially since raising kids is really difficult. So what if you don't want to get married? You don't have to to be considered worthy. So what if you want to get a job and do that sort of thing? If you want to, go ahead. Just be who you want to be, I guess.

For me, it's about not feeling like I have to give up part of my identity to be "one of the guys," or that I have to be masculine to be strong, feminine to be beautiful. I am me, and me happens to be female. It's part of who I am, and it helps me define myself, but it doesn't define me. I define me.

I am writing my honors thesis on this. I am comparing the female role models of Miyazaki Hayao's films, such as Nausicaa, San, Chihiro, Kiki, and Sheetah to the Disney version of the woman from the Little Mermaid to Tarzan. These are all women created by men--designed by men, the movies written and directed by men, across the board, and yet they present two very different versions of women. I'm trying to figure out which is a better role model, if one is a better role model, and just exploring these literal objects of men.

To me, feminism is having men an women on an equal basis. women dont always need to be protected, and were certianly not weak little porcelain dolls good onlyfor looking at. Women are one hundred percent equal to men, and women shouldnt have to give up a part of themselves to be accepted by the male gender.

Feminism used to be about women having equal legal rights as men-- which was good and neccessary for society to evolve.

Unfortunately, today it is a radical belief system that looks at history from a perspective that is ignorant about the realities of living in a world where the majority of people were diseased, malnourished and parasite ridden, and certain practices (such as the marrying of young healthy women in arranged marriages) were enacted to keep our species alive. There is also an unfortunate 'men are bad' element to modern feminism which is as harmful to society as the male chauvinism that feminism fights against. There are also too many feminists who cry discrimination when there is none.

Don't misunderstand; I support woman's suffrage. What I don't support is feminism as a discrimination against men, as if the behavior of all men could be classified in simplistic terms. I find that kind of feminism as silly as racism, and it has gotten so pointless that modern feminists often take shots at men (such as Walt Disney) who did a lot to support the women's suffrage movement.