Salutations to the readers of this blog. By reading this, you have either consciously or sub-conciously developed sympathies for the feminist struggle. This may come as a surprise to certain readers, but never fear, feminism is developing into a very inclusive movement.

Due to my own allegiance to feminism, it is important to explain where I am from. By doing so, I can better explain where my personal visioning of the world originates.

My life began in Des Moines Iowa. According to Jack Kerouac, "The prettiest girls in the world live in Des Moines." Though I do not believe entirely in Kerouac's assertion  I did meet incredible women there after my family's three year stint in Montana (my father was in the Air Force at the time).

This ability to meet these phenomenal women was because of one of the most phenomenal woman I know, my mother. Despite being eighteen when she had me and vulnerable to the expectations that befall wives and mothers, my mother raised me in a household where the arts were necessary to a fulfilling life and that difference should be celebrated not condemned. My mother, being a poet, had been involved in writers' workshops in the Des Moines area and helped to create the first ever Des Moines Slam team. As a result, I become acquainted with a multiplicity of strong women early in my life.

At ten, my family decided to move to Casa Grande Arizona. The immediate culture shock was often unsettling. However, I would never trade those experiences. Growing up in one of the more economically depressed areas of the town, I learned the overall disdain for the white middle class, a category my family was a member of. This lesson, as difficult as it was to learn, would never had been taught if I had continued to live in the comfortable whiteness of the Midwest. Consequently, I have developed insights into various cultures, beliefs I never would have encountered in Iowa.

But my education is not over. Currently, I am a student at the University of Arizona double majoring in Gender and Women's Studies and Media Arts, and minoring in Religious Studies with the aspiration to contribute factual representations of women in the media. The classes I have been fortunate enough to take have informed me immensely about the, to use a term created by Kimberle Crenshaw, "intersectionality" of people's experiences. Because of this I have learned of the pitfalls of feminism and how my white skin carries a level of privilege that is used as a form of oppression over numerous people. Therefore, I intend to be a member of activist organizations that work to abolish the systems of oppression for all people. I feel I am stepping in the right direction with my involvement in the Women's Resource Center.

Thank you to our readers. With your support we can collectively continue the livelihood of activist communities who welcome instead of alienate.