LETTER from our EDI TOR
THE
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The PERPETUAL YOU
I
tend to resist labels. And by ‘resist,’ I mean behave however I want in pretense that expectations of others either don’t exist or are irrelevant. I learned in college, though, that knowing what you are not (which comes naturally to me) is useful when trying to figure out what you are. All of which is only useful when you are searching for your tribe, a community, the place we feel at home. Back in college, I also learned that I identified as a woman. I grew to love female authors and was fiercely loyal, for the first time in my adult life, to a select group of other women. None of us (the authors or the real women—myself included) were traditional; all of us, though, were feminine. I’ve since found, again and again, that “feminine” is everything we think it is: an unknowable concept; an oppressive label; an empowering collective; a welcoming home. And, like many other multi-facetted aspects of life, being a woman has only the amount of importance I give to it. Labels—like feminine or feminist—are most helpful when we recognize their power as much as we do their limitations. True power lies within the knowledge of what being feminine means to me, not in the arbitrary label or any given behavior prescribed to that label. I could give a flip about whether I’m feminine or ladylike or, even if I’m a feminist; what I care about, above all else, is being myself. And…I care just as much about you being who you are. Before we label each other, let’s just love each other as-is.