The Revolutionary Girl

The revolutionary girl refuses to allow the educational system to train her into a submissive, careerist, wage-slave.

I read this on my Twitter timeline and thought about it for a few minutes. I consider myself a revolutionary girl at heart, in mind, and in spirit. There is nothing more I want out this world than a conscious people that revolt against tyranny, consumerism, and social and political inequality.

In a way I understand this need for girls to refuse the educational system since it’s dominated by male perspectives, ideologies, and general interpretations of what society should be. (insert reference link here). Being a revolutionary means to actively participate in or advocate a revolution- in this case for an abrupt change in tyranny, consumerism, and social and political inequality. However, how will a girl know she’s being affected by such if she has no education? How can she revolt without the power of knowing that her counterparts are being mistreated? If she has no systematic education how can she think critically about the injustices of her government and how it affects everyone around her?

I was naive in high school. I thought the world was a peachy place. I delved in reading from the literary canon- dominated by male authors, and not until I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelly did I get a glimpse of how female voices were muted. Then I read the Bronte sisters and Sylvia Plath. In college I took a Chicano Studies course and my eyes opened wide, my ears listened and that’s when I decided I wanted to do something about injustices in my culture that happen everyday. Then I took a Gender Studies course and I entered another world that needed attention. I decided to be any ally for the LGBT community.

The author of the quote comes from a positive place I suppose. But since I consider myself to be a revolutionary, a statement like this makes me feel as if I’m not. Why? Because it was in that systematic education that I gained the knowledge that gave me the platform to find myself, to realize that people needed to be informed of social and political injustices, and oppression- and that information needs to be volunteered and spread to be able to rise. Once that happens the masses will unite and we’ll be able to revolt together. You see, how could I have  known that if for some reason I came across this quote at a young age? I could be a naive revolutionary- maybe revolting in the name of the wrong cause.

xoxo

Monica