American Idol...

On Monday night, the College Feminists had their fall speaker, none other than the completely awesome Jessica Valenti. I wrote this summer about I have a complete girl (woman?) crush on her, so I was extremely excited to hear her speak, and I braved the cold to walk to Tech to go. I've mentioned that I'm a card-carrying feminist, and it was really great to see so many people who identify the same way at the talk. It's sometimes hard to find someone who will openly admit to it - someone who doesn't look at you like you're a little crazy when you mention it, and I was really impressed and pleased at the number of men there. Jessica Valenti is the editor of feministing and the author of three books, one of which, The Purity Myth, (which I highly recommend) she talked about on Monday night. Since I've read the book it wasn't that I was getting new information, but the anecdotes that she told that were separate from the book were funny and compelling. I also loved her discussion of what makes sites like feministing so important. I was introduced to feminism in my family - my mother and my sister are both feminists (my mother even has a copy of the Feminine Mystique that's signed by Betty Friedan) but I know that there are a lot of men and women who aren't exposed to that in the home, or are exposed to the very opposite. I like feministing because it takes feminist issues and talks about them in a way that's engaging and accessible - for everyone. They're also debunking myths about feminists that hurt us everyday. I'm extremely glad I got to hear Jessica talk, and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.