Feminism's early roots...

I was thinking back the other day about my "feministimony"--you know...my testimony of how I came to be involved in the glorious movement that is feminism. Where did it begin? I NEVER would have called myself the "f" word until only a few years ago--no, that was reserved for crazy women who didn't shave their arms and hated men (don't you love stereotypes?). It was that whole "I'm not a feminist BUT" disclaimer that I hate now. You're a feminist--get over it, it's AWESOME. Anyways, upon reflecting on my journey I realized I was actually a fledgeling feminist back as early as elementary school, as was pointed out to me by my friend Rachel when we were talking about my 4th grade history class (I still don't remember how we happened upon this conversation, as this certainly isn't typical lunch room fare). I was telling her about growing up in Idaho, where you get one full year of Idaho history. You sing about that grand ol' 43rd star every morning (now that I think about it, the indoctrination that was seemingly occurring as we declared our patriotism to our state is a little frightening), learn about Sacajawea (though some spell it "Sacagawea" I do believe), and no, we did not have potato sack races for recreation as my friend Sydney likes to believe. As someone who had spent her previous five years in the corn state of Iowa (not to be confused with Idaho as has happened before), it turns out that Idaho's history seemed a heck of a lot cooler than Iowa's. We at least got the famed exploring duo Lewis and Clark, which led to my coveting of the role of Merriwether Lewis in the school play. These guys traveled across the country, made maps, crossed treacherous rivers, and stirred up all sorts of non-approved trouble within the Native American community, you know, typical white male behavior back in the day I suppose. Being somewhat of a stage hog and attention fiend at the time (I always was up for a good solid solo in the school choir), I wanted a lead role. Unfortunately, the only part for a female was Sacajawea. I knew my friend Shea was a shoe-in, and Sacajawea was the closest thing to a lead role for girls. My friend Becca felt the same way and so we lobbied our teacher to play Lewis and Clark. "But you're girls." Way to state the obvious--I might be in 4th grade but I can still put two and two together. So? "But it's never been done before--these parts are for boys," she protested. After much petitioning --"Why can't we play boys?! It's not fair! We have Title 9, and we can't play a freaking boy in the school play?!" (All right, I'm exaggerating, we definitely did NOT pull Title 9 into the argument as 4th graders, but we would have had we known about it!) I was granted the part of Lewis, and Becca the part of Clark, though I still remember Mrs. Pfaff being seemingly disgruntled by the whole thing. Plus, we were totally better actors and the boys probably knew they would have been harmed if they would have taken the parts from us. Becca had to wear a beard made of coffee grounds (which, might I point out, a boy would have had to as well given that most 4th grade boys can't grow a beard quite yet), and we NAILED it! People felt the struggle of our journey! They felt our passion to discover new lands! I only wish I would have kept up with my acting career, though I'm not quite sure how well I would have fared as cross-gendered parts seem to wane once you get past the 5th grade...