“I need feminism because my boobs don’t need support and padding, and neither do I,” reads a white board held up by senior Phoebe Kaufman. For the past few weeks, Kaufman has been photographing students on campus for a project entitled “I Need Feminism Because…” Having received an overwhelmingly positive response from the student body, her project has started a new legacy of feminism at Fieldston. The photos, each capturing a Fieldston member’s “I need feminism because…” statement, are displayed throughout the school and on a Facebook group that has amassed over 500 “likes” since the project’s creation following spring break. Recently, The Fieldston News had the chance to sit down with Kaufman to discuss the intricacies and inspirations related to her increasingly popular project.
Fieldston News: What brought this project on? Was there any specific event, or person, that inspired you or was it more of your own doing?
Phoebe Kaufman: Over spring break, I saw on Facebook that St. Ann’s had done an “I Need Feminism” project and I thought it was one of the most interesting public art projects that I had ever seen, because it really calls attention to these micro aggressions that we see every day at Fieldston. I thought that it would be important to bring something like this to Fieldston, a place where we pride ourselves on being very accepting and inclusive. At the same time, I know that when I talk with my friends I’ve definitely had times when I’ve felt very excluded as a woman, and with my opinions. So I thought this would call attention to this issue for the entire community at Fieldston, to take note of women in general. I know there are a lot of girls that think [micro-aggressions are] unfair and every little thing, every little “I Need Feminism Because” reason, [has] been said ten million times in the hallway so I thought it would be interesting to bring them to life and let everyone see them.
FN: This project really resonat with all of the Fieldston community, both male and female. Can you think of any reason why so much of the response to this project has included male involvement?
PK: I think that the genius of the project is that it is deeply, deeply personal. I think now is a very new time for feminism, because instead of being a set of women that want specific rights, almost human rights, it’s now become a bigger community of women. Feminism isn’t about Seneca Falls anymore. Feminism is men and women being treated equally. So, I think the reason that a lot of the guys did it is because when I go around asking people to do it, it became a cool thing to do. I had so many people coming up to me and telling me that they had been thinking about their idea, and once girls with their guy friends were doing that, I think a lot of them started thinking about it and realizing that it could be applied to them. And actually, what happened with the majority of the guys was at first they would come up with a silly one, or a blanket statement. But later, sometimes that same night or the next morning, I would get messages from different boys telling me that they had talked it over with their friends, that they had talked it over with their families, and they realized that they actually do need feminism. So, I think unlike other things, it doesn’t make guys feel victimized. It makes them want to participate and realize that they need it too.
FN: You recently sent out an email about passing on the Facebook page to juniors for next year. What can you see for the future of feminism at Fieldston, or what do you hope for?
PK: First of all, the Women’s Leadership Group is one of the most amazing things at Fieldston. I think being part of the Women’s Leadership Group or the Male Leadership Group is a really instrumental part of the Fieldston experience. But, I feel like not everyone is involved with that because not every male or female wants to say that he or she is a hardcore feminist or wants to advocate for women’s rights. The whole idea of having two or three juniors take on this project for next year is to continue this idea of creating public projects that can spread awareness. Using things not only like fishbowl discussions, or roundtable discussions, important as those things are, I think it’s important to make the project something that every single person can participate in. What I want next year is to give the page to people who are going to find more projects like the “I Need Feminism” project that is so easy for everyone to get involved in and make feminism more accessible. Not everyone wants to have a big discussion about it, because it isn’t necessarily something that everyone feels particularly passionate about. I think that the project should continue with a legacy of making feminism accessible.
FN: Are there any particular qualities that you’re looking for in a junior leader, or any specific ways that they can get involved?
PK: What I’m looking for now are people that I know are going to try to make it accessible and are willing to go up to people in the hallway and say to their peers, “you should do this project now because it’s important.” We need to accept that it is one of the most important issues, or “isms,” because it includes every single person in the entire world. It isn’t that other issues don’t involve everyone, but feminism is that men and women should be treated equally. What I’m looking for is a leader who will be rallying the masses and getting people to really think and want to support it. If anyone at Fieldston ever wants to do anything like the “I Need Feminism” project, it was the easiest thing I’ve ever done. It started the Tuesday after we returned from break. I just went to my dean’s office and discussed it with him, went to Mr. Stracke’s room and got a camera, found markers and dry erase boards, and I just did it. Even if some juniors don’t get to be administrators of the page, you can still get involved. What I want is for not only the administrators of the page to be involved, but for everyone to be inspired and realize it’s easy to fight what you believe in and make it an issue that other people can see.
FN: What have you taken away from this experience?
PK: At the beginning, it was mostly girls doing it, but…as it progressed a lot of guys were participating. The most unbelievable thing that happened to me was that for every night for the first week and a half that I had started this, I had at least two guys messaging me every night and telling me, “Phoebe, thank you for doing this project,” or something along those lines. One guy in particular told me that this project made him and other guys not be afraid of the word “feminist,” to maybe even call themselves feminists and realize that they really are feminists. That just made me feel so happy. I feel like I’ve done something, even if it [was] just getting people to accept what other people already knew about them. To have even one person change his mind about calling himself a feminist is more than I ever could have hoped for.
