Lo Radclyffe's Feminist Writing Portfolio

Dear Reader - 

Over Spring Quarter of 2024 in Dr. Julie Shayne’s Power of Feminist Writing BIS 490 senior seminar we explored 10 weeks of varying feminist writing genres. Spanning from children’s books to theater to public scholarship and more. Seeing so many iterations of feminist writing expanded my definition far past what I thought it was at the beginning of the quarter. The beauty and power of feminist writing is that they are telling stories about experiences we don’t hear, from voices we don’t hear from. Each voice and experience are so unique and diverse and yet speaks of the universal oppression we all face. Feminist texts have a power to heal through their writing by taking the power of shame away from an experience. Sharing our stories loosens the grip they have on us. These stories share that we are not alone. They allow our readers to be reflected in them. Feminist texts unite us in solidarity.

The first of my final pieces are three pieces written for The Feminist Archives Exhibit on the Feminist Digital Center. This exhibit is an open access online museum exhibit highlighting histories that have been hidden and silenced. Each exhibit is an example of how empowering student scholarship can be. By allowing students to find what moves them and what they are called to, they create bodies of work that gives voice to the reality of history when it is not written by the “winners”. One of the most impactful parts of this kind of feminist writing is that it is open access. Students use the resources of the UWB library and librarians to create their exhibits and then all that information is made available to the public with no need for a college login. This is a radical reshifting of how academia can be used to create accessible and inclusive information for the members of our communities who do not have access to these resources. I am honored to be writing the framing words for these exhibits.

Poetry is a genre that has always intimidated me. For a long time in fact, I fully avoided it. Since taking so many of Dr. Shayne’s classes I have felt the ice around poetry start to melt slowly, bringing us to now, where there are no icy remnants left. Poetry is moving and profound. Claudia Castro Luna’s work in Killing Marias showed me poetry’s force and power. Luna used her voice to speak for all the women who have disappeared or been killed in Juarez, Mexico. Ensuring that they will continue to live on through her words. Luna inspired me to use my voice to speak my experience into power. This was a major exercise in vulnerability, creatively and personally.  Being a lesbian has saved my life in more ways than I can count and naming that through poetry felt like the best way to honor my journey. 

We were required to read one memoir this quarter. I chose Redefining Realness by Janet Mock. I was excited to read her story and gain perspective on what navigating life through those identities was like for her. I had no idea how much of my story would be reflected back to me. I have had many struggles with my identity and figuring out what presentation helps me put my best foot forward in life. I have often told myself that since I turned out okay I don’t need to share my story. Mock’s memoir showed me the power in naming those experiences and putting them to paper. 

Sarah Cannon’s work The Shame of Losing, cemented that belief. Cannon’s work called out to my experience of leaving a marriage, albeit for very different circumstances, as advocacy for myself. It was ultimately the variety of writing styles in her memoir that inspired my memoir chapters. I wanted to work from the place of the disguised “I” because it proved to be the style that allowed the words to come pouring out of my fingertips. Almost every author we met with this quarter spoke to the call or nagging feeling that compelled them to their genre and respective work. These two chapters answered that call for me. 

Melissa Febos writes about how writing about trauma and shame is our heart-work. She tells us that it is not self-indulgent to write for catharsis. She tells us that is in fact the most powerful work we can do. I am so proud of these two pieces of writing. They show the dynamic highs and lows and messiness of finding yourself. The first piece on Pride would be the opening piece in my memoir. It sets the tone and touches on where the rest of the memoir goes. Between the first and second piece would be a more in-depth explanation of my upbringing, closeting and internalized homophobia. The second story would be closer to the middle to bridge the gap of what came before and what comes next. It was a crucial turning point for the rest of my life.

I have also included my 5 journal entries that synthesize all of the readings we did this quarter.

This class was the most impactful class of my college career. It inspired me to write, to be expansive and to embrace my growth. I have grown in my own definition of feminism and how to move this work into praxis. By continually uplifting and centering voices that are silenced it lets our words soar past being just words on a page. It lets them breathe and take root in our hearts and minds. These words urge us to create safer and braver spaces of exploration and understanding. For both, ourselves, and those who we move through the world with. Feminist writing is empowering, emboldening and invigorating despite the often heart-wrenching material.  Feminist writing is vital to shaping the world outside of how we know it now and reclaiming our power.

Dear Reader- Find your power and write it out to release it. Let it empower others. You are worth it.

A major thank you to:

Dr. Julie Shayne - For not only putting this class together but for always being an exceptional educator. Your passion and dedication to GWSS is contagious and invigorating. 

Penelope Wood - For being just as enthusiastic about research and history as I am and always helping me find exactly what I need

Every guest speaker and student in class who helped and furthered my growth and understanding of the work.

Thank you everyone!