FEMINIST WRITING, VOICE, AND POWER

“Power and Voice of Feminist Writing” serves as my feminist writing portfolio, filled with workshop drafts and revised pieces of this quarter-long endeavor. While these acts were self-fulfilling and ultimately healing to my creative side, I discovered that I not only wrote for myself but others who are struggling to reconnect with their identities and passion through voice. My chosen revised pieces “Chicanas, Lesbians, and Queer Resistance,” “TLUV” and “Why Pre-Major Works Matter” (2024) work as windows into my soul-filled passion for uplifting hidden voices through various means: Academic writing, poetry, and public scholarship writing for an academic audience. 

Working closely with experienced writers in their respective fields (movement journalism, activist writing, theatre, children’s books, fiction, poetry, and memoir) prompted a shift in my thinking as to what feminist writing entails. An author does not have to explicitly call their work feminist to be considered as such. For instance, Jeffrey Cheatham II’s Why is Jane So Mad? (2016) reads as a simple children’s book about emotions and relationships. When discussing with Cheatham his motivation behind writing the book, he explained that he urged to write for his daughter, a young Black girl. Cheatham was being the change he wanted to see. Creating diverse stories for children actively dismantles this majority narrative that has been upheld through the years, thus relating to the mindset that feminist writing encourages. 

To reiterate, my chosen revised pieces aimed to center perspectives that, to the large majority of writing, have little coverage in an academic or artistic sense. My first piece “Chicanas, Lesbians, and Queer Resistance” (2024) is a heavily revised academic essay pulled from a previous class. In it, I deconstruct the role of the Mexican American woman in the family, leaning into the Malinche traitor stereotype that has been placed upon Chicanas since her unjust treatment, and further examine how lesbianism and queerness dismantle the patriarchal structure of society. As a queer Mexican American who cannot separate themselves from womanhood, this piece was the first essay where my academic and personal feminist passions combined. As I chose to expand on this writing, I aimed to emphasize the resilient queer Chicana artists whose voices have a lasting impact on our communities. Furthermore, the addition of Malinche speaks to the parallel of Chicana lesbians as traitors to their culture, which is what Malinche was burdened with within her lifetime and even thereafter.

“TLUV” (2024) is a collection of poems inspired by my flourishing relationship while being transgender and loving other transgender people. It is a love note to the trans community specifically, how our love is unique to its core: Trans love is beautiful and should be celebrated. My poetic inspiration comes from multiple sources: First, Claudia Castro Luna’s Killing Marias (2017) and her homage to victims of femicide in Juarez, Mexico. Upon reading her poems and hearing her story in person, I found myself inching closer to writing poetry in response to areas of pain and joy in my life. The main drive behind feminist writing is to rewrite history, placing marginalized voices in front, and providing a counternarrative to the majority’s story. We look into structural and systemic oppression and deconstruct these forces through writing. That being said, “TLUV” is an active attempt in ripping apart heteronormativity and cisnormativity that occurs in general society. To this day, the idea of being transgender is met with ideas of violence and sorrow. While the transgender existence is painful, more focus must be placed on the endless love between two queer individuals. Death and rebirth are commonplace through transitioning by any means, therefore my goal in this poetry collection was to reflect this change in beauty.

For the final revised piece, I chose to create a framing essay showcasing pre-major students’ works for UW Bothell’s Feminist Digital Center. The newly constructed pre-major tab in the Feminist Digital Center collects work from pre-major students across all disciplines and formats, in hopes of creating an open space where their work can be celebrated. I found my passion for working with pre-major undergraduate students after working in mentoring positions. Upon working with students and seeing their fiery eyes, there felt like no other choice other than to create a short piece framing their work on the Feminist Digital Center. Being a pre-major sandwiched between rising decided students and not having a set place to showcase your work may feel discouraging. To combat that, the Feminist Digital Center centered the voices of pre-major students in hopes of dismantling the hierarchical existence of student work that exists in universities. It’s true: To put your work out to the public is liberating. On the same note, creating space for others to do the same inspires a similar feeling. “Why Pre-Major Work Matters” (2024) emphasizes the necessity of creating a feminist community within an already established space.

These three revised pieces, alongside other workshopped drafts, are the result of my care for uplifting feminist perspectives. Feminism is a mindset that is pro-liberation of oppressed groups and the shift to minority narratives in hopes of rewriting histories. I continue to write for myself, my queer and Mexican communities, and any other marginalized group I am allied with who cannot write for themselves. Through the writing process, it became crystal clear that the power of a collective feminist voice is unlike any other.