Welcome NEW Feminists!

Hi New Feminists-

My first role model growing up in Sweden was Pippi Longstocking - a story about a funny, fearless, independent girl who lived life entirely on her own terms. She shared an old pink house with a polka dot horse, a monkey and chest filled with gold coins. She could figure anything out and never hesitated to share her opinion loudly and cheerfully. Not only was I lucky to have Pippi as an inspiration - Sweden made gender equality one of the cornerstones of its society - believing that in a fair world 100% of its citizens should have equal input in shaping their own life, future and society.

I knew I was fully in charge of my own life and destiny. Something I thought then that every girl was…boy was I wrong.

While I took this freedom for granted, millions of girls around the world grew up as second class citizens, without basic human rights, suffering atrocious abuses and injustices excused by archaic patriarchal religions or machismo cultures. Cultural norms stemming from thousands of years of male dominance.

When we look around our lives and the society we live in, what we perceive as “normal” isn’t inherently correct or right.

We live in a world built around male sexuality. Cities flaunting strip clubs and red-light districts. Online pornography mass promoting physical and verbal abuse of women to generations of men. Cementing women as sexualized objects, normalizing male entitlement to female bodies, and subliminally – her inferiority.  For a century Hollywood has promoted the young, objectified female – only to throw her off the screen at forty. Older men flourish, while older women disappear entirely.  The male storytelling misinformed us about ourselves, telling us our value lies in our looks and youth, not our wisdom. It created a cultural mirror that reflects youth and physical perfection back at women. The worst part, young women grow up taught to disparage their older selves - creating a wisdom gap between generations - that allows patriarchy to program us all over again.

If all that is not confusing enough, social media algorithms encourage girls to objectify themselves, taking cues from male gaze porn culture, and then told to call it feminism.

Feminism – women’s centuries-long fight for social, economic, and political equality, is now reframed as undressing for the male gaze. The insanity loop needs to stop, and common sense enter.

In 1993 I co-founded Knock Out Abuse to help victims of domestic violence. Together we raised over $12 million and helped 35,000 women and children to rebuild their lives shattered by abuse. Sadly, the statistics never improve – 1 in 3 women still fall victim to sexual or domestic abuse.  Only in a world out of balance would there be a never-ending stream of female victims.

I created the New Feminist Podcast as a place to share the best thoughts on common sense feminism so we can intelligently improve each other’s lives.  As Swedish politician Birgitta Dahl, who championed the first gender equality laws told us in our first episode: “When women got their rights - it made men better too. “

Thank you for being here. We hope you sign up, listen, reach out and share The New Feminist with your friends!

xx, Jill Sorensen - TNF Founder

Are you listening? Would love to hear your thoughts.

@thenewfeministofficial