#FollowFriday Feminist Thinker Edition

With the Women's March stuff blowing up my feed, Planned Parenthood & the Affordable Care Act under attack and a rapist being sworn in as President next Friday it seemed fitting to have this #FollowFriday be about the kick ass ladies writing from a place of the personal as political. 

Jessica Velenti

This writer stole my heart when I read her book The Purity Myth. Part sociology, part her own commentary on "purity ball/right/concept" culture in Evangelical Christian communities. She's written a whole bunch of other books, LOTS of articles and started the amazing blog Feministing.com when she was WAY younger than I am now. I had the pleasure of fangirl-ing out when I went to a Northeastern University student event  to see her speak (I was not, nor have I ever been a student at Northeastern).

Janet Mock

A kindred spirit/identity twin of mine who is a multiracial Black trans woman from Hawaii. In her beautifully honest autobiography Redefining Realness she brings you into her life in an overwhelmingly intimate way. As a writer that likes to write on my own experiences, vulnerabilities and feelings it was an inspiration and made me want to be half as brave a writer as her. You can check out her HBO special The Trans List out now and listen to her speak on being Black in Hawaii on Another Round. 

bell hooks

An elder of Black feminism, hooks writes about a plethora of things in the MANY books she has published but I particularly like her series on Love. It is rare that people write about the politics of love, what we believe about love, how the act of loving ourselves and each other can be revolutionary. She's the most academic writer of the bunch but definitely worth the effort of sifting through academic language to get to some pretty amazing and validating concepts.

Kim Katrin Milan

Canadian--so in other words, amazing. I found Kim's work through a random YouTube video of her speaking about Queer POC identity at Toronto Pride and instantly fell in love. Her feminism comes from a revolutionary intersectional place that centers queerness, femme identity and Blackness. Her and her husband ,trans activist Tiq Milan just released this Ted Talk about Queer Love and watching it was the first time I ever heard a couple in the media talk about a relationship that actually reflected my own.

Do yourself a favor and read all their things and lightly stalk them on their social media pages this MLK weekend.