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  • Are we recording?

  • So a while back I was on The Ellen Show

  • and Ellen asked me if I would call myself a feminist?

  • and I said absolutely would

  • and then recently I gave this interview, journalist was named Marlo Stern

  • and he asked me what does that mean to you to be a feminist?

  • or what does feminism mean to you?

  • And I told him that to me, it just means that your gender doesn't have to

  • define who you are that you can be whatever you want to be

  • or whoever you want to be regardless of your gender

  • and this interview got a lot of attention on the internet

  • which I thought was really cool

  • I think it's a good thing to talk about

  • and certainly there was a lot of support and I'm very grateful for the people

  • who are saying that it was cool that I would call myself a feminist

  • and then there's a lot of people out there who were sort of against

  • the word feminism and who take it to mean a lot of different things.

  • and I actually wasn't as aware of this. I even found a site called

  • women against feminism.tumblr.com

  • and I actually really found it very interesting looking through that site

  • and seeing what different people had to say who didn't identify with that word

  • you know people would find that word feminism to be sort of anti-men or indicate that

  • it was not right for a woman to do things that are traditionally

  • considered the woman's place like stay home and raise kids

  • and then there were some people that were saying that feminism made sense in the past

  • but it doesn't anymore because men and women are equal now.

  • And I'm no expert but I think the facts are pretty contrary to this.

  • I think if you actually look at the evidence of like salaries

  • for women versus salaries for men at least, in the United States

  • there's still a definite disparity and

  • that's just one of many examples

  • so it's complicated and I grant that it's complicated

  • and I think it's a really great thing for us all to be talking about.

  • and in the interest of furthering this conversation

  • I want to ask you guys, what you think about this?

  • What does that word feminism mean to you?

  • Now as you might or might not know.

  • I run this company called Hit Record that I started as a hobby.

  • many many years ago with my brother.

  • and since 2010 we've been doing it as a production company.

  • and since last year we've been making it a television show.

  • and the first season of the television show was on last year.

  • on the new cable channel pivot.

  • You can watch the first episode of the television show for free!

  • right here on YouTube.

  • but this is the kind of thing we do on our show is.

  • ask interesting questions get the conversation going and then

  • maybe make art-based on things that people say in those conversations.

  • so we're working on the second season of the show right now.

  • and every episode of the show has a theme.

  • one of the episodes is going to be regarding your mom.

  • And for me this question of feminism is perfect for that episode

  • because the first person who ever told me about that word feminism was my mom

  • my mom was active in sort of what's called the second wave of

  • the feminist movement in the 60s and 70s.

  • of course the first wave was the women's suffrage movement.

  • back before women could vote in this country there was a movement.

  • for women to be allowed to vote.

  • so not only was feminism something that my mom

  • sort of taught me about obviously motherhood in general is right at the core of

  • what feminism is or isn't.

  • A lot of people who don't identify with that word feminism

  • feel like that word is somehow against motherhood.

  • Me, personally, I don't take it that way.

  • For me, as a feminist, I would say it should be

  • up to the woman to decide if she wants to be a mom

  • then she should be a mom if that's

  • you know, what she wants to do full-time and that's awesome.

  • that's what my mom did.

  • but if she also, if she wants to go out and work.

  • have a career other than being a mom that she should

  • be able to do that as well.

  • and then that's to the benefit of everybody.

  • So here's what I want you to do. Talk into your camera.

  • just like I'm doing right now and tell me.

  • what does the word feminism mean to you.

  • Would you call yourself a feminist?

  • Why? Why not? And I'm perfectly perfectly open to hearing.

  • why you wouldn't call yourself a feminist.

  • I want to hear all sorts of opinions. Then come to our site.

  • Hit Record and upload that video footage, contributed to this collaboration

  • that I started regarding feminism and we'll use a bunch of different things.

  • that people say and maybe who knows something that somebody says

  • will spark a script, maybe you know if you're a writer out there.

  • and you see something that somebody says or

  • an exchange that people have on the site you can turn that

  • into a script and that can become a short film.

  • Maybe somebody has something to say and you watch them on the site.

  • and you're an illustrator and you start drawing that first.

  • and then that can become a cartoon.

  • or maybe it inspires you to write a song.

  • These are the sorts of things that springboard into the pieces

  • that we make on all variety show Hit Record on TV.

  • That's it, I'm really looking forward to seeing

  • what you guys have to say and we'll see where it goes from there.

  • Thanks again

Are we recording?

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