I keep seeing tweets like “okay so america is a dystopian novel now wheres the 16 year old girl to save us” and other condescending shit like that and i just….
where are the girls who are saving us you ask?
oh i don’t know, they are at the Oceti Sakowin camp fighting for the right to clean water and treaty rights. They are protecting their land and water against heavily militarized police forces.
They are and have been at many Black Lives Matter protests. Girls have fought against police brutality in black communities. Women, in fact, are among the top leaders of that movement.
They are the muslim girls who continue to fearlessly wear their hijabs in public despite rampant islamophobia.
And there were plenty of teenage girls at the women’s marches across the country.
So while a single Katniss Everdeen figure has yet to emerge, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t exist. Because young women are protesting every day. They are the Katnisses and the Laia of Serras and the Aelins and the Mare Barrows and the Nehemia Ytgers and the Lihn Cinders that you’ve all read about. These girls exist.
Realize that the fallacy of most dystopians, and many books, is that they often presents a single cohesive narrative of revolt and change. And in our huge, wide world, that is not how change works. But the books themselves are not incorrect in assuming that young women will be the arbiters of change. They are spot fucking on.
| Wednesday 8/16 |
