15 Feminist Icons You Need In Your Life
Patriarchy getting you down? Never fear! We’ve complied a list of 15 modern feminist icons from all walks of life to inspire you every day!
1. Jameela Jamil
You know her from: portraying sexy giraffe Tahani Al-Jamil on NBC’s The Good Place, launching @i_weigh, her vocal criticism of celebrities who promote hunger suppressants and diet shakes.
“I think we are all feminists-in-progress. I believe that we don’t all have all of the answers, and I think that there’s a great power in admitting to that, because then you create space for yourself to grow, and to learn, and to change. I’m someone who didn’t understand feminism; I didn’t even know the term intersectional feminism, I think because I just thought, ‘Well, I love all people, so therefore I am an intersectional feminist.’ But my feminism wasn’t specifically targeting and helping and elevating cultures that weren’t mine. I was focusing on the plight of brown women, and therefore ignoring the plight of black women or women with disabilities or women who are deaf, or blind, or trans.”
2. Laverne Cox
You know her from: being the first openly transgender person nominated for an Emmy, to appear on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine, and to have a wax figure of themselves at Madame Tussaudes; being a trailblazer in the transgender community, that fantastic, vagina-centric sex-ed scene in Netflix’s Orange is the New Black.
“Everything about the prison-industrial complex is designed to dehumanize the women who are incarcerated. So, it means so much to me that our show is about doing the exact opposite.”
3. Malala Yousafzai
You know her from: surviving an assassination attempt, her advocacy for female education, being the youngest ever recipient of a Nobel Prize.
“We liked to be known as the clever girls. When we decorated our hands with henna for holidays and weddings, we drew calculus and chemical formulae instead of flowers and butterflies.”
4. Tarana Burke
You know her from: her civil rights activism and work with victims of sexual violence, founding the #MeToo movement.
“Women have been speaking up for years about harassment and abuse. ‘Me Too’ has just created cover for those who didn’t feel safe enough to speak up. The movement didn’t *create* the concept of speaking out. it just allowed people to hear us better as a chorus and not a solo.”
5. Samirah Raheem
You know her from: her viral SlutWalk interview.
“I own my body; my body is not a political playground, it’s not a place for legislation, it’s mine, and it’s my future.”
6. Rachel Bloom
You know her from: writing and starring CW’s subversive feminist comedy-drama Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, her hilarious YouTube music videos.
“It’s double talk and double standards. It’s like, be honest, but don’t be too honest. Look fresh-faced and young, but don’t tell us how you got there. God forbid you have plastic surgery, even though we’re telling you, ‘Oh, you look old.’ Be a career woman, but also, why aren’t you having kids? Are you some kind of cold shrew?”
7. Prince Harry
You know him from: his powerful speech on the importance of education for women at the 2016 Girls Summit, being the husband of feminist extraordinaire Meghan Markle.
“We won’t unlock these opportunities for young women and girls unless we can change the mindset of every family and community. To achieve this, it cannot just be women who speak up for girls.”
8. Jennifer Lawrence
You know her from: her Oscar worthy acting, her political activism, this essay about the gender pay gap in Hollywood, being decidedly unapologetic in her response to the 2014 celebrity nude photo hack.
“I think it’s right to speak of it. It didn’t feel right to make a public statement, but it does need to be talked about. And I was afraid that by sitting and doing nothing, that made it seem O.K. for other women and girls to just let it happen to them, because it isn’t.”
9. Rupi Kaur
You know her from: her poetry and prose, the famous photo of her in period stained sweatpants that forced Instagram to publicly acknowledge the normalcy of menstruation.
“I will not apologise for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society that will have my body in an underwear but not be ok with a small leak when your pages are filled with countless photos/accounts where women (so many who are underage) are objectified, pornified, and treated less than human.”
10. Daniel Radcliffe
You know him from: portraying everybody’s favourite boy wizard, his fantastic deconstruction of the ‘friend zone’.
“The idea of the friend zone is a terrible male idea. Have you ever heard a girl say they’re in the friend zone? It’s a thing that I think men should be really careful about using … I definitely think the idea of friend zone is just men going, ‘This woman won’t have sex with me.'”
11. Ilana Glazer and 12. Abbi Jacobson
You know them from: co-creating and starring in Comedy Central’s Broad City, THAT iconic gif.
[In response to an interview question about their so called “sneak attack” feminism]
Jacobson: We’re both totally up-front and proud feminists. We’re not being all secretive about it. I feel we’re pretty blatant in our approach.
Glazer: I think it’s kind of crazy that we’re still calling comedians “female comedians.” That seems more like a sneak attack.
Jacobson: I mean, sure, if you play the episodes of “Broad City” backward, there are hidden messages.
Glazer: “Diiiie, men.” If you play any “Broad City” episode backward, that’s all we’re saying.
13. Taylor Swift
You know her from: helping you get through all your break ups, symbolically countersuing her abuser for a single dollar during a 2017 sexual assault trial.
“Coming forward is an agonizing thing to go through. I know because my sexual assault trial was a demoralizing, awful experience. I believe victims because I know firsthand about the shame and stigma that comes with raising your hand and saying “This happened to me.” It’s something no one would choose for themselves. We speak up because we have to, and out of fear that it could happen to someone else if we don’t.”
14. Jacinda Ardern
You know her from: being the second woman even to give birth while in office, bringing her 3-month-old daughter to the United Nations General Assembly, her ‘extraordinary’ response to the Christchurch massacre, fielding awkward questions about marriage like a pro.
“The only reason I can do what I’m doing is because my partner has the ability to be a pretty much full-time carer. So I don’t want to appear to be superwoman because we should not expect women to be superwomen.”
15. Margaret Cho
You know her from: her comedy critiquing race and sexuality, vocality about the LGBT+ community, ’Cho-feminism’.
“If you are a woman, if you’re a person of colour, if you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, if you are a person of size, if you are a person of intelligence, if you are a person of integrity, then you are considered a minority in this world. And it’s going to be really hard to find messages of self-love and support anywhere … For us to have self-esteem is truly an act of revolution and our revolution is long overdue.”
