As clubs filled the cafeteria for the annual club fair, a few new names stood out, namely the Young Feminist Club.
Six boys signed up and attended the first meeting, including junior Jose Tryon.
“I wanted to join the feminist club because I felt that it’s another step toward a form of equal rights. I wanted to learn more about it,” Tryon said. “I didn’t know exactly what feminism is, and I’m willing to learn.”
Juniors Mallory McFall and Olivia Randolph, co-presidents, created the club.
“[I wanted] to communicate with other people and I figured other people did as well,” McFall said.
Young Feminist Club members plan on meeting every other week in sponsor Shannon Draper’s classroom. Topics will cover women’s inequality issues, but other issues will be brought up as well.
While McFall and Randolph have similar definitions of feminism, they differ when it comes to their favorite parts of being a feminist.
“[My favorite part] is that I’m always learning and that I can talk to other people and that I’m always adapting to make myself a better person,” McFall said.
On the other hand, Randolph said she likes being able to open people’s eyes to issues that affect women.
“To be honest, I just hate that some people just use females as a doormat. It really bugs me,” Tryon said. “I just want to help raise awareness that that’s not OK and that females are just as smart, if not smarter, than what society really leads them on to be.”
One prominent feminist that stands out to the co-presidents is Wendy Davis. Davis recently filibustered the Texas legislature during debate on an abortion bill.
As well as discussing feminist issues, McFall and Randolph plan on extending the club into the community. Randolph said she wants to visit some women’s help centers in Lawrence, such as Willow Domestic Violence Center to help and become more educated.
“We think that if we can get our club out there and have people say, ‘Oh, these children are 16 years old and they care so much about the equality of men and women that they started a club,’ people start listening,” Randolph said.
Draper would love to see the club in action because she thinks it will always be a relevant issue and that as long as students can talk about it, the more they will be connected to the world at large.
“[Feminism] as a social movement or as an activist platform is so much bigger than an individual classroom or a high school or a city or a state or a country,” Draper said. “It’s a global idea and concept.”