We love this longer post from SPARKteam member Emma on why feminism isn’t just some spent social movement from the past (and not just ’cause she gives us a shout!):

On November 25, 2011, ABC aired an episode of 20/20 concerning the sexualization of young girls and the organization SPARK (Sexualization Protection: Action, Resistance, Knowledge) which is currently combating this media fueled plague in our society.  After much pestering, I was able to get a friend of mine to tune in.  After watching the whole segment not only was he not convinced that the sexualization of girls and women is a serious problem in our society, his immediate response to me was “How much more freedom do you women want?”

These eight tiny words convey perfectly how much we still need the feminist movement in our society and the general public’s misconceptions about feminism all in one ugly sentence.  It is as if, just because women can vote and have jobs that allow us to be self-supporting, women have nothing left to fight for, and no more rights to demand.

Well, feminism is here to remind the world that all oppressed groups have a lot left to fight for, regardless of how near or how distant equality is.  For example, though women do have the right to vote and to make choices about our bodies when it comes to abortions and pregnancies (though not everyone has access to abortions in ways that they should), rights that we would not be enjoying now if not for the amazing and inspirational work of players in the feminist movement, the sexualization and objectification of women is still very much impeding our progress on the way to equality.

Read the whole thing at F to the Third Power, an amazing blog run by high school students and their teacher, Ileana Jiménez.