Feminism Must Focus on Basic Survival Needs
Mikki Kendall’s grandmother never used the word feminist, but she lived its principles every day. Raised in Jim Crow America, she saw work and education as essential tools for survival, not lifestyle choices. She taught that caring for your community and maintaining your independence is far more important than acting ladylike. This upbringing showed that true freedom comes from challenging any movement that ignores your basic needs, like food, housing, and safety.
Mainstream feminism often focuses on those who already have their basic needs met. It prioritizes increasing privilege for a few instead of ensuring survival for the many. When a movement only serves the middle class, it ignores the women who are most at risk and most in need of advocacy. Feminism must belong in the community, not just in academic halls. True solidarity recognizes how race, class, and gender overlap to create unique challenges for different people. We must stop viewing marginalized women as problems to be solved and start seeing them as leaders. By centering the needs of the most vulnerable, the entire community becomes healthier and more equitable.
The pressure to be a "good girl" offers no real protection against systemic harm. Being polite and quiet often makes marginalized women easier targets for exploitation and violence. Embracing the role of the "bad girl" can be a necessary way to demand respect and ensure personal safety. There is a major difference between being nice and being kind; being nice often means staying silent to avoid making others uncomfortable, while being kind sometimes requires bluntness to force people to address the damage they are doing. Standing up and fighting back is a vital skill when the status quo is designed to keep you down.
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