Are You a Feminist on Campus? Take an Armband

Today, I was walking through the Arts Quad when I saw someone holding a sign while another was passing out strips of white fabric. Upon closer examination, I realized that these pieces of cloth were armbands.

“Will you label yourself a feminist?” asked the activist holding the sign as students walked past him on their way to class. Intrigued, I stepped into the patch of grass the students had staked out as the feminist armband zone.

It is interesting that the activists would choose to pass out armbands as a symbol of feminist solidarity. While armbands are good at marking certain people as members of a group and denote the team captain in soccer, the armband is certainly loaded with… less than savory historical connotations. I’m not sure if armbands are the best way to rally support for feminism, considering how the term “feminazi” has made the move from sneer to acceptable English.

Despite the negative historical implications of wearing armbands, I still saw many students throughout the rest of the day proudly flying their colors on their sleeves. Of course, I don’t have a problem if people want to wear them. Students here should be allowed to wear what they want and banning types of clothing is a slippery slope.

I’m just saying that seeing people passing out and wearing armbands on campus left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Were they supposed to establish unity within a group? Bring in an “us vs. them” mentality between the banded and non-banded students? Or was this some kind of psychology experiment made to show that feminists will support anything, however futile, that is even remotely related to feminism?

“All these people have done it,” said the activist as he turned around the sign around to reveal name tags that had been stuck onto the sign by people who had taken an armband to support feminism. Ah, my favorite: peer pressure.

“Would you like to sign your name?”

Well, all the cool kids did it and I don’t want to be on their blacklist when the armbanded ones are kicking in doors looking for dissenters, so your humble author signed his name and took an armband.