Amelia Hruby - Fifty Feminist Mantras

Fifty Feminist Mantras copyright 2020 by Amelia Hruby. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.

Andrews McMeel Publishing

a division of Andrews McMeel Universal

1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106

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ISBN: 978-1-5248-6304-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020934875

Cover Design and Illustrations by Emily Jaynes

Editor: Charlie Upchurch

Art Director/Designer: Diane Marsh

Production Editor: David Shaw

Production Manager: Tamara Haus

Digital Production: Kristen Minter

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To your feminine self, your feminist potential, and every woman* whos inspired or supported you along the way.

*Anytime I say woman or women in this book, I mean anyone who identifies as a woman or with communities of women. I also mean the socially constructed, structurally oppressed position that produces concrete experiences of discrimination and marginalization for women. The spelling womxn would also be an appropriate descriptor.

CONTENTS

HOW TO USE THIS EBOOK

This book is intended to be a journal. Please grab a pen and notebook to follow along.

INTRODUCTION

On Halloween of 2016, I started a project that I named Feminist Mantra Monday. The idea was to create a weekly mantra series that would help people of all genders embrace feminisms and themselves as feminists. So each Monday for a year (with a few exceptions, of course), I posted a mantra on my Instagram profile and a brief essay explaining its meaning and feminist potential on my blog.

In many ways, the project was a public journaling process. The mantras were fueled by my activities and reflections from the week prior, often in response to things happening in the world at large. In other ways, however, the project took its own shape and form as readers invested their lives and meanings in the mantras and shared comments and conversations on the posts.

The mantras were always a self-exploratory prompt, but a community also blossomed around them. Originally published on the heels of the 2016 presidential election, they became a collective rallying cry against the election of a sexist, white supremacist president. As years passed and I continued writing weekly feminist mantras, they served as a reminder of the importance of activism and self-care and a signpost of the necessity of developing our deeply personal but always political feminist practices.

Reading and working with the feminist mantras in this book will not provide you with a detailed history of the feminist movement or a critical analysis of feminist theory. But the book will teach you some of the feminist values that Ive learned by studying feminism and interviewing feminist activists for the past seven years.

These values are communicated through important lessons in trusting your intuition, learning to listen, cultivating community bonds, nurturing our emotions and desires, reconsidering the role of the feminine, and imagining futures for ourselves radically different from the ones provided by the white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal society in which we live.

I believe that these lessons represent important feminist values like empathy, community, imagination, pleasure, joy, and soft power that you will learn about over the course of the mantras. As you read, I invite you to consider your own list of values and why each entry on your list may or may not be feminist. Each of us will arrive at our own answers, and I encourage you to treat this book as an invitation for your own reflection rather than a guide to the right answers.

The intention of this book is to make space for each of us to continue (or to begin) a weekly feminist mantra practice in our lives. I encourage you to set aside a time each week to read and meditate on one of the mantras.

They are arranged in the book by season, but feel free to skip weeks that dont resonate with you and come back when they do. There are structured journal pages with each mantra to help you reflect on how it may apply to your life and the lives of others. Sometimes these pages are just a few simple questions; other times they will guide you through creative exercises. Again, sit with or skip these prompts as feels right to you.

If you make posts about the mantras or the book on your social profiles, feel free to tag them with #FiftyFeministMantras. Im also still posting new feminist mantras on Instagram every Monday, and you can join the community following those at #FeministMantraMonday.

If you want to connect off Instagram, I produce a podcast called Fifty Feminist States where I travel across the United States interviewing feminist activists and artists. Its a great way to learn more about the grassroots feminist work happening around the country and to consider how your feminist mantra practice can support community organizing efforts.

As you can see, there are myriad ways to be in touch, so please dont hesitate to reach out if youd like to share about your journey. It brings me true joy to take part in your feminist self-exploration and community creation, and Im so excited to cheer you on through your journey. I hope this practice brings you greater insight into your feminine self, your feminist potential, and past, present, and future communities of women.

Always,

Amelia @ameliajohruby

ameliahruby.com

A NOTE ABOUT MANTRAS

Some of you may not be familiar with the idea of mantras and their purpose. Most generally, mantras are words or phrases meant to be repeated to help you focus and concentrate. They are similar to intentions or guiding principles or very short prayers.

Each of the mantras in this book is just one or a few words long, and all of them start with verbs. The idea is that meditating on them will help them sink into your mind and heart, and then they will help guide your actions throughout the week. I find that in moments of stress or confusion, my weekly mantra can help me feel grounded in navigating our busy, complex world and making decisions that are true to myself.

There are many ways to develop a mantra practice. Some people like to meditate on their mantra each morning before they get out of bed. Others put a Post-it note on their mirror or make it their phone background so that they see it many times a day. Some prefer to light a candle and journal about it once at the beginning of the week and then let it linger in their subconscious until the next weeks mantra meditation.

I encourage you to craft a mantra practice that suits you and allows the mantras to best serve you. You may follow the writing prompts I give or make up your own as you go. There is no wrong way to use a mantra, and a mantra should always feel nourishing and supporting.