It took me quite a long time to develop a voice,
and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.

~ Madeleine Albright

I have never considered myself a real activist. It’s not that I don’t have opinions and beliefs that I’m happy to discuss or that I don’t support activist movements or organizations that are out on the front lines of issues that I feel strongly about.

As a media professional, I’ve always felt my job was behind the mic or camera or computer screen, helping provide amplification of credible news on topics that are important to me. I don’t pretend that I’m not biased and that I’m a hard news source or anything. The Green Divas media outlet is what it is and clearly it has a focus on environmental and social justice, safe food, non-toxic products, healthy lifestyle, natural living and unabashedly women’s issues.

Early on, there was this thought that it wasn’t inclusive enough because a “diva” was clearly a feminine label. I decided I was ok with that… in fact, very much so. Don’t get me wrong, we love dudes and do our best to bring them into the fun whenever we can. We’ve always featured green dudes, including my co-host of several years Green Dude Scott and of course have interviewed so many amazing men including Van Jones, Ken Cook, Paul Hawken, Josh Fox, Ed Begley, Jr., Michael Green… the list goes on and on and on. Just wanted to be clear that we aren’t anti-dude or anything.

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I’ve never considered myself a feminist either. The feminist movement I was introduced to in the 80s as a young woman felt too aggressive, angry and man-bashing to me. I’m a peacenik at heart and I believe feminine energy is about unity, healing, creativity and ultimately love. It has always been my opinion (humble though it may be) that if anything, men needed healing and balance more than they needed to be at war with angry women. Not that I know how that should come about…

Here I sat yesterday staring at my computer screen, scrolling through my Facebook feed and I noticed a “spiritually-minded” friend had a video about a higher-perspective on the recent Women’s March. I know the friend that posted it did not attend any marches and was curious what this dude had to say. Early into his lecture, he espoused a theory that the women’s marches were all about anger and negative energy, blah, blah, blah… This wasn’t my experience. I respectfully stated that as someone who attended a sister march that was the second largest in my state, that this was the opposite of my experience, that it was a big love-fest and that I thought it was a bit dangerous to lecture folks on something you really didn’t experience. 

By the way, here’s a short video essay on my experience at the Women’s March/sister march I proudly attended…