The 2010s was a decade of feminist revival. This was the decade that previously uninvolved women became gender critical, the decade radical feminism saw a resurrection, and the decade that brought you WLRN’s monthly podcast. It was a decade that spurred a feminist awakening of many young women who otherwise wouldn’t have had reason to think twice about their situation as women. While we faced a new erosion of women’s rights and protections in the 2010s, we also saw an increased interest in feminism that hasn’t happened since the 1970s, with more women recognizing the difference between liberalism and feminism, and more women, including lesbians, choosing genuine feminism instead of liberalism.     

In the last ten years, we have seen the rise of transgender rhetoric, influence, and power; the #Me Too movement that brought rich, powerful men in Hollywood and beyond to account; Anita Sarkeesian sparking GamerGate, highlighting the misogyny in the video game industry; Emma Sulkowizc starting her mattress protest against rape on college campuses; the Black Lives Matter movement; the Dakota Access Pipeline Protests; the ending of Michigan Women’s Music Festival, after 40 years1; and so many stories of male violence and sexual predation against women and girls, including that which inspired women around the world to feminism.  

This was the decade that I, Sekhmet She Owl, became a radical lesbian feminist. My consciousness raising and realization of feminism’s truth has been one of the highlights of my decade. I came to WLRN a green feminist, hungry for the opportunity to make a difference and the opportunity to learn everything I could about radical feminism. I am proud to say that after my involvement with WLRN and the last few years of activism, reflection, self-education, and content producing, I am more of a feminist today than I was when I started out 4 years ago. Participating in this feminist media collective has given me the chance to explore my political beliefs and contribute to the contemporary feminist movement in a way that impacts other women and girls. I thank you for listening to my commentaries and for supporting WLRN’s podcast and other feminist content since we started.    

WLRN has been bringing you feminist content every month for almost 4 years now, and we could not be more proud or more honored to participate in the feminist struggle with our faithful, feminist listeners. In the next decade, we hope to stay the course and bring you more radical feminist discourse, thought, and insight. We thank you for listening to, engaging with, and supporting our work, and we encourage you to create your own feminist content, keep the feminist dialogue alive, and spread the feminist message to as many women and girls as you can.

Happy New Year, feminist listeners! We hope the 2020s are a decade of personal and feminist growth for you and for the women of WLRN.