Feminist Conversations is a weekly column at Feminists For Choice. We interview feminist activists from across the interwebs to find out what feminism means to them. Today we’re talking to Talia bat Pessi bat Feige bat Ita bat Gittel, who blogs over at Star of Davida. Talia describes herself as a loudmouth, opinionated teenage Femidox (feminist Orthodox) Jew with a love of unadulterated Judaism, a fascination with her people’s historical women, and way too much time on her hands. She can’t wait to get out of school and into the real world, where she hopes to become a labor lawyer specializing in workplace discrimination and sexual harassment to help out her sisters in need.

1. How long have you been blogging, and what was your inspiration for starting the Star of Davida website?
I’ve been blogging since July 2010. I followed several feminist blogs for a really long time before that, and my writing was even featured on some of the pretty big ones, but it wasn’t enough for me – I needed a forum where I could rant about feminism. After playing with several titles and layouts, I settled on Star of Davida and the current design and began ranting.

2. When did you first call yourself a feminist, and what contributed to your decision?
I began actively calling myself a feminist last summer, when I was going into my freshperson year of high school. I had written several papers in middle school about the suffrage movement, and while I agreed with the First Wave wholeheartedly, it was hard to strongly identify with it, as women have had the right to vote for almost a century. Last summer I wrote a paper about Second-Wave Feminism, whose goals are still unmet, and that’s when I really found my calling. [Read more...]