The Day My Feminist Was Born

It is hard to pinpoint when I first discovered the feminist inside. This first thing that I can recall was in fourth grade. My ILA (which was their fancy term for English) teacher was Ms. Britton. It always seemed like she had it out for me. English was always my best subject, but I struggled in Ms. Britton's class—although had it not been for her, I don't think I would know how to spell antidisestablishmentarianism.

Photo credit: My Vintage Vogue.

I have always been partial to hats, and although my school had a policy against wearing them in school I ignored that. My absolute favorite hat was a brown beret of sorts that I had gotten from a friend. One day I wore it to Ms. Britton's class.


"Get that rag off your head, Benzinger," she said. She was one of those teachers that loved to call everyone by their last name.

Now as a fourth grader, you would think that I would have just listened out of fear of getting in trouble but instead I chose to argue my right to wear the hat. I explained to her how there used to be a time where women were required to wear hats in public, but I was choosing to do so. She was so flabbergasted that she let me wear my hat that day, but asked that I not wear it in her classroom again.


A small victory for me. 


To this day, when I ask my mom how I came up with that she swears I thought of it on my own.
I still love the idea of wearing fancy hats when out, although I may be alone on this one.

Photo credit: Fashion Era.