It has come to my attention that a notion around the AMHS campus has been spreading that our club is not serious and is offensive. I want to assure you that this is far from the case. I would like to take the time to answer some of the big questions that people have been asking, but first I would like to describe why the club was founded. At the beginning of the school year, during lunch, my friends and I were discussing the rise of TikTok, and how it has caused and increased distorted views of equality. We tried to figure out where these ideas stemmed from and we concluded that these stereotypes form because people are uneducated about the topic at hand. This is a topic that I am extremely passionate about ( as I am a Jew I have experienced discrimination) and we decided to combat the problem head-on by trying to increase our knowledge of the subject matter through the reading of literature that focuses on themes of equality. The feminist literature club was founded to increase both our own and others’ knowledge on the subject of gender equality. We went to Ms. Hurt, informed her about our newly found passion, and then came up with a plan for the goals and aspirations of our club. Again, I just want to clarify that the club’s founding is not a joke, and I believe it is truly pertinent to the AMHS club community. The idea that some students who share an environment with us would speak against our club and its founders, even though they don’t know us on a personal level, upsets us very much. This irony and hypocrisy in my opinion is not acceptable!

 I want to make sure this statement will be heard loud and clear: The feminist literature club will not be faltered by ignorance. No matter the rumors you spread or the hate you push our way, we will continue to advocate for gender equality, speak out against discrimination, and continue to learn from past literary works. 

Now to answer some of the questions we have gotten:

#1. Why aren’t there any women holding leadership positions in your club?

I have gone out of my way to try and recruit everyone to join our club. In my opinion, a club that is filled with a diverse amount of people will accumulate different perspectives and will lead to change. However, over and over again people declined as their preconceived notions of myself and the other club founders have brought them to believe that our club was a joke. I do not understand it. Despite this, we are very proud of the number of women in our club. The thing is that none of the people we tried to recruit actually went out of their way to learn about our club and our goals. The ones that did, I can say proudly, either joined or declined but understood that our club was serious! I also want to add that over 20 girls joined our club through the club fair based on our own merit.

#2. What is the goal of the club?

Our goal, as I mentioned before, is to learn. We believe in an ever-changing society in which, for example, we might have a female president for the first time in our country’s history, that the best way to combat misogyny, bigotry, and sexism is through being informed individuals. We believe that literature functions as a beacon of hope and aspirations for a better future. Also, we want to create a community where like-minded individuals (similarly interested in the concept of gender equality) can share their ideas and empower each other to be better. We truly believe that what we are doing is for the betterment of the AMHS Community, and by extension, the youth of today; so the fact that our own peers and even the faculty questioned us is extremely unexpected from such a remarkable school.

I want to clarify that we are aware that some people who joined our club did so as a joke, and we are currently trying to formulate a plan to find a solution. We plan on filtering out those who aren’t serious as quickly as possible and make it very clear that we are in no way defending or siding with those who are not serious about the movement. We would love to hear your input on how to proceed from here but also would like to extend an invitation to attend our meetings. If you would like to learn more about our club, we would be more than happy to discuss our aspirations and goals with you!

Sincerely,

Mercer Bundis