I have always considered myself a strong feminist, someone willing and able to stand up for the female gender in the face of frequent, and often silent, discrimination. I think about my gender every day of my life, but this month I’ve been experiencing it outside of myself more often than usual.

First off, Beyoncé dropped a new album. I watched almost the entire video album in Lyse’s Midtown apartment (thanks girl!). A super sexy album with elaborate costumes kicks off with a track called Pretty Hurts (30 sec. preview here), reminding us of the despair and entrapment that follows objectification as well as how “pretty” is an actual goal girls aspire to be, often instead of “smart” or “capable.” The video reminds us that there are literally still contests where men judge women based on their beauty and award them with money and titles. Beyoncé’s message is simple, you can be all three, or more, or less. A woman can be whomever they want, and the point is that it shouldn’t matter. A woman shouldn’t have to choose what type of woman she is, or make it a priority to fit into x amount of categories, because there is no such thing as a “type” of woman.

I recently saw Riot Grrrl, at the very charming and very intimate Burton Theatre on Cass Avenue. The film is a biography of Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, leader of the 90s’ feminist punk movement, riot grrrl, and a personal hero of mine growing up. She essentially made it okay for girls to go to punk shows, play punk music, and be punk. A trademark of hers is, “girls to the front,” a call for all girls at her show to move to the front of a usually male-dominated and highly violent front-of-stage area. The movie is full of interviews from Hanna herself, as well as her bandmates, close friends, and husband (Adam Horowitz – how cool, right?). I appreciate the film for Hanna’s candidness in speaking about gender discrimination, not only in the punk scene but also across the music industry and in life in general. I highly encourage everyone to see the film, especially if feminism or the punk movement is new to you.

As a fellowship, Challenge Detroit toured Grand Circus, a training institute for the tech. industry, and the Madison Building, with multiple floors dedicated to a shared working space under Detroit Venture Partners (DVP) and an entire floor owned by Skidmore Studio. I loved touring the DVP floors, a space that is truly start-up heaven. So much energy, spirit and potential.

However, the crowd mostly consists of young, white men. Not surprising. What got me thinking was, as we heard more and more about how businesses are selected for funding and how start-ups actually ended up in Detroit, it seemed as though most of the process involved knowing someone or having a robust network that could increase the chance of meeting an influential person. To me, this adds yet another barrier for female entrepreneurs, as females may have different professional and social networks compared to their male counterparts. The more stories I hear, the more success seems to be based on a ton of hard work followed by a stroke of good luck or a chance encounter. Perhaps there needs to be a more equitable way of choosing candidates. This, of course, only goes along with a myriad of other needs, such as improved STEM education opportunities and encouragement for women and an increase in the sheer amount of women who make funding decisions, such as women in venture capitalist firms.

Lastly, as part of this month’s Challenge Detroit Leadership Friday, we had a race and equity workshop. It was an important conversation to start, mostly interesting to hear how others perceive (or don’t perceive) race, ethnicity and discrimination. However, during the entire discussion, all I could think about was gender. I think about my race almost every day, and it is a luxury that I sometimes don’t need to think about it, but gender is something that personally fills my every moment. Racial and gender inequality affect billions of people, are deeply rooted in human history, and occur in a largely implicit fashion. I feel they go hand in hand. While I would have like to discuss both in the same breath, each deserves a unique conversation and I was glad we could get one of them started in a safe and productive environment.

As my feminist-heavy December concludes, I’ve been more motivated to find exactly what I can best contribute to Detroit. Who knows, maybe I’ll drop a secret video album overnight, start a grassroots feminist movement, or launch a female-led start-up and work in the Madison Building. Maybe all three! What I do know is that I am doing at least a little something, just by being a present, feminist voice in the city of Detroit.