Leading the Next Generation

Shelby Knox: Leading the Next Generation of Feminists

By Beth Pearsall
Freelance Writer, San Diego, California

Women have an incredibly powerful voice. Making our voices and stories heard—both individually and collectively—is the key to breaking through barriers so that all women have a fair chance. This is the message that feminist Shelby Knox tries to impart to young women as she travels around the country, advocating for equity and encouraging the next generation of feminists to stand up and take action.

"I never thought I would be an activist for life," reflects Shelby Knox.

But for the past nine years—more than a third of her lifetime—this "good Southern Baptist girl"-turned-revolutionary has played a significant role in the young feminist movement, advocating for comprehensive sex education and women's rights and encouraging youth activism. And she shows no signs of slowing down. Dubbed the next Gloria Steinem,1 Knox will be speaking about her experiences, as well as sex education, women's rights, and youth empowerment, at the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders in June.

The Education of Shelby Knox

Knox's journey began back in her hometown of Lubbock, Texas. Despite having some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in the nation, this conservative community teaches abstinence-only sex education in its high schools. Abstinence-only programs have never been proven effective in delaying the age at which young people become sexually active and may result in riskier sexual behavior by teenagers.2

When she was 15 years old, Knox— a devout Christian who had pledged abstinence until marriage—became the subject of a documentary chronicling her campaign for comprehensive sex education in the town's public schools and her fight for gay rights. The 2005 film, The Education of Shelby Knox, was released at the Sundance Film Festival and has since been used in classrooms and communities around the country to highlight the need for comprehensive sex education, gay rights, and youth activism.

"The documentary came out when I was a freshman in college," Knox explains. "At that point, I only casually identified as a feminist. But I started traveling a lot because of the film, and during these trips, I realized there were so many other issues out there. And I became more radicalized." "The film shows Shelby really coming into her own," says author and leading feminist Jennifer Baumgardner. "She realized her power to speak out and identify when something is wrong and do something about it. This is an awakening that all feminists and activists go through."

Since the film's release, Knox has traveled across the country speaking at high schools, colleges, and conferences and to various media outlets about sex education and the next generation of feminism. She has worked with groups such as NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood, Advocates for Youth, the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, the Girls Leadership Institute, Trojan condoms, and Plan B One-Step.

In addition, Knox has organized and led numerous trainings, workshops, and civil disobedience demonstrations in the name of reproductive justice and sexual health. In 2008 and 2010, she traveled to Colorado to participate in campaigns to beat back proposed "personhood" amendments—which AAUW and AAUW of Colorado also opposed—that would have granted full legal rights to fertilized eggs (the campaigns successfully blocked both proposals). And during last year's Super Bowl, Knox helped create the Women's Media Center-run campaign that pressured CBS to pull an anti-choice ad featuring football player Tim Tebow that had been purchased by Focus on the Family. The network ran the ad anyway.

Knox currently serves as the director of women's rights organizing for Change.org, where she helps promote local women's issues campaigns through the use of online petitions and on-the-ground organizing.

Leading the "Forth Wave"

Although Knox loves using the documentary as a tool for young activists, she wants people to know that she has evolved from that 15-year-old girl who took a virginity pledge. Now, at age 24, she remains poised to lead the next generation of feminist activism.

"I think each generation has to define itself, because we are shaped differently by the political and social climate of our times," Knox explains. "Our generation came of political age during the Bush administration, in the wake of the Patriot Act and free speech zones instead of free speech. We are the abstinence-only generation. We were not born with feminism in the water. I don't mean we weren't born into the gains of feminism, but the narrative we've been taught about feminism is more negative than for any generation before us."

According to Knox, today's young feminists are organizing in very generation-specific ways. "We use blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr as consciousness-raising groups," she says. "This is how we get radicalized, informed, and organized. We use online platforms to organize on-the-ground actions. And the barriers to access are much lower than ever before, although they are definitely still there."

Knox calls her generation's feminist movement the "forth wave," a play on words referring to the history of feminism and its organization into first, second, and third waves. She is currently writing a book about this vibrant network of young gender-justice activists.

"I use the word 'forth' because I want the movement to move," she says. "I want the movement to be taking so many steps forward that the steps back will be quickly made up. I want the movement to be forward-thinking— understanding and acting and living the reality that all oppressions must be uprooted together and, at the same time, that as long as we silence and marginalize people within our own ranks, we are doing the very thing we say we are against."

Knox adds, "I want the movement to be one of stories that all matter equally, that we collectively clothe ourselves in, that we stand up for, and that we demand be heard."

We Must Tell Our Stories

"The forces that want the status quo to remain know how terrifying young women can be," Knox explains. "We are incredibly powerful when we talk to each other and tell our stories."

Knox urges young people to work on the issues that personally affect them. "We are most effective on issues that impact us personally," she says. "Use your own story and be very specific. Feminists are very smart, but sometimes we tend to look at the data too much. It is the story that changes hearts and minds and makes us all human."

And as Knox blogs, tweets, and travels around the country speaking to groups, she continues to tell her own story in hopes of inspiring others to get involved and take action, no matter the cause.

"Shelby is a gifted speaker and communicator," says Baumgardner. "She thinks about feminism in new ways that are important and advanced philosophically, but she is also just like other young women. She observed injustices and is now doing something about it. It is a quintessential feminist story—it can be anyone's story."

"I'm proud that telling my story via the documentary and on the Internet still inspires so many people to write me and tell me their story," Knox says. "If I've been an inspiration to even one young person, inspired them to start a campaign in their community or check out a feminist book from the library or tell their boyfriend to stop making rape jokes, that's an accomplishment that's better than any award or media attention I could ever get."

Notes

1. Moura, Sophie. "Shelby Knox: The Next Gloria Steinem." www.marieclaire.com/career-money/advice/tips/shelby-knox.
2. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. (2007). Emerging Answers: Research Findings on Programs to Reduce Teen Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Retrieved November 16, 2007, from www. thenationalcampaign.org/EA2007/EA2007_sum.pdf.

This article was originally published in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of AAUW Outlook.