Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself, I’m a (Wo)Man of Wealth & Taste…

OK, maybe not wealth. Taste, undisputedly so. Unlike Mick Jagger, however, I was not around when Jesus Christ had his moment of doubt and pain.

Oh, you didn’t catch my name? It’s Radhika Raman. No, not Veronica or Eh-rotica. Raahh-thi-kah Raah-man (yes, like the noodles; aren’t you original?). I’m a freshman in S.O.C., and I have been a feminist since the tender age of seven, when I was told that I couldn’t skateboard because I was a girl and I thought it was like, totally unfair. To this day, I am deathly afraid of skateboards and have no balance. I’m a guiltless gourmand and travel junkie (thanks to the masters of Indian cooking, my parents), and I fancy myself a passionate advocate for the voiceless. You’ll find me at a farmers’ market or Busboys & Poets when I’m not studying.

My favorite blogs are Racialicious, Feministing, Jezebel, Sepia Mutiny, Matador and Daily Kos. My favorite books are “Invisible Man”  (Ralph Ellison, not H.G. Wells), “The Namesake” and “The Sound and the Fury.” My favorite TV shows are Mad Men and Glee. My favorite sentences all start with “my favorite…” but they do not necessarily include raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens.

Y también me encanta hablar español. Aur bhi mujhe Hindi aati hai (ok, just a little bit). In other words, I love speaking Spanish, and I know some Hindi.

You might be thinking, yes, thank you for your life story, jaanu, pero what does all this have to do with feminism?

I hope to bring a worldly perspective to The F Word and look at the intersections between race, ethnicity, and gender. Women of color are often left out of the discussion in Western feminism, and I’d like to take a small step towards changing that. And making obscure Monty Python references (prizes for whoever can catch them) can’t hurt, either.

I’ll end this lovely introduction with a few wise words on feminism.