Seattle-based feminist writer and speaker Ijeoma Oluo is on a mission to combine radical, intersectional feminism with your (and likely her own) self-care. How? With a feminist coloring book. If you haven't picked up a coloring book since the unbearably long car rides of your childhood, then you're missing out — lots of craft stores sell "coloring books for adults," which swap cartoony kid-geared images for more mature, aesthetically soothing content. Coloring provides the same kind of therapeutic, meditative creative outlet as activities like knitting, crafting, or journaling.
With that in mind, Oluo started sketching coloring pages of some of her favorite feminists — from her sister to writer and speaker Feminista Jones — to combat the daily misogyny and racism she faced. She began sharing the images with friends and, based on their affirming responses, launched a Kickstarter to fund a whole bound coloring book of badass feminists. (Literally: The title is Badass Feminist Coloring Book.)
It combines drawings of feminists with inspiring quotes and mantras, and — perhaps most importantly — according to the Kickstarter, it features "feminists of different ages, races, body types, gender identities."
Of the book's intersectionality, Oluo tells Bustle, "I wanted this book to be diverse for many reasons. But primarily, I strongly believe in the power of visibility. Often the only people we see representing movements are those who most closely fit into the preferences of white-hetero-patriarchal society.
"When many people think 'feminist,' we think of a youngish, middle-class, privileged white woman who took a lot of women’s studies courses in college," she says. "But the beauty of real feminists doing their bit every day to make a more just society comes in all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, gender identities, and sexualities. Anybody who believes in gender equality can be a feminist."
Naturally, the crowd-funding campaign raised more than double its goal of $4,000 and it still has 19 days left to go. But if you want to beat your friends to Instagramming your feminist works of art, donating seems like the fastest and easiest way to snag a copy. You can glimpse more of the images below.
Images: Courtesy of Ijeoma Oluo (6)
