females, feminists and femininity.

New York Times, October 8, 1915. At the time, New York State was about to vote on woman suffrage (it was defeated).

 

Hmmm.
I'm a feminist, my mother was a feminist (a paramedic, firefighter and single mother), her mother was a feminist (a scientist who graduated from Berkeley in the 1940s) and my daughter is a feminist (lesbian woman's studies graduate student).

I was raised to believe that woman were equal to men.
The idea that a man could control or subjugate a woman was put to pad when you saw my mom handle a fire hose by herself or swing an ax.
At the same time she was open about her S/Os and when she died her man was one of the coolest bouncer/chefs you could meet.

I grew up with the activist feminists in the peace movement who were my moms friends.
Many of them started out as wives straight out of high school and realized that the world didn't have to be like that.
I talked to a few many years later and they got divorced, went back to school and became college professors and writers.
It made me both proud and sad when they said that my mom was the smartest out of the group.

I married strong women and raised daughters who stood up for themselves.
Part of the reason my first wife and I got divorced was that when the girls came along I got even more radical when it came to women's rights.
As she puts it, she wanted to build higher walls and I wanted to build them further out.

I wasn't even living in the same state when my youngest came into her own but it was a joy to watch her discover Ani Difranco and the history of woman's suffrage.
She is Third Wave Feminism and I'm still learning some of the terminology but it's all good because you know what?
We need this.

This country needs woman who are proud to be feminists.
Who will be like my mom and put themselves on the line.
Who will raise boys to be good fathers.
Who can make this a better world.

 

Your words evoke Walt Whitman's, of well over a century ago:

 

One of my favorite poets and wonderful piece as well.
Thank you for the connection.
You are a gentleman and a scholar.

 

Kinda like the opposite of Tumblr these days.

I hate men. Yes, I am a feminist. No, not all... - Amazon Feminist



You've come a long way baby.

 

Totally. Organized opposition to right to vote is pretty much the opposite of some person's tumbler.

 

Hirsi Ali slams feminism's 'trivial BS' | WashingtonExaminer.com

See now don't give me crap that there is no "organized" idiocy in feminism (I'm sure you know about "the shirt") and at least this person seems to understand why American feminism is mostly bullshit these days.

 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali might not be aware of how, decades ago in America, male dominated workplaces would respond to unwelcome female employees by subjecting them to constant reminders of their place as sexual objects unworthy of respect. Things like leaving pubic hairs on soda cans, or leaving pornography in common areas, or hanging up pinup calendars. These behaviors are partly what drove the implementation of sexual harassment laws, which maybe Ayaan Hirsi Ali thinks are also trivial bullshit. But a shirt covered in sexy ladies on a male supervisor in technical environment. Man, that's a whole lot of red flags when looked at with any sort of awareness of historical context. Whether or not the dude as a douche or oblivious (I think he was probably just oblivious) has no bearing on the larger contextual significance of his gaudy shirt.

 

Kit Partin wrote a rather long but well done article pointing out some of the problems with white, middle class feminism.
It doesn't get all rabid in attacking the mistakes that it makes, in fact rightly seems to feel most of them are by accident or ignorance.
The main point being that feminists need to listen to people from different backgrounds which only makes sense.
You can't call yourself an activist if you aren't willing to listen.
The difference if in how they choose to talk to you, like Kit does in a reasonable creative way or as others have, strident and over blown.

Why Women Don't Need 'White Feminism' | Unicorn Booty

 

Going to be passing this around.

 

Interesting radio piece on CBC Radio:

 

Earth boys are easy.