Saturday, October 15, 2011

The (Other) F- Word








Also, I'm a little jealous of people who can sew.

Photo credit: tsuacctnt

1 comment:

  1. That's funny, in a sad way. For me, feminism means teaching my son basic life skills like cooking, sewing, and cleaning (and hammering nails, fixing stuff, balancing a checkbook, etc.)--not just any daughters I might have. I don't know a single feminist who hopes for a world in which no one knows how to sew or bake and we must make our way through life without clothes or brownies.

    Especially when I taught in North Carolina (gender stuff amongst undergrads seems way stronger in the US south than in the midwest), I had so many young women begin comments with "I'm not, like, a FEMINIST, but ..." Sucks. They often seemed to identify feminism with a movement designed to make them pay for their own meals on dates.

    I wonder how those women will identify in ten or fifteen years. I'd be genuinely curious to know whether the pressures and shifts of leaving college, entering the workforce, moving away from dating-as-central-to-social life, and maybe having children (among other life events) push these women further away from the word feminism or change how they see the movement.

    I do know that some students have a hard time reconciling my obvious joyful love of my young child and husband and our family life (not to mention the fact that I wear skirts) with the idea of me being "a feminist." Funny, as my more radical and committed feminism sprang directly from my experiences of pregnancy/birth/parenting.