OK, I read that someone has declared this Blog Against the Strawfeminist Week. (Click the link...fun-ish stuff to read and see!) I'm super busy at work this week, so I'll keep this short. What is a feminist? Someone who believes that men and women are equal. Period. What is a strawfeminist? That person that people who don't like feminists think of when they think of feminists...you know, ball basher, man hater, woman who wants to run men out of world and teach her boys to be sissies and so on. So let's get rid of the strawfeminists, and if you think men and women are equal, proudly claim your role as a feminist. Don't let anyone else tell you what that should mean. Except me.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Blog Against Strawfeminist Week
OK, I read that someone has declared this Blog Against the Strawfeminist Week. (Click the link...fun-ish stuff to read and see!) I'm super busy at work this week, so I'll keep this short. What is a feminist? Someone who believes that men and women are equal. Period. What is a strawfeminist? That person that people who don't like feminists think of when they think of feminists...you know, ball basher, man hater, woman who wants to run men out of world and teach her boys to be sissies and so on. So let's get rid of the strawfeminists, and if you think men and women are equal, proudly claim your role as a feminist. Don't let anyone else tell you what that should mean. Except me.
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7 comments:
Reluctantly signing on as feminist. Damn I just hate that word. I don't like labels. I believe in equality or not for me when it suits me. or not. hahaha
Don't hate honey...;)
Hmmm. When I click it I get a page that is almost all white, with a link over to the right that says it's strawfeminist week. You click it and get to page 2...I've changed the link in my post to go to page 2. :) Hope that helps.
Another take on the word feminist
Polygamy
The Ultimate Feminist Lifestyle
By Elizabeth Joseph
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I've often said that if polygamy didn't exist, the modern American career woman would have invented it.
Because, despite its reputation, polygamy is the one lifestyle that offers an independent woman a real
chance to "have it all".
One of my heroes is Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon, a physician and a plural wife who in 1896 became the
first woman legislator in any U.S. state or territory. Dr. Cannon once said, "You show me a woman who
thinks about something besides cookstoves and washtubs and baby flannels, and I will show you nine
times out of ten a successful mother". With all due respect, Gloria Steinem has nothing on Dr. Cannon.
As a journalist, I work many unpredictable hours in a fast-paced environment. The news determines my
schedule. But am I calling home, asking my husband to please pick up the kids and pop something in the
microwave and get them to bed on time just in case I'm really late? Because of my plural marriage
arrangement, I don't have to worry. I know that when I have to work late my daughter will be at home
surrounded by loving adults with whom she is comfortable and who know her schedule without my telling
them. My eight-year-old has never seen the inside of a day-care center, and my husband has never eaten
a TV dinner. And I know that when I get home from work, if I'm dog-tired and stressed-out, I can be
alone and guilt-free. It's a rare day when all eight of my husband's wives are tired and stressed at the
same time.
It's helpful to think of polygamy in terms of a free-market approach to marriage. Why shouldn't you or
your daughters have the opportunity to marry the best man available, regardless of his marital status?
I married the best man I ever met. The fact that he already had five wives did not prevent me from doing
that. For twenty-three years I have observed how Alex's marriage to Margaret, Bo, Joanna, Diana, Leslie,
Dawn, and Delinda has enhanced his marriage to me. The guy has hundreds of years of marital
experience; as a result, he is a very skilled husband.
It's no mystery to me why Alex loves his other wives. I'd worry about him if he didn't. I did worry in the
case of Delinda, whom I hired as my secretary when I was practicing law in Salt Lake City. Alex was in
and out of my office a lot over the course of several months, and he never said a word about her. Finally,
late one night on our way home from work, I said, "Why haven't you said anything about Delinda?"
He said, "Why should I?"
I said, "She's smart, she's beautiful. What, have you gone stupid on me?"
They were married a few months later.
Polygamy is an empowering lifestyle for women. It provides me the environment and opportunity to
maximize my female potential without all the tradeoffs and compromises that attend monogamy. The
women in my family are friends. You don't share two decades of experience, and a man, without those
friendships becoming very special.
I imagine that across America there are groups of young women preparing to launch careers. They sit
around tables, talking about the ideal lifestyle to them in their aspirations for work, motherhood, and
personal fulfillment. "A man might be nice," they might muse. "A man on our own terms," they might
add. What they don't realize is that there is an alternative that would allow their dreams to come true.
That alternative is polygamy, the ultimate feminist lifestyle.
From a speech given by Elizabeth Joseph at "Creating a Dialogue: Women Talking to Women", a
conference organized by the Utah chapter of the National Organization for Women. Joseph is an
attorney, a journalist, and lives in Big Water, Utah.
May 1997
How about this take
Hey Anon, I don't actually think of polygamy as being generally feminist, and Liz therre seems to be the only one who thinks so...but funny you should bring it up, because I wrote an entry about her a month or so ago, when I first heard of her. I heard of her on the radio...interesting stuff. If you want to read what I wrote, here's the link to the blog entry: http://yummywc.blogspot.com/2006/01/feminist-polygamy.html
At one of many pro-choice rallies I have attende during one of two too many Bush presidencies, I caught a t-shirt worn by Ashley Judd, among others.
It read: THIS IS WHAT A FEMINIST LOOKS LIKE.
I need that shirt. So do you I think.
(Oh, and "polygamy, the ultimate feminist lifestyle"? Yeah. Not buying it. But thanks anon. One of the great things about NOW, and this country, is hearing other points of view, even if we don't agree.)
Feminist of course since I can remember. Straw feminist? No, although I've been called a feminazi more than once.
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