Elsewhere on the blogosphere
NS August 2nd, 2009
I sometimes write for feminist UK website The F-Word and have a book review up there right now if you fancy reading it. I tried to be nice, I promise! It just didn’t work out so well…
After I saw that my review had gone up, I was looking back at some of the other stuff I’ve written for them and thought I’d post them here for anyone interested. First up, a feature I wrote two years ago on the division of domestic labour and why women are still getting a raw deal in Maid of the Manor.
Next was my most controversial piece, a feature about birth rape called Not a Happy Birthday. A bit of a storm kicked up after that one, resulting in the relatively well-known ‘NHS Blog Doctor’ calling me and another woman who wrote about medical mistreatment and assault “coffee shop feminists” and me an “irrational militant.” Hoo, those were good times, my days as a militant. I think I still have my man-hating ammo belt and femme fatigues somewhere, but I’m too irrational to work out where they are before I go get my next latte. Tee hee!
By the by, The F-Word didn’t take his shit laying down and posted not only a public defense of what we’d written but allowed me to make my own rebuttal. So major props to them for that, especially when the topic isn’t something that’s often been discussed or even acknowleged in feminist circles.
I know some of you might wonder why the hell I bothered taking on that piece-of-work doctor and his bullshit views but the fact that I still get emails from women thanking me for that article and asking me where they can get help for a trauma or assault they suffered during birth makes me so glad I did. This is why I believe that writing IS activism. Sure, it’s important to go out and march and lobby politicians for change and so on, but it’s no less important to simply write about the issues we care about and are passionate about because somehow, in some way, no matter how small, it will connect with someone. It might get them mad, or upset or whatever, but if it gets them thinking and questioning their own beliefs (even if they don’t even up changing them), that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned. A belief isn’t a CONVICTION until it has been challenged and held fast.
And that’s all I’m here to do, really. Question. Write. Think. Do. Challenge. Learn. And also laugh. Because without that, the others weigh too heavily sometimes.
Just don’t tell anyone about the laughter bit. I don’t want anyone thinking that this coffee shop feminist can have a sense of humour. That’s against the Irrational Militant rules.
