The F-word

Lately I've been thinking a lot about feminism. I have identified myself as a feminist most of my life (probably since I first heard the term); it always seemed obvious to me. The dictionary defines feminism as "the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes." Who in 2005 would disagree with that? Yet, when I ask my male friends if they are feminists, none of them can say a resounding yes. And I have pretty liberal friends. Even more alarming to me is that feminism is a dirty word even among women.

Well, explains my husband, people associate feminists with the angry, castrating bitch type. (Okay, he didn't use these exact words. But that was the jist as I heard it.) But I realized that the abhorance of the castrating bitch / feminist has to do with the notion, unconscious as it may be, that women are not supposed to be angry. Angry women are ugly. (But I am angry. Women are still earning 75 cents on the dollar. It's 2005, people! How can we still be so far behind?!)

As I chewed on this, I realized that anger is considered inappropriate and unattractive no matter what your gender. Just look at what happened to Howard Dean.

But I do think gender stereotypes and limited opportunities and the glass ceiling are all very much alive and well in our culture. They're just a little more subtle than they were 50 years ago.

Anyway... so that's what's on my mind lately. And for a critical look at the late pope's record on issues affecting women (as well as the responsibilities of the privileged), check out my friend Rev. Alison Miller's sermon from last week. It caused some controversy in our congregation, but also garnered much praise. She believes (as do I) in "comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable." Perhaps this went too far on the latter for some people.

Obligatory Knitting Content

I've been knitting on the I Do shrug and am nearly finished. I hope to finish it tonight, actually. It's a really enjoyable knit. I've also been spinning some lovely raspberry-colored corriedale wool. I spun enough to ply a bit of it to test how I've been doing, and I think it's coming out well. The only think is in my swatch you can really see the two plies, rather than it looking like one yarn. But I'm pleased with the relatively even thickness.

Pictures soon... I'm writing this at work (and surely going to hell for slacking).

Comments

[kate]

Right on sister!

[Angela]

Thank you.

[vanessa]

reverend miller rocks!

[Katie]

I'm a female physicist - which I sort of think automatically makes me a feminist (I think I've always identified as one, in any case), but when I talk to other female physicists, they always often say that they really don't think they identify as feminists - when I talk to them, I discover that they're at least as angry as I am about the lot of women, but they're hesitant to labelled as the angry, castrating bitch type. Perhaps if more of us identified as feminists we could do away with some of this (at least the castrating bitch part of the label, anyway)! :-)