What kind of feminist am I?
Or am I? This link comes from
Utopian Hell, via
Mouse Words.1. Most of us go by pseudonyms on the internet to avoid rabid ex-lovers, identity thieves, and dirtbags that have nothing better to do. These names have special meaning to each person and often tell a bit about that person. If you use a pseudonym, list it and explain why you chose that particular name. If you don't, well, just tell us your name. CompassRose, which I use most places, is evocative to me, but honestly, the initial choice was rather random. I was signing on, I remember, to a forum, and my first choice of 'nyms was taken. I looked about my bookshelves, and my eye fell (unsurprisingly) upon the heavily-populated
Ursula K. Le Guin section.
The Compass Rose is the title of a collection of short stories.
The other name I use occasionally is derived from Hecate, which I recently found out has been suggested as the origin of my first name (which is etymologically somewhat mysterious, though usually rendered as "pure"). I would far rather honour Hecate than be known as "pure".
2. Are you single? I am not.
3. If yes, do you believe in marriage as an institution?Even though I am technically excluded from this question, I want to address it. I do believe that honouring the commitment of lifelong lovers (note, please, here, that I do not say couples) is important, and doing so in a way that is public and meaningful to the kinship circle of the lovers concerned is also important.
It is also important (and to me, self-evident) that such partnerships should have some way of asserting their legal significance.
However, and this is a big however, I don't believe that the social, possibly religious/spiritual declaration of vows should have anything to do with the legal.
And I also suspect that a great many of the people who use phrases such as "marriage as an institution" have only one institution in mind, an imposing structure of heavy Judeo-Christian stone. Let us not forget that every culture has its own traditions.
4. Do you have any children? I do not, by my conscious choice.
5. Was your mother a feminist?I think she is, though I don't know if she would call herself one. My mother is utterly herself, and makes no excuses for it. And she is one of the strongest women I know.
6. Reach back into your brain and remember what made you a feminist in the first place. Tell us the story, and let us know if those things still weigh heavily in your decision to continue being a feminist.Books, of course. My existence is shaped by books. Hm. I would have to say that Red Sonja and Morgaine were the germ of my becoming a feminist. But then I read other things -- history, various classics of feminist literature -- and noticed the parallels to my own life (I was, for instance, discouraged from taking shop class by my high school guidance counsellor) and became, for a bit, a fire-breathing feminist.
I've cooled off a lot these days. I have to admit, I'm not temperamentally a fire-breather, not a marcher, not a chainer-to-the-railings. Honestly, I want what my mother has, the freedom to be myself whatever, and I want all people to have the same.
7. What would you call your `personal style'? Do you like makeup/hate makeup? Jeans and t-shirts or flares and babydolls? Do you own any high heels? Give us an indication of the types of things you like to wear and the image that you portray that makes you the most comfortable. "Costume". I dress up a lot. But for every day, it is probably closest to "literary dyke". There is a great deal of used clothing involved, in plain colours that go with each other. I don't wear makeup most days, and my hair is weird.
8. Are you a crazy cat lady? I am a crazy animal lady. I like most animals better than most people.
9. What do you think of men in this crazy world? Are they the problem or the solution? Are they all guilty by association, or is it a social ill that we all have to face?Is what a social ill? The men? Oh dear! I think "blaming the men" is simplistic; a lot of people simply don't consider the socialisation they are given. They inherit ideas, culture, behaviour, and repeat it; it evolves of itself, but they are not conscious of its evolution, nor of the people who actively work to shape it.
People are the problem. People. History. Stubbornness and love of tradition -- even most progressive people, somewhere, have a love of personal tradition, a secret piece of their own childhood that they value. Conservatism is a human trait, in many ways a positive one. The question is knowing when to taste the new berry, and when it might kill you, after all.
10. Who do you think is more dangerous to feminism: Women who portray feminism as dirty and unfeminine, or men who wish to control their wives through monetary and other means? Or do you have another theory all together? I think women work more actively, and sneakily, to sabotage other women. I know I have felt far more pressure from other females to conform, to be "girly", than I ever did from men. On an individual basis, women are more likely to shame or hurt another woman for "being a feminist".
However, in terms of greater harm, it is definitely "the establishment" that is the danger. And the establishment is, still, largely male. Does that mean men are the problem? Well, in so far as the one on top of the heap generally strives to remain there, yes.
We are still apes, really, with some extra brains and books and things. Our mental nature needs to catch up with our animal nature, and until that happens on a wider scale, "better than you" -- whoever you is, women, different-coloured people, fat people -- is always going to be a game we are instinctively drawn to, and many of us will deliberately, and dirtily, play.
11. What is your political affiliation?I'm not affiliated with politics.
12. What is the last book that you read?I finished
The Elephants of Style last night.
splogged by compass-rose
at 9:14 AM EDT