one thing i love about the "third wave" is the return to traditional crafts. my personal fave of all of these is probably (at least at the moment) knitting. i love knitting. i like knitting scarves and washcloths, loved the first time i knit something in the round, and adored this one baby hat i made so much that i think i might need to make a million more of 'em (so if you ever have a baby, lemme know because i need babies to knit hats for). one can knit just about anywhere, which makes it the most perfect craft ever. i have knit in just about as many places as i have nursed my son, which is saying a lot. i love the knitted tree at severence center, outside the cleveland heights town hall, which i like to refer to as a "tree cozy." this is why i so much love the graffiti knitting movement. it's awesome, and most importantly combines my love of all things radical, subversive, and stockinette stitched.

feminism posts

So as not to overload this group blog effort....I have created a blog called "Feminism Now and Then".

(click onto: contributors: Michelle Murphy's profile: "Feminism Now and Then")

I will be adding research texts, photos, and opinions....

*I have also typed out the "Femi-what?!" pamphlet that a group of women created to address the current state of feminism by giving a hands-on overview.

Thank you everyone! Looking forward to Sunday.

Michelle

The F-Word... or, "I'm not a feminist, but..."

From Megan Seely's book, "Fight Like a Girl: How To Be A Fearless Feminist" (p. 1):

"These are some of the negative words that regularly surface when I ask people what comes to mind when they hear the word 'feminist'":
Bitch.
Fat.
Ugly.
Dyke.
Man hater.
Bra burner. (Note: [from me] no bras were burned -- they were thrown in trash cans along with other accoutrements of femininity at the protest of the 1968 Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, NJ, which received a lot media attention)
Hairy.
Butch.
Loud.
Militant.
Radical.
Angry.

Seely then goes on to say: "But for me, 'independence', 'strength', and 'equality' come to mind when I think of feminism."

Me, again: What's wrong with "bitch," "loud," "butch," "hairy," "radical," "angry," etc.?

I get very angry when I think about the recent supreme court ruling that makes it more difficult for women to sue employers for gender-based wage discrimination, or when I think about how hard it is for poor rural women to have access to abortion, or that women in the military have difficultly getting access to emergency contraception. Does that make me a feminist -- yes. An angry one, yes. A "bitch," maybe. Am I radical? Yes. Am I loud? sometimes. Am I hairy? Sometimes.

A lot of women don't like labels. "Feminist" is too monolithic, old fashioned, hippy-ish... but labels sometimes create community and communities incite change.

I have to come clean before Sunday... I am very steeped in generational ideas about Feminism, as my dissertation is on connections between second and third wave feminism and I've been reading and researching this topic all summer. Still -- like all of us, I get very emotional when this topic comes up.

The goal of consciousness raising is to listen to each other -- to try to understand each other's feelings and understand where these feelings come from and find *commonalities* among our experiences.

Wimmin and grrrls, we are all in this together.

See you Sunday - 6 p.m. my place.

In sisterhood,
Lyz

List of Discussion Topics:

Feminism -
definition/waves
experience/stance
interpretations

Activism -
isn't working
Why doesn't it work?

Fragmentization -
womens' work (similar to Russian term "byt")
alone amongst women
guilt
power exchange

Labeling -
sexuality/sexual subjectivity
declaration (the right to be an angel or a bitch)
assimilation as a man

Mental Illness/Wellness -
women's health/female cycle
emotions
the interface

Ages and Stages of Women -
generational differences
our "voice"
women and technology

Labor/Work/Job -

Race/Class -