Brace yourselves people I'm going to use a dirty word: feminist. Yes, they're out there and I'm going to drop the F bomb with regularity in this post. If you are of a delicate disposition I suggest you look away now or better yet, blog about it and send the link to Peg Aloi, she'll have a field day no doubt.
I noticed
an article doing the rounds on Twitter with shrieks of horror that someone had outted the Yarn Harlot as a knitter. I clicked. I read. I sighed.
Once more we are back to this 'feminism' and 'strong women' conflict. The rather charming journalist starts trite: listing cupcakes, Hello Kitty and gardening as examples of how women have lost their backbone. The blogosphere is held up as a shining example of women gone soft. We're patted on the head for our rants but there is no acknowledgement of the personal voice of a woman being expressed.
I got particularly bored at the line '...and now that so many women have seemingly retreated from our reign of awesomeness to immerse themselves in the feminine past-times of yesteryear, it does indeed appear that we've lost sight of what it means to be a badass, strong, tough woman.'
Ah ha! The crux of the matter. We're not bad asses. I read on, by now amused....
Who does Peg think we should be emulating? Why Xenia, Princess Warrior and Sookie Stackhouse. Now these women know a thing or two. Even Mad Men gets a bashing. How dare it be glamourous and show women pre liberation! This show is not a social commentary, which draws intriging parallels to the ideals that the Tea Party would have us running back to. No, it is vintage and as we know, only sad women want something vintage.
Not only had she missed the point of the majority of the second wave feminism, celebrating sisterhood, womanhood and demanding equality within an economy where our childcare and cupcakes keep capitalism afloat but the examples she chose were weak at best. Sookie Stackhouse? Please. That blonde bored me the minute she screamed 'When will Bill save us?' Even bloody Martha Stewart would have winced at that.
What Peg is seemingly trying to tell us is that we don't swear enough, dress like tramps, use violence or spit. We therefore are doing our sex a great wrong. We've taken a back step when we've chosen to go back into our homes and make our livings in the domestic arts.
The saddest thing is that she has gone further back of all, joining in the patriarchal voice that tells us that these pursuits are not valid, too domestic, too soft. Seen through her lense we can only be noticed when we are blowing up aliens and swearing at journalists.
I could think of the first one I'd start with if that is the case....
