Womanism
Me at 37... :-)
Womanism is to feminism, what purple is to lavender - Alice Walker. I had never heard of this term until today, while reading this book of essays on women and the environment. It's part of an essay on essentialist arguments and says that essentialism is a non-starter. How does a woman who is part of the patriarchal framework, whose living and identity is part of this framework - ie academia - propose to critique what she calls essentialism objectively? In fact is there such a thing as objective? I'm inclined to think that it's a ruse cooked up by mainstream or the culture of power to previlege one discourse over another. My own experience as i go through motherhood now points to this. I am and want to be an involved, thinking, concerned citizen and a person who is part of a community. I am also a woman of colour, a migrant, a woman - a mother - a wife, a worker, i have some education, a middle class background, a family that is supportive and very loving, i enjoy literature, breastfeed, practice shamanism, etc, etc. How do you pin this down in a discourse? It's impossible to determine if a use of a cycle track disturbs the breeding patterns of oystercatchers. I don't understand how academics hope to define in any practical way what my role and the way i resist and build is done in society. It's a little bit arrogant, isn't it?
Oh god, i've just remembered, i just call Anita about the Tara protest. Chaio!
