wisiti

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By wisiti • 13 years ago

On Choice, Parenting, and my Mom

Last week, I went on a short trip to Nebraska to visit my grandmother. My mom came along. We ended up sleeping in the same room, and so, like school girls, we spent a lot of that time discussing different issues.

I love talking with my mom. I truly appreciate the fact that I can discuss my political views with her, even though she may see them as a little too left for her taste. I savor the time we can spend discussing reproductive rights, racism, domestic violence, privilege, heteronormativity, and choice. It gives me a chance to practice my discourse on these topics, without fear of sounding like a complete fool. But it also leads to a lot of learning for me. Hearing my mom’s perspective on these issues gives me a lot to think about. Sometimes it gives me a perspective that I never imagined people would feel, so I can then spend some time figuring out how I would respond to that particular view point.

So last week, we got on the discussion of having kids. I’m childless at this point, by choice, and my husband and I have had a lot of talks about the possibility of never having kids. I have several reasons for this, all of which I outlined to my mom: 1) I’m terrified of hospitals, being pregnant, and childbirth; 2) I know I would not be a good parent to a disabled or otherwise difficult child – ...

By wisiti • 14 years ago

Should we ban the word “lady” from our vocabulary?

I recently received an email from my boss, sent to the organization, telling us why the term "lady" or "ladies" should not be used. For full disclosure, we work at a women’s shelter where feminism is accepted and encouraged.

I agreed with the email and I do try to avoid using the term whenever possible. However, I find myself typing emails and starting them with "Hello ladies" because it seems more personable than just, "Hello." I usually catch myself and delete the offending term before I send the email. But what of calling a group of women "ladies"? As in, "The church ladies are coming over for dinner" or "The ladies took care of all of the fundraising" ??

The term is ...

By wisiti • 14 years ago

Workshop: How to effectively respond to “jokes” forwarded via email

I received this “joke” email from a female friend. I’m disgusted, but amazed that anyone would find this funny. I receive emails like this all the time, usually about Obama or democrats, but this is the first that’s been so sexist.

What kind of response do you send to friends and family when they send emails like this? Or do you just delete and ignore?

Here is the text of the email:

By wisiti • 14 years ago

Is “bitch” a dirty word?

Hi. I’m new. Like a lot of you, I’ve learned a lot about feminism in the last few years and have slowly but surely learned to recognize that many of the things I used to be okay with, simply can’t be reconciled with calling myself a feminist.
A lot of people use the word “bitch” in their daily vocabulary, especially when describing a woman they feel is rude, perhaps disrespectful, perhaps snotty or even bigoted. We use the word “bitch” as an adjective as well, saying something like, “That job was a bitch.” But the term, whatever part of speech it is, is always derogatory.
We’ve accepted in this movement that the words “lame,” “gay,” and ...

Hi. I’m new. Like a lot of you, I’ve learned a lot about feminism in the last few years and have slowly but surely learned to recognize that many of the things I used to ...