My celebration of history and knowledge began in earnest last month in my attempt to celebrate and Remember the Past in a series of blog posts about the lives and contributions of Black Americans to the growth of this nation. (Click the links to the right under February 2015 for the posts.) I intended to write a post a day, but life got in the way. As much as I wanted to write daily and share my knowledge about history, esp. Black History, there are just so many hours in the day and job, kids, husband, grading, sleeping, decompressing from life usurped my extra writing time.
So, instead of attempting to blog daily, I'll just do what I can. This month I turn to women contributions. Rather than focusing solely on history, I'll focus on women in general and the stories, the history, the contributions, the issues... all of it. But also note that in light of Patricia Arquette's statement that it's time for men, people of color, and LGBT people to fight for women, know that these discussions will definitely include the marginalization, outlier-status, and necessity of women of color (any color), trans-women, LGBT women, etc. to force our way into the discussion. Arquette's statement on-stage acceptance speech was spot on, but her after-the-show elaboration is what shoved her foot in her mouth. Her post-show statement in essence suggests and assumes that "women" is defined as white women as a default and that white women have always fought for the rights of people of color and LGBT (and others), which has sometimes been the case historically, but not always. (Know your shit, Patricia, before you speak! Thanks for bringing attention, but you're not a scholar. This is often what happens when celebrities with little knowledge of topics beyond acting go "off script.")
I am proudly a feminist, proudly a nerd, proudly a lover of history, proudly a person who pays attention to history, life, culture, social happenings, and activism. I try to take part as best I can. I try to help others be informed so they can help take part too. I encourage you to do the same.
My first post will be about Caster Semenya and Dutee Chand and others who face similar accusations of not being woman, or woman enough to compete.
What are the implications of saying a woman is NOT a woman when she knows she is, has been raised as such, and lives her life as such? Do discussions like these mean we've entered another phase of feminism, wherein feminists of all genders are not only fighting for equality for women (and everything that that means) and the right of women to live, work, choose as we please, but even the right for society to shed its (obsolete and archaic) ideas of what makes a woman a woman and who and what gets to determine when and if someone is indeed a woman.Oh, there's so much to say on this. Stay tuned to my blog for the full discussion.
For right now, I'll just remind you to...
Pay attention.
Be informed.
Take part.
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