How To Disappear Completely

what's the story, morning glory?

One of my colleagues is writing a thesis on the internet and community interaction and I happened to mention that I was noticing a lot of blogs by housewives/mothers these days (I'm sure they have always been out there, I just happen to be noticing more and more of them). Blogging is a way of "getting out of the house" without actually having to leave. My colleague noted that the telephone was a similar invention which feminists regard as a catalyst for first developing community and then organizing it. Apparently the telephone is in some part responsible for the suffragette movement.

Just think, Alexander Graham Bell got us the right to vote!

I find sociocultural studies of communities of women fascinating. Especially if the studies dig out some sort of positive light on the community. For example, my mom was telling me about The Red Tent. The title refers to the place Abrahamic women were confined during their menstrual cycle to wait until they were clean again, as per biblical instructions. Modern takes on these biblical designations of uncleanliness find these confinements distasteful and derogatory to women, but the book suggests that these moments in the "red tent" were actually liberating, free from the back-breaking labour of the everyday, a chance to socialize at leisure. The book is historical fiction, of course, and not an academic study (for example, the instructions on cleanliness were given to Moses who dates after the patriarchs, but perhaps the cultural practices were already in place before the Exodus?). However, the excerpts my mom described to me seemed plausible. At the very least, it raises the question that though the language of old testament scriptures might seem rather oppressive, perhaps the practice had positive outcomes.

Of course, some feminists won't really buy that being stuck in a tent for a week every month was liberating, but that is the beauty of feminism: every woman has her own opinion. As Dorothy Sayers says in her essay Are Women Human?, to assume that women will all think the same is to assume that they are a flock of sheep. And I will say candidly that I find some feminists unconvincing (as many other feminists find each other unconvincing). To allow women to "think for themselves" respects their individual humanity, but allows for a wide array of error mixed with truth. But Dorothy Sayers is my favorite feminist, mostly because she seems more realistic than most. Perhaps it is her literary edge: she sets the abstract theories in motion through her characters.

Anyway, I haven't blogged about feminism in a while. So now I have met my quota for the next stretch of ungendered blogging. :)

*For extra credit, you can tell me where my post title comes from, and yes, you must look further back than Oasis.