So “confession” are not always some private, apolitical phenomenon with no after-effects in the “real world”…
DaisyDeadhead´s last blog ..Stubborn old goats

I am a feminist who writes about politics, religion, etc and the most popular posts I write are usually confessional in nature. Obviously, that is how women identify and we enjoy reading.

One thing I learned in so-called “male” politics: you do not insist people come to where you are; you go meet them where THEY are. That is what I see the confessional posts doing, and that is their place in feminism.
DaisyDeadhead´s last blog ..Stubborn old goats

What a marvelously studied and executed piece, Ms. Flox! Thank you for it.

There has for centuries been the highly-regarded artform the autobiographical essay. Classics of the form have got their authors lauded for cold self-scrutinizing strength. Of course, its pretenders will produce crap — wherever there is art, there is much more crap. But for some newly-anointed commentator to call the form a girly novelty trumpets her own intellectual limits, not her objects’.

1. Feminism (somewhat lengthily off topic, sorry)

Feminism has perhaps gone the way of many institutions these days, in that the original principles are now rejected by those who have claimed the label. (Perhaps the means have outlasted the ends?)

To me, feminism is about basic equality and lack of discrimination based on sex or gender. I would call myself a feminist to continue the work of – and in honour of – my mother and other women and men throughout history who worked so hard to alter the very dominant and unquestioned paradigm of women as inferior, or women as incapable or unsuited to certain occupations or pasttimes or thoughts. (And equality is not necessarily about seeing everyone as the same and enforcing the same rules upon everyone; it is about acknowledging, working with and celebrating differences instead of using them as bases for discrimination and prejudice.)

I still have picture story books, published by a small, local publishing house about 25-30 years ago, that explicitly communicate the message that women are not inferior to men and that girls can follow their dreams, whether or not they are deemed by society as “suitable” for women. This was the grassroots education initiative for young girls to combat the insidious attitudes of society. Can you imagine a world in which those books and that education were necessary?

While not in the same league of horror for women as the world depicted in Mike Leigh’s ‘Vera Drake’, it leaves me with the same chill and irrational gratitude to fate that I live *now* and not *then*. I am a woman and I am an electrical engineer. I split my working hours between head office and working on site at power stations, where a lot (but not all) of the time, I am the only female. For me, it has never been an issue; no one has said or done anything to make me feel harrassed or victimised or uncomfortable or unwelcome. (Now, in some ways, the double standard actually works to my advantage.) I have no idea what is said or thought out of my hearing, but I have never felt any effects of backstabbing or prejudice. When I think of how horrible work would become if even one person decided that I shouldn’t be there… Well, I am grateful to those who have gone before and shaped my world to be as it is.

2. Stories

I am at a loss to see the detrimental effect of “confessional journalism” on feminism (at least in my hastily scraped-together definition). As with any style of story, I think that the confession should not be the ends in itself; but should be a way in for the reader, so that they are better able to find and respond to the intangible *something more* that the writer seeks to communicate, that makes the reading worthwhile.

Any communication of experience, with that principle in mind, should further the goals of feminism. For it not only allows for the possibility of understanding people different from ourselves, but also for the joys of similarities recognised and empathy that bring people closer together.

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And thankyou for the quote from Women Who Run With The Wolves; that will inspire me for a long time to come.