buriedinfibre.com

So. I spent most of last week in Oregon helping out at Sock Summit.

It was more than I thought it would be and in some ways less.

I met some wonderful people, saw some fabulous friends that I really don’t get to see often enough, didn’t get enough sleep, food or fluids.

The marketplace was great and I didn’t go to far overboard. I’ll post pics later.

We ate Thai street food, had a doughnut at Voodoo and saw that the signs everywhere saying, “Keep Portland Weird” are apparently working.

Anna Zilborg was great. Everything I expected and hoped she would be. Smart, funny, humble and just really nice. Barbara Walker was all of those things and really made me examine how I feel about women and our place in the world.

Which brings me to feminism.

I stopped calling myself a feminist in the 80s.

I wanted to wear make-up, do shit to my hair and just generally feel attractive in my own way. Ferfuxsakes! I liked wearing a bra! These things had become taboo. There was a large group of very loud (and hairy, let’s not forget hairy), very angry women saying that these things were thrust upon women by a patriarchal society. We were supposed to become our own people by being like them.

Yeah, it didn’t make sense to me either.

And sin of all sins, I liked men. Especially men with their own opinions that were maybe different from mine and weren’t afraid to tell me.

I have spent my life pursuing male dominated career paths. It’s been rare that I have felt out of place. And when I have, I’ve turned it to my advantage. It’s truly what you make of it. You can either rail against inequality, accept it and do nothing or you can change it from within. Quietly, intelligently and with the understanding that things don’t change overnight and being hostile and aggressive only pisses people off.

Back to Barbara Walker.

During her talk some of the questions put to her amazed me. Really amazed me. She told us that she had spent a great many years knitting clothes for Barbies. Someone actually asked her how she felt about dressing Barbie as a feminist. Her response that Barbie had a great press team and had Ken who was very much in the background was great, but it’s a doll! A doll. If we’re still obsessing over the effects of Barbie on our society, we are so screwed. Of course, then some brain trust brought up the fact the a certain fast food chain still has boy and girl Happy meals and how discouraging this needed to be for all feminists.

Really? With all the crap going on in the world right now, Happy meals is where you think we should focus our efforts for change? Here’s a thought, just ask your kid which toy they want, don’t put it in terms of boy or girl. Or better yet, EAT SOMEWHERE ELSE.

Unfreaking believeable.

Long story summed up: I am a feminist. I will NEVER admit to it in public.

And I like Camille Paglia.

So shoot me.