Stay-at-home Feminist

So I've kind of been flailing around trying to decide what to write about here...there's only so many times I can write about my kids' latest shenanigans (like Luke repeatedly dumping things out the second-story window) before I start feeling kind of like a whiner. But I do like being a mother, honestly I do! And I'm quite happy being at home with the kids most of the day. It occurred to me that that might, superficially, seem to contradict my feminist leanings, but such is not the case. That's why I decided to adopt the title of Stay-at-home Feminist. It tickled my fancy. And then it occurred to me that the times I'm most likely to go on prolonged musings about gender roles is when my children are watching movies. Peter Pan? Quite a showcase for Victorian Era gender politics. Beauty and the Beast? Gaston's greatest evil might be his assumption that Belle would be content as a foot-massaging little wife.

This is fun. I think I'm going to make this into a series.

I think some brands of feminism are all about empowering women. Which is nice, but not enough. Power is only one of many things that tend to be held back from marginalized groups. It's about having a fully-realized identity and sense of self-worth. And, in literature, which is mostly what I ramble on about, it's being a three-dimensional character, not a cardboard cutout. It's about having a purpose, a quest, and being an active agent rather than being acted upon. It is that standard by which I judge all characters, female or male, alien, elf or nanite. :D