For me (another one of the 'bottom line' club members, I think), feminism
has assumed a wide variety of meanings, from 'equality to all', to a
brief phase where I genuinely believed women were superior to men (very
embarrassing) to ... how can I put it ... the ability to manufacture a
genuinely ambivalent, hybrid narrative - that's really quite awkwardly
put, and I'm not sure how to clarify it: I'm fascinated by the 'science
fiction' narratives of Margaret Cavendish - not that you'd call this
feminist science fiction (but it is science fiction, right?)(right???).
As a librarian I like to locate things in neat categories - never easy,
rarely possible, but we dream ... we dream! In my writing, I use my
understanding of feminist philosophy to construct unusual gender
identities - not always flattering to either women or men, but rarely
boring - at least, not to me. Feminism has opened up a world of
possibilites (once I stopped viewing it as a closed philosophy) - I hope
others share my optimism!
On another subject altogether, I have never seen Babylon 5: I live in
Australia and, while it has been on our television, it turned up near
midnight, and seemed to vanish as quickly as it appeared. (Unlike XENA -
God bless that warrior princess, we just can't get enough of her down
under ). Is it worthwhile
contacting buddies in the U.K toi get tapes sent over?
Regards-
Brigid Venables.
On Sun, 6 Jul 1997, Sean Johnston wrote:
> So, I'm very curious about what feminism means to people here, and where
> it comes from in your life, where it takes you. But I'm not sure if it's
> appropriate, being only half-relevant to the list.
>
>
> Susan,
> For me, feminism is, "the principle that women should have
> political, economic, and social rights equal to those of men" (New World
> Dictionary of the American Language, Second Edition). As for where it
> comes from: I'm a very bottom-line person and this is the bottom line for
> me. It was like, "Duhhh. Taht's just common sense--or should be."
> Where's it take me? In my SF, it (among other things) had led me
> to portray women as equal to men in the ways described above.
>
> -Sean
>
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