Categories: uncategorized
Date: 14 November 2005 18:40:06
Ok, I have to admit that I am still, basically willing to own the f word as part of my identity, so long as it is pre-fixed with the term Christian.
Having said that I am aware that it is a word with so many connotations and so much baggage that it should be used with extreme care and one should be v.careful to make clear in what sense they are using it.
Me I use it, largely because I am part of "the church" in the widest sense, (the f. word is definately not required in any of the local situations I have been in), and because I feel that in an institution where there are and have been specific readings of the bible and histories "not actively remembered" the issues are still relevant, although deminishing. Outside of this I guess I am largely beyond it.
Having said that, I am aware that is because I am a young middle-class, western European, single woman who is able to juggle work, study and motherhood relatively easily and has the support to make the choices I wish to about what I'm doing with my life and who I am. This makes me extremely priviledged & so perhaps I have no right to even still own the f. word when my life is so different to those who own(ed) it because they were fighting for something I have had handed to me on a plate, by virtue of where and when I was born.
Still, as I say, I choose to use it, but carefully. Not in away that seeks to disempower men or take anything away from them and their role, but rather as a way of identifying who I am, as a woman with specific beliefs in a specific social location.
So there you have it, why I still own the word feminist, within my identity, but am careful to put the Christian infront of it.