Categories: uncategorized
Date: 09 July 2007 12:31:59
Ok, I'm really close to handing the thing in and so you won't have to hear about it much longer. However, I've been reading something Steve Taylor at Emergent Kiwi has written about books on emergent / emerging church and it has gotten me thinking.
I'm writing the dis because nobody was talking about my experience (or atleast not from a particularly positive angle) which is why you've all been putting up with my regular moans about a lack of relevant academic material. When I chose to go with the lone parents in church congregations thing did I inadvertantly slip into the trap? The trap being that we are encouraged to write and research on the basis of our interests and own experiences. So women become more likely to write about family; the gendered nature of language and practice in religion and or the media, etc.
Personally I feel it's one of those you can argue both ways. If I had decided to go for avoiding researching and writing about family at all costs then I would have lost what I believe has been a wonderful opportunity for me to explore a really interesting area, which has largely been ignored. However, am I just contributing to (unintended) patriarchal dominance by being another woman going off and talking about family whilst the men research and write about what's happening generally in the late modern/ post-modern church?
Oh and before anybody starts shooting me down to earth, by reminding me that my dis is only a project to get a qualification and nobody's going to read it anyway I know that. However, the principle is that I'm taking a guess what has been true of me and my MA often ends up true for women doing Phd's and / or writing books in this area aswell.