In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

I’d Like to get to Know you

Joy

Hello lovely feministe readers!

My name is Joy Engel and I am delighted to to have the opportunity to write for you over the next few weeks. Normally you can find me on my Tumblr where I share my slightly disturbing fascination with Taylor Swift as well as other — less embarrassing — things.

Before we really start getting into it, I think we should get to know each other a little better. So here’s my proposal: I’ll share six things about me, and you share six things about you. (If you guessed that Spanky and the Gang’s classic, “I’d Like to get to Know you” just started playing in my head, you guessed right)

Here goes:

— Someone once told me that I am “a sparkly-dress feminist.” I think they meant it as an insult, but I took it as a compliment.
— I recently moved from San Francisco back to my hometown of Portland, Maine. I am unabashedly in love with the state of Maine, its people and anything associated with it.
— I consider my mother to be the greatest person I know.
— I am a deep SciFi nerd. One of my planned posts is all about some of my SciFi feminist heroines.
— I served as a clinic escort for about two years and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever experienced.
–I am personally offended by the Oxford Comma.

The last thing you should know about me is that I really love my job. A lot. To that end, I have to tell you that everything I say here is my own personal opinion and it does not necessarily represent the views of my employer or its clients.

I look forward to the conversations we’ll have over the next few weeks!

Joy

18 thoughts on I’d Like to get to Know you

  1. Yeah, I’m not so sure about guest bloggers who are offended by the Oxford comma. 😉

    Welcome!

  2. as a trekkie and a fellow lover of sci-fi (and thank you for not spelling it syfy) can’t wait to read your post about SciFi feminist heroines

  3. To quote Lynn Truss, FashionablyEvil, “There are people who embrace the Oxford comma, and people who don’t, and I’ll just say this, never get between these people when drink has been taken.”

    Thanks for the welcome!

  4. I am a defender of both the Oxford Comma and the New York Yankees, but I do believe we will resolve our differences for our shared love of the TARDIS.

    FANTASTIC!

  5. I am quite fond of the Oxford comma myself, but I have some journalism in my background, so I’m flexible. I’m very excited about the possibility of an upcoming scifi heroines post.

  6. Woo! I’m excited to see a Mainer around. I’m going to be starting my freshman year at UM Orono soon, I’m so ecstatic about going. Looking forward to your posts!

  7. Hi!

    1. I’m a rule follower, so I’m going to be the first to actually follow your request to share 6 things 😉
    2. I love sci fi too and also really look forward to your post on sci fi heroines. I’m more of a mainstream sci-fi’er, so I’ll be happy with the inclusion of Buffy and Aeryn Sun.
    3. I love disco balls.
    4. I’m a Jersey girl but I live on the west coast now (since you lived in the Bay Area, you’ll know where this is: Fairfax, Marin Co.).
    5. I don’t know what the Oxford comma is.
    6. I’m searching for a place to live where I can be around beautiful nature, learn to farm, and also find places with excellent dancers so I can salsa, tango, etc. I haven’t found this place just yet!

    Welcome – looking forward to your posts.

  9. I have always thought the Oxford comma looked superfluous in most cases. I am so glad to know there is someone else out there who doesn’t like them.

    I, too, am something of a sci-fi nerd.

    Thank you for being a clinic escort.

  10. Count me in as pro-Oxford comma, but also as a geeky feminist who can’t wait to read the sci-fi post! Welcome!

  11. 1) While I was editing my college newspaper the AP Styleguide and I disagreed, sometimes violently, on the subject of the Oxford Comma. Since graduating, I have rejected the AP’s views on the matter.
    2) I’m not great with money.
    3) Despite its many faults, I love living in Georgia. It’s beautiful here, and I much prefer hot weather to cold. Plus, our state song totally pwns your state song. I’d like to live closer to the beach, though (also, Disney World).
    4) I’m a performer: singing, acting, street performance. I’m currently working to get on the renaissance faire circuit. In the meantime, I work at an opera company. I also like to write. I used to think that my two passions weren’t compatible, thanks to some really bad teaching I received in college. Ah, college.
    5) I’m Presbyterian, which makes me the socially awkward stuffed shirt of the protestant world.
    6) No shit, I’m still on Livejournal.

  12. Fascinations with Taylor Swift are not at all embarrassing. I wouldn’t go around admitting that hostility to the Oxford comma in respectable company, however. 😉

  13. FUN!
    1) I am a cinephile, which means I spend waaaaay too much of my nonexistent disposable income at the movies.
    2) I hate bananas more than words in the English language can capture.
    3) I felt like I found myself when I started studying gender during my undergrad.
    4) I like things in 5s and 10s so this list of 6 makes me feel weird.
    5) I’m a midwest girl currently residing in Austin, TX.
    6) I’m a lipgloss fan and I think my lips are my best feature.

  14. 1) I like veggie versions of most meat products. Like, honestly like them. Including bacon.
    2) If Buffy hadn’t come along when it did, I might have been a conservative in adulthood.
    3) I’m TOTALLY a sparkly-dress feminist. There’s a term for us? Sweet.
    4) Sometimes I think about whether I would like glitter and pink if it wasn’t what I was told I was supposed to like, and moreover, whether I’m contributing to the oppression of women who DON’T like glitter and pink. For now, I’ve decided it’s sufficient to defend every woman’s choices as legitimate for their own lives.
    5) I’m still figuring out my privilege and how to negotiate the world as someone who has privilege but is also oppressed for certain characteristics I maintain. For instance, I’m terrified of one homeless man who targets me specifically over the men who live in the area to ask for help, but I regularly assist homeless women. The former situation makes me feel terrible about how I’m contributing to his oppression, but I can’t get over being terrified of being approached by strange men in public.
    6) I hate the midwest of the US. Sorry Midwesterners – I don’t hate you – but I am so unhappy here. It’s not home and I actually had legitimate culture shock when I got here.

    Whew!

  15. 1 – Not so much with the Taylor Swift here, but I’m still fascinated by Lindsay Lohan about four years after that stopped being a good idea.
    2 – I believe I’m the only professional editor (albeit one who isn’t editing in her current position) who honestly could go either way on the Oxford comma. As long as there’s a rule I don’t care which rule it is.
    3 – I didn’t grow up with any feminine role models, so I probably wouldn’t have known what I was doing in transition if it hadn’t been for SF/fantasy heroines. Not that anyone does, mind you. But growing up watching Carter, Kira, and especially Buffy made things just a bit easier for me down the road. So I’m looking forward to that post of yours!
    4 – After spending two years at U Maine in Orono, I have a lot of respect for your beloved state. I still miss Governor’s restaurant in Old Town, eight years after moving away.
    5 – Under no kind of duress would I ever accept that there is any bread more profound than a good seeded rye.
    6 – I’ve found that being trans and intersex (and queer, and a few other invisible minorities) is a great cure for white liberal guilt. Not that it obviates the need to monitor my own privilege, but I don’t feel nearly as guilty about it as I did as a teen/young adult.

  16. 1) I had to look up what an Oxford Comma was…and I’m a journalism minor. I knew the concept but had no idea what it was called.
    2) It weirds me out when people I don’t know (from my hometown mostly) come up to me and attack me for being a feminist after they read my blog, but don’t bother to leave comments.
    3) Anytime I introduce someone to Andrea Gibson and they really appreciate her, I feel a sense of accomplishment that is matched by few other things in my life.
    4) Relatedly, I am getting into slam poetry. I entered my first contest in April with a friend from my college.
    5) I was bilingual (English and Spanish) until I started kindergarten. When I got there and no one spoke Spanish, I refused to speak the language again, even at home. I had to relearn Spanish in high school, but I’m better at German, which I learned in college.
    6) My hometown is named after a creek that was named after an officer who fought in the Blackhawk Wars. Apparently his troops got drunk and murdered a bunch of Native Americans who were trying to surrender. It makes me feel badly to have lived there.

  17. 1) I mainly grew up in Hawaii and have spent the last five years wishing I could go home.
    2) I haven’t had caffeine since October 31, 2008.
    3) While attempting to cook, I once managed to make a pot of boiling water burn.
    4) I just moved and extended my commute (bad for the environment I know) so my dog would be happier.
    5) I’ve written a novel that I don’t intend anyone to ever read. It includes the Oxford comma.
    6) I’m allergic to cats but incapable of resisting the urge to pet them.

    1. Thanks, all, for the welcome! It’s so lovely to learn about you and I am really looking forward to the next two weeks!

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