She’s baaaaaaaack…
Jill asked me to help fill in for her while she’s traveling, and though I’m in no way a good replacement for Jill I agreed, even though I’m in sort of a strange head space around Feminist Blogging.
I haven’t been a regular blogger in a while–I was just in Austin for South by Southwest Interactive and someone asked me if I was a “blogger” with that odd note in his voice, the one I that I can never tell if it’s condescension or camaraderie. And I said, really, not so much anymore.
I mean, I maintain a Tumblr but I maintain a line in the sand rule about that blog–it is for me. I don’t owe anyone a post or a response or anything at all. I can ignore it for four days or post nothing but pictures of Robyn or Lauryn Hill. I’ll write long rambling posts that include references to period sex or one-liner abortion jokes.
I still consider myself a feminist, obviously–though lately I’m thinking more about bell hooks’ formulation “I advocate feminism” as a more active line to hold myself to. I’ve been doing maybe more straight-up feminist activism and plotting more work around the issues of abortion and women’s sexuality than ever before lately, and yet I’ve put some distance between myself and the feminist blogosphere.
Maybe because it so often seems to be having arguments we’ve had before. Or because I work too much and I’m busy writing things for people who pay me (I’m a journalist with a full-time job and entirely too much freelance work).
That sounds mean; I don’t mean it to be.
So I’m back here again, and though the server ate half my first post (Chally swears it hates her, not me, but I don’t believe it. Technology’s been out to get me this week.) I’ll be giving blogging a shot again, to see if I can remember what I liked about it so much for a while. To do some thinking out loud, in public, and see if we can’t get somewhere.
I’m not sure quite what I’ll write about yet–maybe about Frances Fox Piven and why Glenn Beck is scared of her; maybe about Wisconsin and Indiana and Ohio and why a resurgent union movement matters; maybe more about Robyn (there can never be enough Robyn).
I hope you have fun, whatever happens. Thanks for having me.