Thursday, August 25, 2011

Expanding My Thoughts and Topics

I have been feeling a bit stiffled on my blog lately, and I think it's because I'm not writing some major things I've been thinking about. I'm skipping some serious topics that pertain to my parenting because of some arbitrary distinction I made when I started this blog to stay away from things that might cause arguments or controversy.

But you know what? I'm not in that place anymore. I'm not as sensitive from pregnancy and nursing hormones. I'm not as unable to put together complex thoughts on deeper topics due to sleep deprivation. The focus of my thoughts have expanded outside the limitations of getting babies and toddlers to sleep, eat and poop. Although they certainly include those thoughts, too!

I'm a feminist, and I would argue that most people I know are to some degree as well. Do you think that a woman should be paid the same amount as a man doing the same work? Do you know that your daughter can be anything she wants to be when she grows up? Do you believe that women should have the same rights as men? I would say that most of the women and men I know would agree to all those. And that, my friends, makes them feminists. Your degree of feminism may vary from mine, but if we want our daughters and sons to be raised in a fair world where they can both be whatever they want to be, then be scared to say we are feminists!

So why don't I speak about feminist topics on my blog? I believe very strongly in raising my children with a firm foundation of feminism, as does my husband. Why don't I talk about issues of race or religion? These are also topics that I feel strongly about but rarely even talk about them offline. What good does that do anyone?

Keeping the thoughts and ideas we have in our heads means they stay in our heads. If we don't open dialogues about important topics such as racism, sexism, religion and politics, then how can we progress or come to agreements or simply just understand each other better? We will never be able to "just get along" unless we try to understand where others are coming from and communicate with each other.

I'm not saying that I'm changing the focus of my blog. Afterall, all the topics I had deep conversations about in college now have a different slant to them since I've experienced more of the world and, most importantly, since I've had kids. I have a different perspective now as a parent. I have different concerns as a parent. I have to make choices I never worried about before as a parent.

I guess what I'm saying I said in the title. I'm going to expand my thoughts and topics here on my blog. As always, it's important to me for me and anyone else commenting on my blog to be respectful and kind to each other. I love to hear other perspectives and ideas, so I hope others will share and not shy away from commenting.

Let's see how this goes.

5 comments:

Jac. said...

I find that since having a daughter feminist awareness has informed every part of my parenting thinking. It makes me sad that I wasn't alive to the same issues with my son - what does that say about my so-called "feminism"? I've loved your blog because of your discussions about parenting - I look forward to these expanded topics because I think that parenting also needs to encompass discussions about race/religion/feminism etc.

Cloud said...

I'm looking forward to the new posts!

SarcastiCarrie said...

Well, by that definition, I'm a feminist. Woo Hoo.

I've been thinking a lot about institutional sexism and how I've heard (but haven't looked into it myself) about how "education" and schools are set up more for girls than boys. It came up a bit on AskMoxie when we talked about redshirting for kindergarten.

So, I'll keep reading if you keep writing.

Oh, and FYI, of all the things I've ever published of a somewhat controversial nature, the only ones that got negative comments were views that were slightly right of center, which I thought was funny because I had published much more controversial things about abortion (pro), religion (non-believing), and gay marriage (pro).

caramama said...

@Jac - Thank you! I can't wait to read your comments.

@Cloud - Thanks!

@SarcastiCarrie - That's exactly what I'm talking about. More people are feminist than realize it! It may be about degree, but we are mostly on the same side. Very interesting about the right side post bring out more negative comments.

hush said...

I feel like I know you though we've never met, and I'll be reading here no matter what topics you choose to explore! Carry on!

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