Via La Alma de Fuego…:
Brave New Feminists
brownfemipower, blogger, writer
Jessica Hoffmann, writer, coeditor of Make/shiftThese two women, whose writings consistently challenge the aims and issues of feminism, are the addled movement’s best hope. Their personal-and-political essays light up the blogosphere, forcing discussions about why issues that aren’t typically considered “feminist”—immigration, incarceration, police brutality—ought to be. For this they are often (sometimes nastily) criticized, but for those who haven’t lost hope in the social-justice promise of feminism, their work is transformational.
Read the rest of their write-up – along with descriptions of 48 other visionaries – here.
Rock on!
(Cross-posted at Modern Mitzvot.)
Utne and similar seem to appreciate those whose main claim to fame is attacking feminism, i.e., “addled movement.” The movement is not addled and most would not view its detractors as heroes.
I don’t know Hoffman’s work too well, but I do know brownfemipower’s, and I would hardly consider her a “detractor” in the sense that I think you mean it, Julia.
Urging feminists to pay more attention to those legitimately feminist issues that many of them have been ignoring is not an attack on feminism, any more than fervently wanting ones country to be a better nation is “un-American.”
Three cheers for BFP.
Julia – being feminists doesn’t mean we have to be blind to the movement’s pitfalls, or to its history of being more for some women rather than for all women. If you can’t face being part of an imperfect movement, I suggest you give up activism now. Personally, I’d rather work on fixing the addledness.