Not so long ago I mentioned a new blog, Feminist Childbirth Studies and Molly’s response on that blog to my 10 questions about your feminist motherhood. Molly has followed up with part two of her response on her new blog first the egg. (And by the by, I really like the new blog name).
Here is a taste of her response:
7. Has identifying as a feminist mother ever been difficult? Why?
On a personal level: no. Feminism and parenthood aren’t inherently at odds for me, and I didn’t have that initial need to reconcile them that seems pretty common amongst mothers who become feminists or feminists who become mothers, I guess largely because my feminism came into its own because of my experiences as I became a parent. HOWEVER, it’s been difficult for me to find a comfortable home in the pregnancy/birth/parenting community and/or in the online feminist community because I’m a parent and a birth (enthusiast? advocate? junkie, as they say?) and a feminist–and a scholar on top of all that. Unfortunately, those worlds often position themselves as at odds with (or perhaps just irrelevant to) each other. In fact, that–that vacuum, that absence–is the main reason I’ve created this site.
I suspect there will be much to like at first the egg as it grows…
a collection of practical information, links, and cultural criticism. This site is a feminist intervention in our rigidly-gendered culture of childbirth and parenting. Its aim is to provide a nonsexist space for people who want to learn, reflect, commiserate, or laugh about being pregnant, giving birth, and helping children grow up whole and happy.
(You can find all the many other responses in this series here. If you’d like to respond to these questions yourself you can either email me your answers and I’ll put them on blue milk as a guest post or you can post them elsewhere and let me know and I’ll link to them).
