Mary, Mary, why ya bloggin?

Welcome all, to my gooey, blogy delightfulness, where I will entertain you with vitriol and bravado masquerading as principals and character. Come in, take a seat, and stroke your goatee for there is work to be done.

There are two reasons for the existence of this delightful corner of the web;

1. I think I have something to say and learn about feminism in Australia and the people at the RSL have told me they're sick of listening to me endeavour towards that end.
   
2. I want the sort of debate I can sink my teeth into. I don't like it when I bring my feminist perspective to discussion where everyone politely cocks their head a little like I just mispronounced a French word.
   

As well as opening up another space for feminist conversations to take place I selfishly want to do this as a way of empowering myself and being angry (and celebrating) in the company people who also give a damn about feminism. I'm not good at making my feminism subtle and palatable and I'm sick of having to try to in order to get people to listen when I talk.

I feel like I've always been told, and instinctively knew, that I was expected to be pleasant at all costs. It wasn't till I started identifying as a feminist and listened to feminist discussions that I realised that this was because I was a woman, that there were other women who felt this way, that it was something we all experienced because we were all oppressed. Actually we still are, unless Femzilla HQ failed to cc me in on some RE:Patriarchy thwarting last thurs email, in which case someone surely owes me a post-patriarchal G&T. But I digress all this pressure to please, appease and not rock the boat that we don' have anything resembling an equal stake in has ensured that we don't have the power to speak or be listened to. If we've internalised patriarchal values enough then it doesn't even occur to us to rock the boat because as women we're taught, through the public and vehement disapproval of other women's behaviour, to seek our own happiness after everyone else's and blame ourselves before everyone else.

Of course this is just my experience, but if anyone tries to spin me any crap about my weak constitution and isolated cases then I'll a) scold them for ignoring my posting guidelines and b) scoff at them. Women get paid less then men, get shown in art galleries less then men, are raped more than men and told we inherently posses devalued and undesirable attributes.

We live in a world which tells us to act a certain way or we'll be sluts, bitches or dykes and neglects to mention that all of society is constructed to be really difficult and nasty to people who act that certain way. Yes well, that bugs me Patriarchy, it bugs me in a big way and this blog is my way of letting my little, dissident light shine.

Right

Out

My

Arse.