This post was originally written by Debi.
Hi everyone
Thanks for stopping by, I’m glad you found this site. It is a site dedicated to feminist mums, and I would love it if it could become an international site for feminist mums to discuss matters which are important to them.
Some of you may know me as Debs, I run the Burning Times blog among other things, and I am also the mother of a dear little nearly-two-year-old boy, who we plan to home educate. In the two years since having our son, it has become more and more obvious to me that being a feminist mum often means having quite a different viewpoint on things to other feminists. I am also painfully aware sometimes that the fact that I am a mother means my opinion is not taken seriously, or even that I have no right to an opinion at all, which of course is complete rubbish. On the other side of the coin, I have sometimes got the impression that, because I am a mother, I am supposed to suddenly be an expert on certain aspects of being female and/or a feminist, which again is total rubbish.
I have been a feminist for as long as I can remember, yet only became a mother at the age of 34. Becoming a mother did change me, I think it changes everyone, but I am still a feminist, and indeed I seem to feel more strongly and want to take more action about feminist matters than before I had my son. There is a sense of urgency that was not present before. This blog will hopefully become a place for feminist mothers to discuss, well, whatever they want to really! But naturally the conversation will lean more towards motherhood, how we raise our children as feminists, and how motherhood may or may not effect our feminism. Also, there are specific feminist issues, the use of reproductive technologies for example, which might be of particular interest to feminist mums, that we can talk about.
I have often wanted to discuss these matters before; how, as a radical feminist, do I raise a boy in this world? Why do I still want more children even though I know I can’t have them, and *apperently* having children is a very un-feminist thing to do? etc, but I have felt that I cannot bring these subjects up on my own blog, as the subject of motherhood is something that naturally only pertains to those who are mothers, and thus can be alienating to those who are not mothers.
I would also like to make it clear that this space is open to those women who are pregnant, and thus about to become mothers, aswell as those of us who are already there. Also, naturally, adoptive and foster feminist mothers are really welcome too!
I would hate for this blog to be just me talking and others commenting – so I would like to throw it wide open for other feminist mums to contribute as and when they would like to, and to that end all feminist mums are invited to become authors on this blog – I will add you on the author list so that you can post directly – so please if you want to contribute, comment on this post or email me, and I’ll see to the tech side, and you can get talking about feminist motherhood as soon as you like! My email is burningtimes1645@yahoo.co.uk
I’m really excited about this blog, and I hope you are too! Already I can think of several topics for discussion, so don’t forget to let me know if you want to contribute (of course you can always just contribute through the comments if you do not want to actually be an author) and we’ll get the ball rolling!
Looking forward to hearing from you all.
In sisterhood
Debi Crow xx
PS: the title of the blog is totally up for discussion, if you don’t like it let me know and don’t be shy about suggesting alternatives – it’s just the best I could come up with this morning!
