Eighth Carnival of Feminist Parenting

Welcome to the January edition of the Carnival of Feminist Parenting. This month as always, the blogosphere has been awash with some really excellent writing from feminists, parents and of course all those wonderful people who are part of both groups. So as usual, instead of me waffling, let’s get straight to the interesting stuff!

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Children’s Rights and Mother’s Rights

Grace Fletcher-Hackwood kicks us off with an article at the F-Word demanding an end to financial discrimination against young people.
Chally has a post taking apart an advertising campaign which stated that “working mothers are bad mothers”.
The Independent on Sunday has an article about the detention of children in Britain, calling immigration centres “no place for the innocent”.

Adoption

BlackKittenRoar talks about how it feels to be told you’re going to be “sent back” and the effect this has on adopted children.

Pregnancy and Birth

Brandann Hill-Mann has an article about the bad implementation of court-martials for pregnancy in the US military.
Jill writes about an interesting parallel between abusive individuals and bullying doctors/obstetricians.

Gender Stereotyping

Sally Whittle asks What exactly is a “girl’s” toy, anyway? after an experience with her daughter in a gender-segregated toy shop.
Paige Schilt writes at the Bilerico Project about Stilettos, Sissy Boys, and the Limits of “Gender-Neutral” Parenting Advice.
Jen Nedeau has written an article about a group of children suing Toys R Us for gender stereotyping in their Christmas catalogue.
Lisa at Sociological Images posts about Socialization and Gendered Job Segregation, showing the disparity in gendered toy packaging.
Jon Henley has an article about the power of pink, about the wonderful PinkStinks campaign.

Breastfeeding

Brandann Hill-Mann has a disturbing story about Target employees who called the police on a breastfeeding woman.

Disability

Jennifer Chimber shares an anecdote from a recent restaurant visit, reminding us that discrimination against people with disabilities is unacceptable.
Sara Olkon tells the heartbreaking story of a mother with disabilities who is fighting to keep her son.
Sarah writes about her difficulties in meeting the ‘requirements’ of her gender as a person with disabilities.
Meloukhia has a short anecdote at FWD about parents teaching about ableist language and doing it well.

News and Media

Ananova has an article explaining how Thomas the Tank is ‘sexist’, talking about the lack of female characters in the programme.
In The Mommy Myth That Will Not Die, Natalie Wilson talks about the problematic view that the Twilight series gives of motherhood.

Body Image and Sexualisation

Lindsay talks about fat acceptance for 4 year olds, sharing a story about one of her pupils who is already concerned about being fat.

Feminist Parenting

In Motherhood is Political, Valerie Young talks about how motherhood changed her world view and politicised her.
Dw3t-Hthr has a post humorously titled The Cult of Mommon, challenging the idea of motherhood as a ‘gift’.
Lynne Marie Wanamaker presents a round-up of her posts about teaching children self-defence and how she does so with her daughter.
Gina Crosley-Corcoran writes about Raising an Equality-Minded Male, talkingabout how she is trying to do so, and asking her readers how they are doing the same.

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That concludes this edition, I really hope you’ve enjoyed it!

As usual, the vast majority of the posts here were submitted by myself. The Carnival can’t continue without your support, so please please submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Feminist Parenting using our carnival submission form, or by sending the link in a Twitter reply to @m4wl.

The next edition will be held on Sunday 14th February, with a submission deadline of Sunday 7th February. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our carnival home page.

Paige Says:

January 18, 2010 at 3:16 am

Thank you for the great links! I hope to submit a post in the future.

earwicga Says:

January 19, 2010 at 9:28 am

Great carnival.

I’d like to add that not all of us were that chuffed with Grace Fletcher-Hackwood’s post. Further to what I put on the thread, I wrote a response here.

January 19, 2010 at 9:40 am

Further to your last festival link re. Alexis Hutchinson, she has now been charged and is facing a court martial and jail. http://rawstory.com/2010/01/army-charges-single-mom/ Disgusting!

earwicga Says:

January 20, 2010 at 7:20 pm
Courage to Resist are supporting Alexis Hutchinson http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/811/1/

AAB Says:

January 20, 2010 at 3:43 am

I grew up with the woman’s movement. My mother was really passionate about it. From my perspective the ideas came out like a blast out of cannon. The reality of most women in the 1960′s and 1970′s was pretty dismal economically and socially. The philosophy was meant to empower women and give them tool to look at their situation with new eyes. Unfortunately that came with allot of anger. It came with allot of blame and shame and like most people learning something new their not good teachers of it or good teachers at all. I mean as a boy or youth you really don’t know enough about the world or what masculinity is you’re a kid concepts of masculinity and femininity are abstract as is domination, patriarchy, gender roles and subjugation. The Redstockings really heated it up with no sex with men till equality was achieved and worse. The value of history as dead white guys really took away from the and me any good man in history. They essentially assassinated all male role models – fathers, coaches, military men politicians, sports, firemen, policeman, priests, whole intuitions as aggressive, demeaning, prejudiced, and brutal – feminists left nothing untouched -even the type of sex. Men had to be changed to something new – the sensitive guy was the answer. The poet the artist but only the good ones not Hemingway or Not Burkoski or few others known for drinking and having affairs As boy that pretty much flattens you. You have no role models and the sensitive guy they wanted in the 1970’s he was crushed 99 out of 100 times. I mean the world of men in a capitalist society is football game. You can go out onto the field all you want with notions of love and connection but your going to get blasted. Male society does not relate well to men or young men without influence.
But here is what I came to understand what feminism was up against. In the 1970’s a man could beat his wife up or ex-wife and not even get a ticket. He could rape her too – nothing –zip. He could hold out on child support. There was no law to garnish his wages – he paid pretty much what he wanted to. Even if the woman wanted to get a lawyer she didn’t have the money! She pretty much was sent into a deep poverty. I mean deep. If she wanted to go to work she had to get in line behind men usually with a high school diploma – even if she had a college degree she did not have resume. If she got a job- there was no sexual harassment law and many employers did not like hiring mothers. They liked hiring young single women. Women could not join the army, the police, the fire department and politically there were no women –zip anywhere in government – nowhere in upper management. I saw this

So when feminist spoke about a change in men and society – yeah men as group need to change.

I Still think that in may ways early feminism as today really lacks teaching skills as it is with boys. The concepts and ideas don’t ground boys nor do they have the conceptual frame work at certain ages to handle the feminist ideology.