opinion

I'm not the type of person to read the paper. I prefer my media to come filtered through the liberal lens of feministing, NPR or google. However I got into the habit of reading the local paper after one of my co-workers kept leaving it on the breakroom table. Of course I was drawn to the opinion section.

If negative stuff about Obama written by locals did not bother me enough I just had to read the opinion of a conservative nut job Cal Thomas. The first article I read was how Democrats are pushing away "faith voters". Voters of course who are of the Catholic faith and are also pro-life.

We're all feminists here. We're united under one word, one title that speaks of our priorities, our values, and our morals, right? Well, you know as well as I do that few statements could be farther from the truth. It's a mistake practically all people who don't identify as feminist make and one that we even make with each other.

"Feminist", to most of us, means a girl or woman actively struggling with identity in a society where the odds are stacked against us from birth; often a feminist is considered nontraditional and unorthodox, focused on reproductive rights and abortion issues, looking to install women in all facets of daily life where any person would assume a man in place. The language seems benign, but already I know that this generalization excludes at least a number of my fellow bloggers here, not to mention many women who do identify as feminist. Passing judgement, even in the way of expectations and generalization that hold accurate more often than not, is a terrible habit and an impediment to our goals as people who fall under the feminist umbrella.