Jeyoani

History

Member for: 2 years 11 weeks
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General Information

Gender: female
Age: 32
Location: West Coast, USA

Personal Information

Biography: I am a feminist and have been since I was four and learned no. 1 the tradition of women taking husbands names at marriage, no.2 the fact my brothers could go to the corner store and I couldn't, and no. 3 the fact I had to wear dresses to church. Before kindergarten I understood that these arbitrary and apparantly societally accepted deprivations which were mine to deal with all pertained to the fact I was female. I could not accept this as a good reason. It drove me crazy. Later on in childhood when I heard about feminists and how anti-God they were, I knew for sure that I was one.
I am an anarchist and feminist of my own making, as I was raised separate from "the world" and it's ideologies. My feminist consciousness is deeply influenced by being raised in an anti-woman religious subculture. I always knew women were brilliant due to the hardworking women all around me and the brilliance of their artistic gardens, their giving birth and nourishing children endlessly and with the help of midwives, the simplicity and beauty of their hard-working and making-ends-do- lives, their willingness to go against societal beauty standards and thinkings (despite my disagreements with the particulars of their revolt), and from eavesdropping on their heady theological conversations, which simultaneously invigorated and enraged me. I knew that the women in my life were extremely smart, and I aspired to be as smart as they were. However I was conflicted as I didn't respect the way they made limiting themselves in relation to men some sort of a spiritual enlightenment. I didn't buy that God wanted womankind subordinate to mankind.
So, like most girls, I both loved and hated (but more loved), worshipped and denigrated (but more worshipped), my mom and the women in my life, the women who raised me. At 11 or 12 I became deeply influenced by the classic "Spiritual Midwifery" by Ina May Gaskins and the Farm Midwives. I also began reading my mom's "Mothering" magazine and found mind-blowing gems within its pages such as "The Technocratic Birth Rite" about male domination of the female art of birth. "Immaculate Deception" by Suzanne Arms was another big influence as was Sheila Kitzinger. The biggest teenage influence on my feminism was the bald and magnificent Sinead O'Connor who I immediately idolized. Then it was Christian feminists whose literature I hid under my mattress. A bit later in my teens I was influenced by Riot Grrl zines, and then in my 20s I discovered Andrea Dworkin, Sonia Johnson, and Inga Muscio. My feminism is mostly informed by my experiences and the instinctive admiration I have always had and continue to have for women in general, past, present and future, on my home continent and on all the other continents as well.
My sheroes: Catherine A. MacKinnon, Phyllis Chesler, Niki de st Phalle, Sojourner Truth, Simone de Beauvoir, Mukhtar Mai, Malalai Joya, Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, Debi Bock, Heidi Jacobsen, Gloria Steinem, Oprah Winfrey, Electrelane, Sleater-Kinney, Justine Frischmann, M.I.A., Aimee Castrejon, Phyllis Hansler, Consuela Lindsey, Patricia Anthony, Antoinette Boissiere, Mary Hines, Kim O'Connor, Heather Corinna, Andrea Dworkin, Ina May Gaskins and The Farm Midwives, Paula Gunn Allen, Suzanne Arms, Sinead O'Connor, Memphis Minnie, Rosetta Tharpe, Hildegard von Bingen, Maggie Kuhn, Tracy Emin, Betty Freidan, Gilda Radner, Lucille Ball, Fiona Apple, Imogen Heap, The Comfort Women, any woman who does her own thing, especially if she can be loving and supportive of her sisters at the same time.
Personal goals: To contribute to the musical psyche of the universe.
Bragging Rights: www.myspace.com/godmadeflesh
Favorite books: cunt, Spiritual Midwifery, Loving Sabotage, The Character of Water, Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Radical, Man's Search for Meaning, for colored girls who have considered sucide when the rainbow is enuf, A Wrinkle in Time, The Color Purple, The Fountainhead, Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer, A Room of One's Own, Diaries of Anais Nin, Poetry of Rumi, Prophets in the Bible, The Bluest Eye
Favorite music: Arcade Fire, Emmylou Harris, The Killers, MARVIN GAYE, Leonard Cohen, u2, Sinead O'Connor, Catpower, PJ Harvey, Bob Dylan, Lauryn Hill, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Bruce Springsteen, MrEarsKing, Rev. Wholesome Goodness, Al Greene, Boots in the Soil, SilverSunPickups, The Happy Hollows, Fiona Apple, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Electrelane, Dolly Parton, The White Stripes, Patti Smith, Mary J Blige, Death Cab for Cutie, Lavender Diamond, Joanna Newsom, Sam Cooke, Bat for Lashes, My Morning Jacket, Sigur Ros, to be continued...
Favorite Films: The Piano, Fiddler on the Roof, The Journey of Natty Gann, Slingblade, Monsoon Wedding, Tarnation, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, all John Cassavetes-directed or written movies, all Harmony Korine (except "kids"), all Niki Caro-directed films, What About Bob?, Groundhog Day, Beloved, Eve's Bayou, Best in Show, Brokeback Mountain, Glory, Wings of Desire, Faraway So Close, Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, See No Evil Hear No Evil, Marvin and Tige, Princess Mononoke, Maria Full of Grace, Rabbit Proof Fence, Glory, Ponette, Beloved, Life Stinks, The Office, 40 Yr Old Virgin, A Thousand Acres, Sound of Music, Rocky, Little Miss Sunshine, Lovely and Amazing, Crooklyn, Donnie Darko
Hobbies: Music-making, running/walking/biking and being in nature at most opportunities, being with loved ones, poetry