Poetry series:'between the lines'
mum, why are you a feminist?
Courtesy of an Assortment of Mums
In honour of International Women's Day we asked an assortment of mums why, or if at all, they are feminists. The responses were wide ranging, to say the least, ceramics classes interrupted, one mother-daughter relationship was potentially damaged beyond repair, another was distracted by log-chopping and one just wants a seat on the Tube....
And finally, an anecdote from Lynda...
"Yesterday I was waiting to pay for something in a shop and another customer, an elderly man in a suit, stood back and said 'Ladies first!' gesturing me forward to the till. I thanked him but declined, pointing out that he was waiting to pay for only one thing, while I had lots. I smiled as I said it, but he changed immediately from gallant to loudly complaining: "What a put-down! And from a woman! You see, this is the way things are now."
So I'm still a feminist, after all these years, because it's necessary. Sexism from any direction is unforgivable, ugly and belittling. I celebrate the feminine in myself; in all women, but also in my husband, and in my sons and their friends, whatever their gender. We cut ourselves off from wholeness if we can't all do that."
