One day, quite a long time ago, I said a few words at a meeting of the Anthroposophical Society, of which I am a dedicated member. Afterwards, another member who was both the Waldorf kindergarten teacher and a curative eurythmist, came up to me and said, 'I never knew you were such a feminist'.
I stared at her in surprise because, truly, I'd never thought of myself like that.
If I am a feminist (yes!!) it's not because I was downtrodden, abused, badly treated by the opposite sex or anything like that. Rather the opposite in fact. With one exception, my dad was always encouraging and supportive of anything I wanted to do in the world. He'd been that way with my mother too. She was an excellent businesswoman and he allowed her a pretty free rein in life. Again, with one exception.
So, what were these two exceptions? Taking the last first, I can tell you that my father had strong opinions when it came to how women should look. In spite of the fact that my mother had blue eyes, he never wanted her to wear blue. And she didn't.
Once he read a draft of a children's story I'd written. His comment? "Complete waste of time". My plan is still to prove him wrong on that manuscript one of these days! Actually, he was prejudiced against women writers in general, which was strange, seeing as his own aunt was an author.
Autonomy, sovereignty... those are the two words that for me sum up the essence of feminism. However, having heard Gian Ghomeshi's excellent interview with Germaine Greer just a few nights ago, I think it's good to look towards what we need to work for in the future. That is, to live in community and cooperation with our sisters.
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