THIS PAGE HAS MOVED!
Everything in this site is now built around my blog, which is now available right at krismom.com!

You'll find the updated version of this page there, or you can search the blog to find info on the subject. As a young married mommy, I blog about anything and everything from my experiences surviving PPD and OCD, to coping with pain from car accident injuries, to daily life with kids, to scrapbooking and card-making, to blogging and internet/new media topics.

I've been a firm believer in equal rights since high school, but what really opened my eyes was university. Having experienced the 4 year Women's Studies program, I've studied and learned about not only the fight for women's rights, but the fight other minority groups have fought as well. I am still saddened and shocked when I see some of the discrimination that is still running rampant through our society these days!

I'd have to say that what bothers me the most is the ignorance of those who are discriminating - they sometimes feel they are not being discriminatory, or they will say they have a right not to "put up with" the minority groups they oppress. The worst defense of bigotry I've ever heard is when the majority use excuses like "I don't proclaim my majority out loud, why does this minority need to?". I've heard those who have the priviledge of not knowing what it's like to be discriminated against use this as an excuse against the need for Black history month, for gay pride parades, for feminist books and lectures and programs. It is not a very good excuse. If those of us in minority groups had the protection and priviledge that majority groups did, we wouldn't need to fight back against the oppression we face.

I frequently hear "Women's Studies? What about men's studies?" every time I tell people about my 2nd degree. My response is always "Everything else on campus is men's studies- history, sociology, medicine! If women were not ignored in mainstream education and history, we would not need a separate department to shed light on their contributions and the ways in which those contributions have been minimized or erased.

I believe in feminism ("the absurb notion that women are people"), I believe that the Women's Movement is not "over" as so many would have us think, and that there is still much work to do on deep levels to eradicate sexism, gender stereotyping, and oppression of women. It's crucial for people to realize that oppression of women is not just the "big" issues like a woman staying home vs. going to work; it can permeate every aspect of our lives, from the mean comment of some relative making a jab at the intelligence of women, to the car mechanic who will automatically charge us twice as much because he assumes women won't know the difference. For me the question to ask to women who say feminism is "over", we are now equal to men, is "Do you still feel afraid to walk alone at night? If you were a man, would you feel that way?". This was one of the points I used to make my male partner realize why feminism and fighting for women's rights is still important - he could honestly say he hasn't felt this fear, whereas when I was on campus "after hours", I would walk with a big car key in my hand sticking out so I could attempt to be prepared if a man tried to rape me. This is one of the many reasons feminism is still needed as a movement of change for the better!

I believe in the right to be in love with someone who is the same sex, and sometimes can't wrap my brain around why this is such a huge problem to people! If I am happy in a relationship with a woman I care for, and we are happy together, why would someone want to destroy that? I have experienced discrimination for this and have fought it. My car has been vandalized, I've been shouted at, etc. Now it seems even harder to fight since most people make a blanket assumption that all married women are straight (many of the ones I know aren't!). It is sometimes hard to challenge the "heterosexual priviledge" that I could just easily assume, but I'm trying to do just that. My hope is that being "out" to many of the people around me will help them realize that just because someone is non-hetero doesn't mean they are less of a human being and deserve any less of life's happinesses!