Braindump: Identity and Gender Discussion

Here are my notes from the discussion on identity and gender diva'ed by Amber. This was the infamous discussion that spurred Kristie's WoolfCamp blog post and the subsequent discussion of feminism, what it means to be a feminist, and how, as Kristie writes, "you can learn something new everyday if you allow yourself to be open to it."

These are my raw notes without embellishment, spellchecking, or editing.

P.S. Thank you to Amber for initiating and leading the lively discussion and for use of the word "trope."

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Who are we. Questions of identity. gender, Utopian possibility of blogging anonymity. Feminine and masculine tropes that a blog has. What does it mean to be a feminist blogger? If blogging is a literary genre, what does it mean to put a feminist slant on that. Can blogs have a womens' writing stigma: kvetching, mommyblogging, and what does that mean for the future? What will that mean when we look back onto blogging (in the future)?

Gender and genre bibliography. Nobody has devined blogging as a genre in literary criticism. But journals, diaries, letters -- yes. Are the lines between women's public and private lives articial? (Link to thesis can be found on Wiki; Amber put it there.)

Do we need disclaimers about truth when we write because truth is so subjective and if we will be part of an understanding of history, is there an obligation to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth? But, why should we include disclaimers with our writing when Viriginia Woolf herself suggested that it's something that women do with their writing that they are better off not doing.

Nancy Mairs -- check out her writing about how to write about your family.

Doris Lesing -- The Golden Notebook. Personal integration.

Susie Bright's book about being a mother and a sex persona

scrine

The question of being a feminist and if our blogs identified us as feminists. There's the question of focus on your blog. If you blog about politics one day, the oscars the next day, shoes the next day, and the question of choice the next day, ... what does this mean? Is it a dilution of power?

Are simple blogs men's blogs and complex blogs are womens' blogs? For example, if you came across a random blog and didn't know who the author was.

The intersection of gender and genre. We expect (?) allow (?) accept (?) men to be simple. As a technical writer I write in active rather than passive voice.

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Technorati tags: gender, feminism, feminist, woolfcamp