Thanks for the invite

Hello everyone,
the strange and newness of writing somewhere else, in a different blogging format.

Firstly, thanks to the Hand Mirror crew for the invite, I'm looking forward to being part of a group of feminists blogging rather than part of the feminist blogosphere.

Secondly, I'm going to nick an idea I loved from The Stroppery, of introducing myself even though I've been writing for a bit. Loved it there in terms of hearing people whose writing I'd been enjoying for a while describe themselves, and in terms of hearing from people I was less familiar with what their areas of interest were.

So I'm a radical feminist. This means, to me, that I see male violence against women as a fundamental supporting plank of sexism and the oppression of women. So I'll be writing about it lots. It also means I don't believe the world would stop discriminating against women if we had equal pay (equal with who?), or if capitalism were to fall on it's sword tomorrow.

It doesn't mean that I hate men, though I know that's often levelled at people claiming the "radical feminist" byline. I really like some men. Some of my best friends, fave lovers, most cherished family members, and heroes have been and are men.

But I really don't like the oppression of women.

And that brings me to my next defining statement I guess. I'm interesting in talking, writing and thinking about all kinds of oppression. Just off the top of my head - racism and colonialism, queer oppression, gender oppression including trans* phobia, classism, able-bodiedism - there will be others. I don't call this being PC. I call it caring about how some people have power and use it over others.

I'm also going to blog about sex, the media, and no doubt, when I'm feeling more relaxed, sport and science fiction. And I like to think I'm funny, but that might be an acquired taste.

Let's see how this goes.

And ta for the welcome from ScubaNurse and Boganette. Right back at ya, sisters :-)