Commenting Changes

Those who read this blog, or many other NZ feminist blogs, will know that people have raised the issue of transphobia and this blog being an unsafe space for some transpeople. These are concerns that we want to address. We are discussing different options for improving The Hand Mirror, this post is about the first step we are going to take, not all we are intending to do.

One of the things we know we need to do is change our comment section. We're likely to make a number of changes and experiments to improve it - some in reasonably direct response to the issues people have raised, and others to address our experiences as moderators. Addressing the comment section is just part of the changes we want to make. We are also talking about ways to directly address transphobia.

We want to do two things now, before we make other changes. The first is make it easier for people to report out of line comments. We have set up a contact address specifically reporting comments (thehandmirrorblog@gmail.com). This will appear on the commenting page and so should be easily accessible. We will aim to act on e-mails or reply within a day, but need to make clear that sometimes that won't be possible.

The other thing we need to do now is make it clearer about what sort of space we are. We will probably revise the comment policy substantially over the next few months, but in the meantime we have just added material to reflect both reality, as our current. You can see the revised post here. We're not accepting the current situation, and we are working to change it, but in the meantime we think it's important to be honest.

I want to be really clear that we don't know how to create the sort of comment section we want to have. As we make changes some may not work, so we welcome on going feedback and ideas.

Note about comments: Julie's apology thread remains open if you want to discuss anything that happened previously. This is about commenting sections, moderating tools, and policy, please stay on-topic.

New women in NZ blogging

Two new blogs for you to read:

Feminethicist is written by ladybroseph, who is studying bioethics and heath law, and who writes from a feminist perspective.

Look up at the sky is written by a personal friend of mine, and a wise woman, Denny, who lives with a spinal cord injury.

New bloggers

A couple of new blogs written by New Zealand women, which I've added to our blogroll.

The End is Naenae is written by Annanonymous, and has a fantastic mix of parenting, feminism, life, sociology, quirkiness, and anything and everything.

Teaching the Teacher is written by TeacherTrainee, and reflections on her experience as she does a post-grad teacher training course this year.

Our blogroll aims to include any women blogging in Aotearoa New Zealand. If you're writing a blog, and you would like to be included, leave a note in comments.

And I've shifted blogs myself, given that I am no longer living in Australia. My new blog is A Bee of a Certain Age.

NZ women writing blogs

We try to maintain a blog roll of New Zealand women and women in New Zealand writing blogs, which you can check out in the side bar. If you've started a blog recently, or a long time ago, or sometime in between, and you would like to be in the blog roll, leave a comment, and I'll add you to the roll. Any type of blog is welcome - feminist, political, craft, mummy, life, cooking, books, gardening, academic, writing, fashion, fitness, all or none of the above.

On that note, may I introduce Anna Caro's new blog - Anna Caro - which she started on New Years Day.

New Quote

You may have noticed that the quote at the top of this blog had changed. We have replaced "I became a feminist as an alternative to becoming a masochist" with "Feminism is the radical notion that women are people".

We had an e-mail from a reader who saw our previous quote as being a statement about mascochism as a sexual practice/preference/desire. We agreed that that wasn't a message that we wanted to send to readers.

While I didn't understand the quote in the same way as our reader, I do prefer this quote. I don't think the choices are to fight oppression or to enjoy it. I think the options for women are much more complicated than that, and resistance is often much more about hope than suffering. In contrast, I love the many different ways you can understand 'the radical notion women are people.'

Anyway I thought this would be a good opportunity to gather reader feedback. Are there things that make the hand mirror welcoming or unwelcoming? Accessible or inaccessible?