Welcome

Welcome to my new blog!

This actually is the third blog I've started on Blogger. The first - and still running - is "A not so average woman", the second was "Surely not Barbie's Diary", but it's defunct. I couldn't come up with enough stories to make up this fake diary of Barbie (or rather the "My Scene"-Barbie Kennedy).

And I've still got a lot to do, for example in the future you'll find a link to this post, as it explains what the whole blog is about and thus should always be available for new readers. Then there's a feminist link-list coming up, I'll have to find a picture for the 'me' of this blog (the one from "A not so average woman" won't do) and, and, and...

But now back to the topic of this blog, okay? Why did I name it "Feminism Wow!"?

As I already mentioned in the header of the blog, the title has something in common with the "Catholicism Wow!" campaign featured in the movie "Dogma". For those of you not acquainted with the movie: in the story, the campaign is created by the Roman-Catholic church in order to 'bring Catholicism to the 21st century', sort of. In other words: the church tries to modernize Catholicism (or, at least, its image) in order to keep the believers believing. Part of the campaign is the exchange of the cross for this mascot:

Buddy Christ

But, of course, this blog is not here to change Catholicism (even though I'm Roman-Catholic myself and would appreciate the "Buddy Christ" mascot). It's about changing the image of Feminism.

And Feminism really, really, really needs a change of image, believe me. For a lot of young girls and women these days Feminism is kind of a hate-word. "Feminism" seems to imply hating men, taking control of everything and not behaving feminine at all. Feminists, it seems, can't have a boyfriend/lover/husband, won't have children and destroy the delicate balance of nature. They are, as it is, kind of demons in human skin.

So being a Feminist in un-cool and only something for ugly chicks or lesbians. If you're good-looking and like men, you simply can't be a Feminist.

And that's where people go wrong!

Being a Feminist is not about hating men. Being a Feminist is not about fighting men, either. It's about fighting the system that keeps women down and in the worse position, even today. And to fight a system that heavily relies on society to work, you need most of society behind you. As about 50 percent of the society is male, fighting men in general is utterly pointless. 'The enemy' is not necessarily a man, either, it also can be a woman.

This blog - unlike my other that is dedicated to everything going through my mind - is only about topics that are part of, or border on, Feminism. Some topics might feature in both blogs (like my "Size 0" crusade), but everything about Feminism will from now on be posted here. Nevertheless, this blog is probably going to grow slower, once I've introduced the main topics. I might also create a link-list for the Feminist topics of my other blog, so they can be found, only perusing this blog.

Feminism has not won yet - and as long as Ms. Herman's book still is in print, it won't win (but more about this major topic later on) - and there's still a lot of things to fight for. Some examples:

• The Pay Gap: Women are still paid less for the same work. This only works, because (at least in Germany), equal pay is based on equal quality, and this 'quality' is not defined.
• Sexual Assault and Rape: Men still have to learn that 'No' doesn't mean 'Yes, please', it seems. The way a woman looks or is dressed or the position she has in a company compared to a man are no excuses to sexually assault or rape someone.
• Gender Stereotypes: As long as some things are 'for girls' and others are 'for boys', we'll never have equality. A girl has the right to play with whatever interests her - and the same goes for a boy. So what, if a girl wants to play with toy cars or a boy wants to play with Barbie dolls?
• Barbie, of course, is a topic all to itself.
• "Size 0" and the Beauty Trap: Women are judged by their looks far more than men, although this often happens in situations, in which the looks have nothing to do with qualification. And anorexia and other diseases of this kind simply can't be accepted.
• Image of Feminism: What kind of image Feminism has and what kind of image it should have, based on the real goals.
• "The Eva-Principle": As long as I'm still fighting my way through that book (and, although 250 pages normally mean nothing to me, that can be a long time), I will regularly rave about it here.

There'll be other topics, too, but those are the most important ones. They will also make up most of the posts, as far as I can see now.

So, welcome to "Feminism Wow!" again. And don't be too worried about me getting all bitchy and not funny at all. I do have humour, too, and can't keep sarcasm and cynicism all to myself.

Just come along for the ride! I'm sure you won't regret it too much!