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Cassandra's Page
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- About Me:
- I am a 21 year old recently married feminist, and I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I have two (also recent) bachelors degrees in journalism and creative writing, but have realized that, while I'd love to write for a living, I have no respect for American media institutions. Luckily, my husband's job will support the both of us, but I still feel uncomfortable being completely dependent on him (though I like supporting him domestically!). I've also moved from my home state of Arizona to a significantly different Washington. I am also four months pregnant with our first child.
So many life changes happening at the same time have left me breathless. Needless to say, I am in search of a community of similar minds in similar situations so that I can better ground myself with my new identity as a feminist housewife.
- Do you consider yourself a Feminist?
- Absofreakinglutely
- Are you...
- a housewife, a woman who shoulders all domestic responsibility for your family
- Relationship Status:
- Married
Cassandra's discussions
Women in the (White) House
35 Replies
Started this discussion. Last reply by Justine Jul 6.
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Comment Wall (7 comments)
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I think you have some specific things you have done quite well in your young adult life. You state first as a person you have recieved a degree in journalism and creative writing. Secondly you got married those are definitely big steps in achieving success. Well the journalism should be able to help you speak about what you feel divided by. There are so many interpretations of "The Press", and by commonly tossed around terms such as the most famous, "Freedom of Speech". The most influential right in the The United States and by all means the most controversial. Just yesterday there was an article in my local paper about the loose reporter from MSNBC, who asked Chealsea Clinton, "if she was being pimped out by the Clinton campaign"? As riduculous as the question appears, the reporter felt that he said nothing wrong. He later apologized, as the word pimp, (which us used quite commonly might I add in todays cultures). Another form of misogyny as the reporter stated.
There are different standards in todays times that didn't exist back in the day when the Gloria Stienems of the world were ready take to the streets to protect thier honor in spite of being in a mostly male dominated world, and thus fore a male dominated and opinated society. It has been a struggle for women to establish a level playing field for not decades but truly centuries.
Women have different codes of beliefs, we are made completely different. We can not compete with men, but in this day and age are and do so. In comparison of what most men do easily, it is twice as hard for a female to consider that she will do construction work, true though today there are large percentages of women, who will gladly argue, "you do what you gotta do in order to survive". There are many women that are tired of depending on a man for money, or what ever else he may provide for her, always keeping track in some secret level of all he has provided for his supposed wife, girl friend, or lover.
It gets confusing if you ask me, there are many different levels of playing fields in this day and age. The younger generation has seen shamless depictions of women counteracting with men, looking every bit the player, and coming across as ruthless as the raw male appetite for sex in what would be considered the male coming of age or male sex peak. There are those barriers that women have to sort of navigate through and wonder, where do I fit into that stero type? Perhaps even if it's not who I want to be, I still have to seem like I can "hand it over" in a handshake, and walk away like "I" was the user not the usee.
Feminism gets garbled and gnawed with being equal to our male counterparts, and then you still have women to the likes of Eve Ensler who jus celebrated 10 years of the Vagina Monolouges. It is very brave attempt to get girls and young women to identify with thier vaginas, and realize they also have power, as opposed to males who rape, molest, and continue to intimidate with thier male organ the penis.
It is odd to think, just in the sexuality alone how women are percieved as different with no struggle. The maker of cosmetics, know invariably who is buying thier product. When I go to my local CVS I certainly don't see men comparing foundation and other make-up.
Where the male sexual identity is hurting, is the now male, where he is seeing a big identity crisis in the culture. So what does that leave a man to do? Some turn gay, and declare it's easier, so what does that say for being male? Women have decided they don't want the so called "traditional relationships" they may have seen thier mothers and fathers in, between arguments, that never exactly got fixed, tension, out of committment relationships, and other matters, both chemical and drug related.
Our society has been in the midst of a power struggle, instead of women subliminaly submiting into passive beings, we have exonerated ourselves through schooling, and played in corporate, sports, broke glass cielings in other areas, and now have Hillary Clinton who just happens to be one of the biggest names in history, that is willing to serve the people of The United States of America. If you get a chance to check out her neat little book, "It Takes A Village" and other Pro Hillary material, you will see that helping people has been a calling to this most incredible women. Just on that merit alone I think she is wonderful, I have writing done on the scandal with Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton during the second half of the Presidency. It is incredible, but I give wrong to Monica Lewinsky, she knew he was a married man, he may have had a hard time resisting temptation, but he learned many hard lessons at practically the cost of his Presidency.
He certainly is not the first man in the White House that got caught with his pants down, and I gaurantee that he won't be the last. But I am there are a lot of men, that "got the message" that cheating is risky business. I have many rants in this area as well...
If I had any political clout, I would seek reviews on why are people getting married if they are not truthful to thier vows? Is it a joke, practically I would say for some, and when you add some 20 something year old hormones into that fix, you bet there is alot of hanky panky going on. People right up until thier 30's are popping out hormones like crazy, and you know when people are hormonal, excuses suddenly sprout like dandelines. Avior for now, keep up these discussions, well fix the problems of the world one discussion at a time, or at least I would like to think.
How IS your pregnancy going?
Splodge has started to really move - almost every day now I get several "tweaks" in the direction of my bladder (I seem to be gestating a model with baby radar attached), and lower back and hip pain has become just another feature of living life.
I've been really lucky, in that none of my pregnancy symptoms have been particularly severe so far (apart from the acid reflux).
I'm enjoying reading your responses in the discussions a great deal.
I'm in a similar situation to you - not sure what I really want to do with my life, pregnant, entirely dependent on my partner financially and trying to reconcile enjoying the domestic with the uncomfortableness! Only I'm 26, with a bachelors in Communications and Cultural Studies (minoring in English Lit.) and I'm 5 months along now.
I think the American media is breathtakingly narrow and ethnocentric in a lot of ways, but Australia's is not hugely different.
I'm really glad there's another young first-time-mother-to-be here!
The best blogs I read are people who don't try to stick to one topic. Just write about whatever is the strongest emotion in you that day - whether you're outraged over the situations in the Middle East or you're grossed out from changing so many dirty diapers. Don't worry if the latter pervades your thoughts a lot, especially for the first few months. It takes a while to feel like yourself again and remember that there is a bigger world outside of your house.
- Erin C.
One of my degrees was creative writing (I went from engineering to creative writing to math education. I can't make up my mind.). I agree on the media institutions; there just seems to be a lot of spinning. I read Harpers, Ms., and Bust, but that's about it. Have you considered starting an indie mag? Also, we need help writing articles on our website -- if there is anything you'd like to write about, just let us know!
You said that you don't feel comfortable associating yourself with any one media organization, which I can totally understand. Have you consider blogging? It can take a bit of time to build up readership (3-6 months if you update regularly), but many people are able to make a nice bit of income from selling ad space. (Check out http://badladies.blogspot.com/ for an awesome example of this.) It's a way to keep your writing muscle in shape, at the very least.
Emily, the other admin of this community, also went through a similar situation right along with me. She's going back to school this semester.
I look forward to talking with you more!
- Erin