Re: [-empyre-] where is the focus

[Cristiano Bianchi <cristianobianchi@yahoo.com>]

Beautiful post, Barrie, thanks!
Have a great 2003 with your daughters.

Cristiano

PS I confess I list the focus too at some point...

 --- fizzion <fizzion@optusnet.com.au> wrote: >
Cyberfeminism,
> 
> I've been reading all the posts re the cyberfeminism
> issue/s.
> Haven't had time to reply, so busy with kids (single
> father) and moving
> plans (one of them is moving out).
> This post is a bit of conglomeration of ideas, I
> hope it makes sense.
> 
> In the late 60's early 70's I found myself marching
> down Pitt Street, Sydney
> Au, with the feminists and the wharfies
> demonstrating for women's rights. I
> remember seeing Germaine Greer in Hyde Park
> afterward waving her arms about
> describing a fight she nearly had with a bloke in a
> pub (give the bastard a
> bunch of five) over some rights issue and just a few
> metres away stood a
> mute 'right to lifer', like a pudding, refusing to
> communicate with anyone,
> just mutely holding a banner proclaiming a foetus'
> rights.
> 
> As a bloke I didn't feel at all uncomfortable in all
> of this because my ex
> had just turned into a lesbian so I'd had to
> confront a lot of issues about
> roles in family, what is a family, children and
> gender values etc. At the
> same time it was a bit unsettling, unnerving,
> because I found myself in a
> minority of men, things just didn't fit the way they
> used to any more.
> 
> There was no internet then, it was pamphlets,
> magazines and books, radio and
> TV. The web is a common space, you can claim your
> bit of territory, people
> will come and visit your sites, you can just about
> say or do what you like
> which makes the net a fascinating source of ideas
> and things, and also a
> dangerous one.
> 
> I have to say that I really detest radical feminism
> although I can empathise
> with some of the reasons for its existence, some men
> can be real bastards
> (violence, paedophilia etc).
> 
> What is the focus for cyberfeminism today. What are
> the issues. I haven't
> the faintest idea. Issues tend to galvanise and
> focus the energy of groups
> and individuals. Gender bias is still an issue.
> If you look at the media, whatever goes for TV, the
> press, magazines can
> also be found on the web. But the democracy of the
> web makes it a more open
> forum for ideas, whereas old media tends to reflect
> the gender status quo,
> particularly the tabloids and women's and men's
> magazines.
> 
> A couple of years ago I had the multimedia artist
> Linda Diment as a lecturer
> in the Masters in the digital media course at UWS.
> It was interesting having
> an artist as a lecturer who openly explored her
> sexuality in her own work. I
> don't remember feminism ever being discussed in that
> class, we just got on
> with doing our stuff, Linda was a delight to work
> with.
> 
> My 32 yr old daughter Kirsty, (first marriage)
> currently doing a masters in
> fine art at Sydney College of the Arts is totally
> different though. She was
> brought up in a fairly radical feminist household
> and holds strong, if a
> little prejudiced, views on feminist issues.
> Everything is filtered through
> a feminist take on the world. We have arguments, we
> discuss art and
> feminism, its good.
> 
> As a single father I find myself sidelined a lot. In
> welfare agencies and
> the like its the single mother that is emphasised,
> single dads barely get a
> mention. If you look at the stats there are what the
> ABS (Australian B of
> Stats) refer to as One-parent families, male lone
> parents account for
> 127,000 single parent families, female lone parent
> families are at 635,094.
> That's a hell of a lot of single parents, and males
> a significant group. I'm
> a single parent, I do everything for my kids.
> 
> The same old feminist issues are still relevant but
> what I'd like feminists,
> indeed any group to focus on today is the family,
> ageism, racism,
> militarism, leadership (we don't have any worth shit
> in this country at the
> moment) the evolving nature and structure of
> community ...
> 
> As I write this my 11 yr old daughter Lillian
> (second marriage) sleeps
> wrapped in her quilt on the lounge, an angel in
> another world. Sleeping
> children are so beautiful to watch, it is such a
> special thing as a parent
> to see your children sleeping, dreaming. The
> responsibility of having
> children is a special and demanding one, for men and
> women, for all of us.
> Its bloody hard doing it as a single parent though,
> lonliness, poverty etc.
> 
> Barrie
> 
> :: Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. -
> Douglas Adams ::
>
----------------------------------------------------------------
> Barrie Collins, Carl and Lillian Frieden-Collins
> 7 Blaxland Avenue, Leura NSW 2780
> Tel + Fax: 02 4784 1224
> Mobile: 0418 394 234
> barriec@optusnet.com.au
> fizzion@optusnet.com.au
> http://members.optusnet.com.au/~fizzion
> 
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre 

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