I know I should probably talk about the fact that my country has a new government, (with an appalling lack of women or non-white folks evident in its upper reaches) but honestly, it's too depressing to think about. At least we can hope that the LibDems will put the mockers on a complete devastation of the poor and working class, though I wouldn't count on it. And that's all I care to say on the matter for now.
Instead, I want to share a little feminist "teaching moment" from today's counselling skills learning session. I'm obviously going to have to be careful what I say because confidentiality applies here.
There was a discussion about different perspectives and one member of the group made the usual generalisation about women being eager to talk about emotions, but men not being emotional at all, or not talking about it. I was able to say that it's about the way men and women are taught to behave, rather than the way they actually are underneath - and one of the male members of the group backed me up on this with his own personal observations that men often really welcome the chance to open up when they feel they don't have to perform masculinity. I think that for some, at least the fact of being exposed to those ideas that counter the received "wisdom" that men and women are just "naturally" different, may have helped a little.
It's also encouraging that I'm not the only guy in the group who seems to get these things.
It may be a very very small drop in the ocean of feminist activism, but it's still a step in the right direction when there are so many steps in the wrong direction out there every day. And it allows me to keep believing that feminism may one day change the world fundamentally. One day!
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