Laurie says:
I’m a big fan of Rachel S and her blog Rachel’s Tavern. Her writing and work on race and class absolutely knock me out.
In her recent post on Alas, A Blog about older women and blogging, she raises some important issues about older women and the blogosphere. She got me thinking about a lot of things, including the fact that we haven’t a clue about how many older feminist bloggers there are.
Body Impolitic is a good example. I’m 64, right in the center of her category, and Deb is 54 and very much a second wave feminist. I’ve got a feeling that there are a lot more of us out there than is obvious. Susie Bright talks a lot about issues of hot sex and aging and Ronnie Bennett has a blog about what it’s really like to get older. Both of these are popular blogs. I suspect that if you’re not writing about issues of aging folks assume you’re not “older.” On the Internet, no one knows if you’re a dog (or over 60).
And her list of “older women’s issues” and “younger women’s issues” reminded me that age frequently broadens one’s perspective. I read the feminist blogs she’s referring to, and just about all of the issues they cover are important to me. Many of the “older” issues she talks about are equally relevant to younger women. I’d be a lot more worried about the future of social security if I was 38 than I am now. There are serious issues of discrimination and bias in many areas, but for me they’re examples of how our society marginalizes everyone they can, and the interrelationship is as important as the explicit focus.
I’ve never been sure about this older and wiser stuff. I feel that folks who come up in different times know different things. I can, and do, learn as much from people who are 40 years younger than I am as they do from me. My daughters, who are 43 and 32, are a case in point.
In poking around the blogsphere I discovered that apparently I have yet another “identity” title – elderblogger. Someday I’m going to make a list. It would probably start with “commie socialist” when I was 14.
feminism
women
aging
older women
identity politics
Body Impolitic