Call for co-host nominations.

[obamanut2012]

3. I am Obamanut2012

I‘m Obamanut2012, and I’d like to nominate myself as a co-host for the Feminists Group here on DU. I really like the cross-section of feminists we have here, both female and male, and love the exchange of ideas in this group and in other groups and forums. I am always learning something, including learning to appreciate someone else’s experiences.

I have been a feminist since elementary school (even though I didn’t know I was), when the girls were told our field hockey team couldn’t practice on the real field, that was for the boys, because their team was more important for the school. This policy was against federal Law i.e. Title IX. The second event that made me realize things weren’t fair was about the same time, when my father told me I couldn’t do something because I was a girl. I asked if I would be allowed to do it if I was a boy, and he said yes. I told my mother what he said, and she gave me permission to do it. She was as ticked off as I was! I can’t remember what the issue was, and I just texted her, and she can’t either, but it was enough to ignite the flame inside.

In college, some of us lobbied for and got the first women’s studies classes ever held at my university, which in turn caused some local colleges and universities to do the same. This started my real academic study on women’s issues, which continues to this day.

I sincerely believe in social justice, and believe that the main tools for equal civil rights for all is education (not only academic) and eliminating poverty. Having a full belly and dignity should be a right, not a privilege. I have tried to live this as much as I can, including by establishing and helping to coordinate an ESL and a literacy program for the maintenance and custodial staff at my institution, raising a bit of hell so these same workers received the same pay as their male counterparts, and choosing to teach Basic Skills aka GED classes to adults in an impoverished area of North Carolina. I am really maddened by the inequalities existing in our country, inequalities most harshly felt by women and children.

I believe that we are a sum of all of our parts, and every part of us has meaning in our lives. I am a white lesbian, with an excellent education and a thin bank account. I understand that the color of my skin and my education gives me privilege others don’t have. I also know I am judged and often discriminated against because of my gender and my sexual orientation. I understand that a woman of color with my same background is affected by things differently than I am. Basically, I believe in intersectionality. In my own life, women’s rights and LGBT rights are very important to me, and I also often feel that lower-income/less educated women are often left out of the women’s rights equation.

I have moderated several boards over the years, and on DU I am a cohost of Vegetarians & Vegans, and F & D, and was honored by Yardwork and asked to be an interim cohost of the FG. Though this may surprise some of you, I am very fair-mined as a host or juror, and take my responsibilities very seriously, and believe in playing by the rules (or SOP, in this case). As a poster, I very rarely alert, I am not keen on blocking unless it really is the only thing left to do, and I have never had a hidden post. I am tolerant of just about everything but bigotry. If chosen as a cohost, I promise to continue being fair-minded in the FG.

I really apologize this is so long!