Hi, salut, hallo, hola, ciao

A little introduction may be in order.

I'm:

A student

A woman

A reader

A sailor

A compulsive fiddler

A feminist

Black and white theme fell through.  Can you blame me though?

I've started this blog because I want to take my interaction with feminist media to a new level.  This interacts a bit with my compulsive fiddling, because the treatment I have discovered is crafts.  My clandestine knitting and embroidery has sometimes seemed at odds with my political leanings, but I have been thinking lately about combining the two in this thing called Craftivism -- craft plus activism.  I first started interacting with this in a major way a month ago, so please join me in a voyage of discovery, but do not expect a well experienced skipper.

I chose the name "when feminists attack" on a whim.  I think it came from a couple of things I've been thinking about lately.  One is a quote from an article on gothic literature which links feminists, vampires and aliens in their attempts to subvert the patriarchal order of reproduction.  The idea of the feminist as monster appeals to me, which says something about my sense of humour.

;

DYK -- the first vampire in English literature was woman who preyed on women?

Another is a conversation I had recently with a couple of friends.  I was labouring over a new mainsheet for a boat, bemoaning the impossibility of threading it through correctly.  My audience, my friend N and new acquaintance D were looking on.  D took my complaints as a request for help and started firing off ideas, at which point, I said something, I can't remember what, which had the effect of shutting him up, quite a remarkable feat.  N laughed and told him that I don't do advice.  "She's not telling you to go away, except that she is."  I have a very low tolerance level for anyone with less knowledge than I do on a subject butting in with well meaning advice because I see it happening so much when I'm attempting a traditionally masculine task (like starting a recalcitrant boat engine, or hitching a trailer to my car), and see their response in that context. The point of that rambling story is that attack is a somewhat apt word for my blunt response to perceived sexism.