This is a community for reasonable women. We come in all shapes and sizes, ages and colors, classes and backgrounds, religions and ideologies (or lack thereof). We come from all walks of life. Some of us are wives and lovers, some of us are mothers, some of us are just happy to live free, independent lives. Many of us are feminists, but our definitions of feminism differ widely as well.
Our degrees of formal education vary widely, as do our professions, occupations, and vocations, but we all share the same characteristics: we're inquisitive, curious, interested in a huge variety of things, passionate about a few important ones. Our studies didn't end with graduation from high school, college, grad school...we are perpetually learning and changing, sometimes in the most unpredictable ways. We're independent, critical thinkers.
We're unconventional. We've discovered that the world isn't really made for reasonable women, after all--we're supposed to be sex objects, or Stepford wives, or doting daughters, or June-Cleaver-like mothers. Or we're supposed to be shrill, man-hating, sexless kneejerk harpies or vague, amorphous fonts of nurturing femininity.
What the world expects from us and who we really are often are two very different things, and as a result our lives and relationships are profoundly complicated and fraught with tension. A great many of us seem to struggle perpetually with self-doubt, depression and other psychological afflictions, which have at least some roots in the fact that in many parts of our society women are still considered less likely than men to succeed in intellectual and professional pursuits, and that a strong, articulate woman is often demonized for speaking out if she doesn't say the "right" things.
This community is intended to be a place where we can express and sympathize with one another's frustrations, describe dreams and aspirations, strategize about ways to deal with being a smart woman in a world where women are expected not to ask questions or rock the boat, offer one another support, and discuss issues important to us as thinking women and as responsible world citizens.
