Sunday 6 February 2011

The Story So Far...


Welcome to my new blog. I used to write the blog “Beyond Feminism”. But now I want to start afresh.
If you know me from my previous blog, thank you for joining me here. I have admittedly neglected writing anything in a while now. There is a story behind it (the blog and the consequent non writing on the blog).

The Story So Far…

Some years ago I started a blog with the purpose to write about feminism and more, hence the name “Beyond Feminism”. My goal was to explore “dissenting” ideas (aka “The Left” and everything that encompasses it) within a feminist framework. That didn’t quite work out, since the “Feminist” camp and the “Left” camp don’t seem to mix up very well. On the one side “Feminist” blogs take little notice of things like “the economy” and instead frame their opposition to the system in terms of “privilege”, which is extremely limited. On the other side, the “Left” likes to take little notice of “Feminism”, just so it can continue with the long held tradition of ignoring women.

There was a problem with that approach. I was writing a blog about politics following the “traditional” way people go about when they discuss politics. But it didn’t work. My writing was excruciatingly painful to produce and not at all satisfying, personally. I was writing “without myself”. I would perform a function similar to that of a computer: political ideas go in, they get analyzed and they come out. At no point would I play the role of “human being”. The result? A painfully boring read and a painfully painful write.
Eventually, inevitably, I burnt out. But I learned the lesson: if you love writing but you are hating writing, change the way you write.

That is why this blog will be written in a different voice. One that is easier, more personal, and has the potential to be fun, creative and humorous. It has the “potential”, it doesn’t mean that it will be there all the time. It is difficult, after all!
I want to write in a way that makes me feel better, which I believe will in turn make those who read what I write feel better.

No more struggling to get my ideas to sound like they come from a journalist! No more suffering because I fail to write like a University professor! I am neither after all. I am me, a little, unemployed, poor young person with big dreams, big ideas but little understanding of the practical side of things. Compensating lack of experience and knowledge with enthusiasm, willpower and the occasional bout of creativity.
Trying to make the world a better place. Trying to empower people so that they speak out. Trying to help them see that the truth they held close to their hearts was true all along. 

It is my belief and hope that my words can help people. If you are one of them, thank you for coming and I sincerely hope you find my words helpful. Please bear with me while I get a new blog-mojo. I am experimenting with new modes of expression and new ideas. There is no telling what will be coming out of all this!

Here I am, trying to create something more “holistic”. Trying to make “one” out of many bits of Truth. Expect Philosophy, Left, Feminism, Spirituality, Literature and highly adulterated New Age-y-ness.


3 comments:

Dark Daughta said...

i located your old blog today and followed the link to this space. new reader here (waves). congratulations on the shift and on being so willing to understand your own process, a process you discuss up above with such courageous eloquence.

Mary Tracy said...

Yay! Thanks Dark Daughta! You have produced the first comment on this very blog.

Anonymous said...

Sounds good to me Mary Tracy, liking your new style very much!