Welcome to Feisty Femmes!
Thanks so much for your interest/participation in Feisty Femmes, the new blog created by the Women's Center (formerly the Office for University Women). Here's a little background: the idea to start Feisty Femmes was borne out of our desire to know what's important to women students (undergraduate and graduate/professional) today. We are always looking for ways to engage women students in our programs and initiatives. We thought that one way to do that was to figure out what women are talking about. Instead of having a blog where Women's Center staff does most of the talking, we wanted to create a space where women students could initiate and drive the conversation, where they could define and discuss what the important and interesting issues are. Maybe those issues are reproductive rights, maybe it's politics, maybe it's images of women in media, women in technology, women of color, etc.
Because this is a new endeavor, we have kept it fairly open to what kind of writing would be included in the blog. We welcome essays and commentary, as well as more literary expressions, like poetry or fiction. The writing can address broad themes related to women (like I mentioned above), or it can be your personal experience with an issue. As the first group of women students who may participate in the blog, you will be helping us co-create Feisty Femmes. To that end, we welcome your ideas!
Feisty Femmes will hopefully represent a wide range of women, in terms of racial/ethnic background, major, sexual orientation, and viewpoint (just to name a few things).
A few ground rules:
- Profanity happens. We know this. But please avoid extensive profanity or profanity for its own sake.
- Be respectful of others' opinions. There's bound to be something or someone that you will disagree with, but be respectful, nonetheless.
- No anonymous posting. All commenters are required to leave an email address.
- The blog administrator reserves the right to delete any posts that are disrespectful, inflammatory, etc. We're not afraid of heated debate or a little controversy around here - within reason.
- Have fun and have great conversation!
If you have any questions or concerns, or would like to participate, please feel free to contact me at cottlead@umn.edu.
Thanks,
Anitra Cottledge
Coordinator, Women Student Programs
Women's Center