creating the blog...

my venture into the 'blogosphere' started as a work-related training program around web 2.0 technology in 2007... the program lasted 23 weeks where i discovered some of the amazing tools 'out there' and got a good grounding in the basics of blogging...

i'm writing this brief 'introduction' three years down the track...

 my enjoyment in creating and maintaining my blog increased and intensified once i really 'owned' it - when it was no longer a compulsory work task... it's a very stimulating and therapeutic pastime these days... it's an insight into me and my politics and a glimpse into my life - both the pleasure and pain... 


i contemplated deleting all of the earlier 'learning' posts, but decided against that... it was a learning curve for me and someone else might find the information useful... and hey, it's part of my blogging herstory...

so here's how it all began... my first post...
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Okay, the following has nothing whatsoever to do with libraries or Web 2.0, but as it's the first Post, and creating the blog is all about formatting, fonts, colours etc., a decent body of text was a good way of seeing if that all works, so I hope you find it interesting.

SYMBOLS OF WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE/LIBERATION

WOMEN’S COLOURS

The colours used on this page have specific meaning to women. The colours originated during the Suffrage Movement with the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in the U.K. in 1908.

The colours were said to represent:

white for purity; purple for dignity, self-reverence and self-respect; and green for hope and new life.

The tricolour of the WSPU soon became a visual cue for the women's movement in Australia. Purple, green and white were worn on International Women's Day and were used for other women's movement banners and posters - although when i was active in the movement in the 70s there was no green involved, it was always purple and white (and consequently they're the 2 colours i associate with womyn and womyn's liberation - but i question the purity association!)

The American Suffrage Movement also adopted these colours but replaced the green with gold.

The use of gold began with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony's campaign to help pass a suffrage state referendum in Kansas in 1867. The Kansas state symbol was the sunflower, which was adopted by the pro suffrage forces in the campaign. The sunflower, and the color gold or yellow, was associated with the suffrage cause thereafter. Suffrage supporters used gold pins, ribbons, sashes, and yellow roses to denote their cause.

THE WITCH / WISE WOMAN

“Women have always been healers. They were the unlicensed doctors and anatomists of western history. They were abortionists, nurses and counselors. They were pharmacists, cultivating healing herbs and exchanging the secrets of their uses. They were mid-wives, traveling from home to home and village to village. For centuries women were doctors without degrees, barred from books and lectures, learning from each other, and passing on experience from neighbour to neighbour and mother to daughter. They were called “wise women” by the people, witches or charlatans but the authorities.” .. Witches, midwives & nurses: a history of women healers

THE WOMEN'S SYMBOL

The circle with the cross extending down is the biological female symbol

"The symbol depicting a clenched fist inside the biological female symbol was produced by Robin Morgan for the second Miss America Pageant demonstration, in 1969. It combined the elements of defiance and revolution with that of femaleness. The original version was a dark red on a white background. Initially, Robin Morgan worried over the choice of a red button for this particular demonstration. Ever conscious that major corporations like to co-opt incipient protest movements, she imagined that the cosmetic firm sponsoring the pageant might respond by manufacturing a matching lipstick named "Liberation Red." Therefore, if asked about the button, women were instructed to reply that the color was "Menstrual Red." No one would name a lipstick that" .. Jo Freeman