Feminist Friday Summer Wrap-Up

This week we wrap up our longest run of Feminist Friday discussions so far. We’ve had discussions for eleven consecutive weeks on nine blogs, and this project is still going strong. We’re planning another, shorter run for later in the year.

L.M.’s post from the Lobster Dance, “Ask a Bisexual: Can Women and Men Ever Just Be Friends,” was recently published at Feministe. Luther Siler of Infinite Free time joined us for this round and hosted an awesome discussion on teaching girls as a guy. We have a page at Part Time Monster to archive our discussion posts from here on out, and Diana’s announced that she plans to make feminist content a regular staple at the Monster on Fridays.

I’ve missed a lot of the chats this run, and I’ve not had time promote them the way I did during 2014 and in the spring. Yet both attendance and the discussions have been good. All this is bodes well for the health of this project.

It’s amazing all this started as a conversation between three bloggers in 2013. You can read the backstory in my very first discussion post. These discussions have meant a lot to me, personally. They’ve not only made me a lot of friends, they’ve made me more sensitive to my own privilege, and they’ve improved my advocacy skills.

I’m happy with what we’ve accomplished — and we’ve accomplished a lot. We’ve produced 42 posts so far. We’ve collected last year’s into an essay collection which is available for free on Smashwords. Sabina wrote a follow-up to one of her discussion posts that ended up being Freshly Pressed.

I’m hoping we can keep it going. I’d like to continue finding new bloggers to host these posts and to join in the chats. I’m looking forward to this year’s collection. Seems like these discussions are shaping up to be an ongoing thing, and they’ve proven they can survive without the sort of micromanagement I did during the first year. So, uber-planner that I am, I almost tossed out a couple of project-related issues today.

Decided to do something fun instead, and save the project-y stuff for another day. I have three questions for you. Respond to any, all, or whatever combination suits you.

1. What’s your favorite post this project has produced so far?
2. What’s the most memorable discussion thread?
3. What topics do you think we should discuss in the next series of these?

If you’re just joining us, scan a few of the posts and threads from Part Time Monster’s Feminist Friday page and chime in if you like. I’m interested to know what grabs people. And feel free to answer item #3 even if this is the first you’ve heard of us.