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In the spirit of The Vagina Monologues, Exonerated and The Laramie Project, Girl-Mom is a compilation of 79 young female voices and their stories of
birth, struggle, pain, choice, freedom and joy. Girl-Mom is assembled from a collection of posts from the archives of a feminist message board for young moms, between 2001 and 2003 (www.girlmom.com). These voices are "routinely devalued, ignored, not listened to, judged, scorned, or silenced". These voices are from the margins. During the summer of 2003, after I attended the “Mama Gathering” in Los Angeles, I began researching the message board archives of girlmom.com and collecting posts setting out to create a play. Soon, I had over 100 pages of unedited posts. I began contacting each girl I had ‘quoted’ and explained that I was setting out to write a play about the message board, and that I would like to use their posts. Though I did not hear back from all of them, over 70 girls agreed to allow me to use their posts. In fall on 2003 I began the excruciating task of organizing the posts and editing them, while trying to remain true to the message and intention behind the original posts. This work has been a labour of love. I believe these voices need to be heard. Girl-Mom has been presented as a staged reading for NextFest 2004, at the Citadel for the 2005 Teens @ the Turn festival, featuring young mom/students from Edmonton's Braemar School, at York University for the ARM conference “Young Mothers” and in Toronto at Hysteria: A Festival of Women, the largest festival of women in the arts in North America! It was most recently presented as part of the WSUA conference “Feminism(s) in the 3rd Wave” May 2006. |
About Girlmom.com
MISSION STATEMENT (2003)
GirlMom.com is designed and moderated BY and FOR young mothers. GirlMom.com is a politically progressive, left-aligned, pro-choice, feminist website. Girlmom.com intends to support young mothers, of all backgrounds, in their struggles for reproductive freedom and social support.
We believe that all teenagers are sexual beings the ability to love, procreate and nurture. We believe that teenagers have the innate ability to parent well, but are socially conditioned to believe that they are irresponsible and reckless. We believe that such social conditioning often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, in which teenage parents believe that they cannot parent well and move on to not parent well.
We believe that in order to solve the "problems" associated with the "epidemic" of teen pregnancy; we must reassess and change our collective social attitudes towards teenage childbearing. We believe that in order for teen parents to succeed, they must be encouraged to do so and assured that they are capable. Degrading, vilifying, marginalizing, and rejecting teen mothers (as is customary in our society) is counterproductive and illogical. Teen mothers will succeed if allowed the opportunity. When a teenage girl finds herself pregnant it is one of the few times during her life course where she will not only be expected to fail, but socially encouraged to fail. We believe that encouragement and support beget success.
We encourage all young mothers to speak loudly and boldly of their experiences and choices, in the hope that young women of future generations will feel more secure in doing the same.
We support any reproductive choice a young woman may make, including aborting a pregnancy, placing a child for adoption or becoming a mother.
We encourage fierce, radical parenting. We support political action and encourage our visitors to involve themselves in their communities and to work towards social change.
We reject all ageism, racism, sexism, classism, and other prejudices and stereotypes.
We are actively working towards creating an equal society, in which the right to bear or to delay bearing children is secured for all and all children are allowed to right to excel and thrive.
We support women receiving public assistance, and feel that no woman should have to justify exercising her legal right to do so.
We support lesbian, queer, bi, trans, and poly mamas and feel that no one should ever have to justify or explain their sexual identity and practices.
We support the right of others to choose to not bear children and expect similar support and respect for our choice to become parents.
We believe in the idea of youth liberation, and feel that teen parents should be freed from social restraints which restrict their ability to parent effectively and independently.
We support and encourage natural parenting (i.e., breastfeeding, cloth diapering...) but respect the right of mothers to choose for themselves how to raise their children.
We encourage debate when it is employed in an effort to open our minds and broaden our horizons. We discourage debate when it silences or tramples over the voices of mothers trying to garner support and advice.
We encourage mothers to continue their educations and earn higher degrees. At the same time, we encourage mothers to make choices for themselves and reject the system that exploits them.
We allow mothers the opportunity to express their opinions, experiences, stories and advice in a safe environment.
We encourage mothers to seek independent employment when possible, to purchase independently produced items, and maintain a DIY philosophy, in order to reject the patriarchal system which oppresses us.
---Allison Crews, managing editor and moderator www.girlMom.com
GirlMom.com is designed and moderated BY and FOR young mothers. GirlMom.com is a politically progressive, left-aligned, pro-choice, feminist website. Girlmom.com intends to support young mothers, of all backgrounds, in their struggles for reproductive freedom and social support.
We believe that all teenagers are sexual beings the ability to love, procreate and nurture. We believe that teenagers have the innate ability to parent well, but are socially conditioned to believe that they are irresponsible and reckless. We believe that such social conditioning often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, in which teenage parents believe that they cannot parent well and move on to not parent well.
We believe that in order to solve the "problems" associated with the "epidemic" of teen pregnancy; we must reassess and change our collective social attitudes towards teenage childbearing. We believe that in order for teen parents to succeed, they must be encouraged to do so and assured that they are capable. Degrading, vilifying, marginalizing, and rejecting teen mothers (as is customary in our society) is counterproductive and illogical. Teen mothers will succeed if allowed the opportunity. When a teenage girl finds herself pregnant it is one of the few times during her life course where she will not only be expected to fail, but socially encouraged to fail. We believe that encouragement and support beget success.
We encourage all young mothers to speak loudly and boldly of their experiences and choices, in the hope that young women of future generations will feel more secure in doing the same.
We support any reproductive choice a young woman may make, including aborting a pregnancy, placing a child for adoption or becoming a mother.
We encourage fierce, radical parenting. We support political action and encourage our visitors to involve themselves in their communities and to work towards social change.
We reject all ageism, racism, sexism, classism, and other prejudices and stereotypes.
We are actively working towards creating an equal society, in which the right to bear or to delay bearing children is secured for all and all children are allowed to right to excel and thrive.
We support women receiving public assistance, and feel that no woman should have to justify exercising her legal right to do so.
We support lesbian, queer, bi, trans, and poly mamas and feel that no one should ever have to justify or explain their sexual identity and practices.
We support the right of others to choose to not bear children and expect similar support and respect for our choice to become parents.
We believe in the idea of youth liberation, and feel that teen parents should be freed from social restraints which restrict their ability to parent effectively and independently.
We support and encourage natural parenting (i.e., breastfeeding, cloth diapering...) but respect the right of mothers to choose for themselves how to raise their children.
We encourage debate when it is employed in an effort to open our minds and broaden our horizons. We discourage debate when it silences or tramples over the voices of mothers trying to garner support and advice.
We encourage mothers to continue their educations and earn higher degrees. At the same time, we encourage mothers to make choices for themselves and reject the system that exploits them.
We allow mothers the opportunity to express their opinions, experiences, stories and advice in a safe environment.
We encourage mothers to seek independent employment when possible, to purchase independently produced items, and maintain a DIY philosophy, in order to reject the patriarchal system which oppresses us.
---Allison Crews, managing editor and moderator www.girlMom.com
USER AGREEMENT
By entering our discussion community, you agree to recognize and respect our standards and values.
The moderators exist to keep GirlMom.com safe for young mamas and those who respect them. If you cannot or do not understand this, then please redirect yourself to a site that better suits your needs. If you choose to ignore these standards, the moderators will, upon your first violation, inform you of the violation and ask you to cease and desist with inappropriate remarks. If you choose to ignore the moderators and continue to violate our user agreement, you will be banned from the site. If you choose to post despite banning, your ISP will be contacted and legal action will ensue.
Additionally, by posting on GirlMom.com and becoming a member of this community, you accept the responsibility of maintaining community standards.
This is YOUR community. If you see remarks that are offensive, please do not ignore them; you may simply remind someone of the user agreement. Do not attempt to aggressively patrol or engage in flaming, but simply remind other users of their agreement. If the problem becomes severe, please notify a moderator, who will then take appropriate action.
You agree, through your use of our community message boards that you will not use GirlMom to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, hateful, harassing, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law.
GirlMom does NOT erase messages at the request of participants except in rare, extreme circumstances, when the users safety or the safety and reputation of herself and her family are in peril. Moderators and staff will exercise judgment according to the situation. Participants do NOT have the ability to modify or delete their own messages once posted, so reasonable caution and deliberation is suggested.
We at GirlMom also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you. We will cooperate with law enforcement efforts when or legally necessary.
Please note that you are posting messages in a public forum, and exercise considerable caution in choosing your words.
We will not reveal your user information for commercial or statistical purposes. EVER.
Please note that your "User Name" will be the name revealed when you post messages, and choose a name that you feel comfortable using. The name you choose cannot be changed later in the process, unless you choose to reregister.
By entering our discussion community, you agree to and understand all of the above.
Welcome.
By entering our discussion community, you agree to recognize and respect our standards and values.
The moderators exist to keep GirlMom.com safe for young mamas and those who respect them. If you cannot or do not understand this, then please redirect yourself to a site that better suits your needs. If you choose to ignore these standards, the moderators will, upon your first violation, inform you of the violation and ask you to cease and desist with inappropriate remarks. If you choose to ignore the moderators and continue to violate our user agreement, you will be banned from the site. If you choose to post despite banning, your ISP will be contacted and legal action will ensue.
Additionally, by posting on GirlMom.com and becoming a member of this community, you accept the responsibility of maintaining community standards.
This is YOUR community. If you see remarks that are offensive, please do not ignore them; you may simply remind someone of the user agreement. Do not attempt to aggressively patrol or engage in flaming, but simply remind other users of their agreement. If the problem becomes severe, please notify a moderator, who will then take appropriate action.
You agree, through your use of our community message boards that you will not use GirlMom to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, hateful, harassing, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law.
GirlMom does NOT erase messages at the request of participants except in rare, extreme circumstances, when the users safety or the safety and reputation of herself and her family are in peril. Moderators and staff will exercise judgment according to the situation. Participants do NOT have the ability to modify or delete their own messages once posted, so reasonable caution and deliberation is suggested.
We at GirlMom also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you. We will cooperate with law enforcement efforts when or legally necessary.
Please note that you are posting messages in a public forum, and exercise considerable caution in choosing your words.
We will not reveal your user information for commercial or statistical purposes. EVER.
Please note that your "User Name" will be the name revealed when you post messages, and choose a name that you feel comfortable using. The name you choose cannot be changed later in the process, unless you choose to reregister.
By entering our discussion community, you agree to and understand all of the above.
Welcome.
