I’m a feminist.
I don’t consider this to be a controversial statement – in my view the world can be divided into two tribes: feminists and people I’d like to beat around the head.
I’m a feminist parent, too. I’ve always tried to teach Flea that only idiots believe girls and boys ‘should’ act differently. People are different, whether they’re girls or boys. It’s not just women who do cooking and cleaning, you know.
Sitting on the sofa today, I asked Flea what she thinks she might be when she grows up. Usually she says “pirate or burglar” but today she added a third option: “deep sea diver”.
Wow, I thought. I am such a top-notch parent that she’s totally unaware of gender stereotypes and jobs.
“I could go on a boat all day and be a pirate at night, then,” Flea added. She paused.
“What do you think you’d like to be when you grow up?” she asked.
“Well, I’m sort of a writer already. But sometimes I think I’d like to make documentary films, too,” I tell her.
Silence. I look up and Flea’s bottom lip is trembling. “But you have to come on the boat, too, Mummy” she says, in a quivering voice.
Bless her. She loves me SO much she can’t bear the idea of us being apart.
Yeah, right.
She says: “If you don’t come, who will be the cook and make my meals?”
Emmeline Pankhurst is turning in her grave.
