Oh man, I hate writing “about me”…but I’m doing it anyway, almost 2 years into this HandbagMafia business. I realised it’s way overdue and impolite of me not to have introduced myself before bombarding you with my thoughts.
I’m Amy. I’m 30 something. I’m fairly tall. I’m a parent, a feminist, a shift worker and I’m absolutely chockers with opinions and thoughts. I started HandbagMafia to get those thoughts out there after this one time my thoughts landed me on the telly and in a bunch of papers for the proverbial “five minutes”. I thought it was interesting to be heard by someone other than my immediate family and to hear other people’s thoughts, too. Blogging is cool like that. You should try it!
Also, for the faint of heart, there is strong language contained within this website. If swearing offends you in any way, I advise you to proceed with caution or not at all.
Anyway, this page is exactly what it says on the homepage- One woman’s thoughts, thrown wildly at the internet with reckless abandon and questionable aim. There’s not always a rhyme or reason to what I post. I don’t want to pigeon-hole myself as a mummy blogger, though I do want to talk about parenting stuff, because I am a parent- but I don’t want to talk about parenting exclusively. I try to also focus on women’s issues, feminism, a wee bit of politics, the odd product review…and whatever else springs to mind.
So this is my corner of the internet. Welcome to it. Feel free to drop me a line, leave a comment, hit me up on facebook or admire this lovely picture of my cat, because let’s face it- that’s what the internet was intended for anyway.
A Note on the Name:
The name of this website has been questioned a couple of times, so in the interests of clarification, here is some info for you.
This website and the author of this website in no way endorses criminal gangs. The term “Mafia” originates from the name of a criminal element from Italy, but the term has evolved (as language does) to also include a definition of “any small powerful or influential group in an organization or field; clique.” (Source.) This is the more appropriate definition of my usage. Another example of the evolution of a word can be seen in the famous Seinfeld episode, The Soup Nazi– the character was not a nazi in the traditional sense but it is a word that has evolved to have more than one accepted definition. The name “Handbag Mafia” comes from the result of my co-organising of a protest that culminated in being on television and in the news for speaking up for the right of women to breastfeed their children in public.
A misogynistic website published an article on that protest and called me the leader of the “lactivist handbag mafia”. Handbag Mafia is a term used to disparage or insult women, particularly those in positions of power or those identifying as feminists. It was obviously intended to offend me but instead I adopted the name, using it ironically and reclaiming it from the people who tried to use it to offend or upset me. This was addressed in the very first post on this website which you can read here.
© Amy Ahearn and HandbagMafia. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of any of the material or content of this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts of no more than 3 sentences and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Amy Ahearn and HandbagMafia with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.