Welcome to Gynergy Notebook
The Media Project
I probably won't name it "Gynergy". I just had the URL. But maybe I will?
Target Reader
Primary Traits
The target reader is a college-educated, middle-class Millennial woman. She is driven to create social change (especially for women's rights), intelligent, intellectually curious, a deep thinker, and inclined to spirituality. She is family-oriented and values domestic life, but also has interests outside the home. She is vigilant about protecting herself, other women, and children from creepy men, and is willing to go against the grain to do so. She values the good men in her life. She is strategic and seeks power for herself and the groups that advocate for her interests.
She cares a lot about politics, but may not have found her feet for becoming politically engaged. She considers herself a bridge-builder and seeks to understand and ally with women across party lines. She may identify as progressive because of their reputation for promoting gender equality and freedoms for women. She may identify as conservative due to their reputation for promoting family life, sex-based rights, and protections for children. She has reservations about the behavior of both parties, but there may be one side that she considers to be the real enemy, and the other side that she considers to be basically good but in need of reform.
She has had experiences with entitled men, including sexual harassment, potentially violence and manipulation in relationships, and intellectual dismissal. Fixing this for herself and other women is a primary political driver for her. She recognizes and values strong male allies.
She is family-oriented. She wants to form a healthy, safe family, where she is respected and has opportunities to pursue her interests outside of the home. She may have already found this, and values it highly. She may be single longterm because of a scarcity of opportunities. If she is straight, the problem is probably a lack of quality men who share her values; if she is gay, the problem is probably leftist capture of lesbian communities. She wants to strategize to help women collectively create a great family life for themselves and strengthen family life in America. She seeks a return to a culture where domestic life is treated as centrally important. However, she is vigilant about the potential of backsliding, where women are pigeonholed and valued only for our work in the home.
She is concerned about the well-being of children because of issues like online porn and gender ideology. If she has children, this is probably a primary driver for her. If she doesn't have children, it is probably a secondary driver.
She has had at least one significant experience with creepy leftist capture in her intellectual, professional, or values-based networks. This could be in a political group, at church, at a university, at work, in social justice advocacy, an arts community, etc. She feels a loss because of this. She may have also had experiences with conservative capture or "anti-woke left" capture.
Four Driving Forces
These are the drivers:
- Full participation in political, intellectual, artistic, and spiritual life (Smarmy male intellectuals, capture of our networks by entitled men and creepy leftism, exaggerated claims of brain sex)
- Sexual safety and sexual agency (Reining in male sexual entitlement, harassment, violence, porn, internet woman-hating)
- Forming safe, healthy families (Vetting men and creating a good social environment; for lesbians, navigating a captured community)
- Protecting our children (Parental rights, gender ideology, sexual content in schools, internet porn)
For most women who care about badly behaved men and intellectual networks, and who also have children, they care about their children the most. I don't have children, but I hope I will, and then I hope that I will care about protecting them more than I care about anything else.
The magazine provides a vision for the life our reader wants. We publish on women's art, literature, philosophy, history, and spirituality, along with recipes and other trappings of domestic life, dating tips, etc.
We also strategize about to solve the problems we all see happening. However, we do this from a base vision of a life that is already pretty good. Our aspirational reader is not in crisis, but she does see problems and wants to help solve them.
I want to avoid the crisis mindset. Women who aren't in crisis are driven away by a crisis mindset, and women who are in crisis get worse when immersed in it. A "good life" environment will be familiar for women who aren't in crisis, and healing for women who are.
A Note On Abortion
For many politically active women, abortion is a very intense subject, and they prioritize it above all. This is true on both sides of the abortion line. In this media project, we treat abortion as a "compassion topic" and seek to create understanding across the line. This means we will lose all of the women who care about abortion (on either side) more than they care about our driving forces. For political activism, if we go there, we will lose all political networks that require loyalty to a stance on abortion. These things will define our niche to some degree.
Secondary Traits
She wants to process this stuff with other women who get it, but she doesn't want to go deep into anger or obsession.
She is troubled by certain behaviors of feminist organizations: the aggressive push for inclusion of trans-identified males, and the promotion of sex work and hookup culture. She also has reservations about conservative leadership in regard to women's rights.
She may have a complicated relationship with her church of origin, whether or not she is still a member of the church. She is interested in discussing faith and theology with women who are members of other religions.
She considers herself a gay ally, or may be gay herself.
She strives to not spend her life on the Internet, and prefers face-to-face connection.
Our Network
Maintain OUR OWN center of gravity.
I don't want the people in St Pete to feel like this "came from the internet", or is Internetty. But I do need to tell them about FDS and Nina Paley.
Maintain just enough of a presence in online spaces that the women who are there can find us. Argue with them on Twitter; converse with them on Substack; be a guest on their podcast. But, maintain OUR OWN center of gravity that is elsewhere.
There are wonderful, brilliant, politically informed women who are socially isolated because of creepy leftist capture in intellectual and political networks.
Conservative and "anti-woke liberal" spaces are also captured in different ways. All of these spaces are fundamentally captured by male interests.
Places to maintain a presence: - Anti-woke networks - Feminist networks - Conservative women's networks - Arts and literature networks - Religious networks?
Purpose of the Project
I had several friends and authors who helped me see politics and culture in a new way, when I was making the journey from non-politically-active progressive loyalist to sort-of-politically-active nonpartisan feminist. I'd like to do a knowledge dump of all of that, plus other topics that I think will be relevant for that audience.
I love history, and would like to include a lot of content on the history of women and our political projects.
I'm also including mental health, mindfulness, and physical health as a topic, because a lot of women involved in this stuff need that.
When I write naturally, it comes out a little bit silly, so I want to lean into that when it's appropriate (ie not on highly emotional or dark topics).
History: How Does Change Happen? What's Happening Next?
A History of Women, Gay People, and Gender-Diverse People in American Politics
Current Events
Politics: Who's Doing What, and How You Can Help Them
Civics, Institutional Power, and Social Change
Understanding Institutional Capture
Nonpartisan Feminism
Most of the ideas in here come from / were heavily inspired by Natasha Chart's book, Practical Politics for Bold Women. Buy it here! - https://chartconsulting.samcart.com/products/practical-politics-for-bold-women
What is the solution to capture of feminism by the left, and the possibility of future capture of women's organizations by the right? I think the best defense is small, fiercely independent women's organizations that know how to collaborate across ideological lines, but also are structured so that they can withdraw support, without incurring damage, when their needs are no longer being met by an old coalition.
Whatever network you are part of, they should feel like they have to be on their toes a little bit, because if they no longer hold up their end of the bargain, women's groups can walk away.
This also goes for organizing for LGB people and gender-diverse people.
Social Issues
Child Safeguarding
Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence
Commercial Sexual Exploitation
Women's Status:
In Public Spaces
In the Workplace
Financial Status
Public Leadership
Church
Compassion Topics
How Are Women And Men The Same, And How Are We Different?
Personal Strength
Mindfulness
Behavioral Health and Good Habits
THESE - Temperature, Hydration, Eating, Sleeping, Exercise
I made up this acronym during a time when I was *not* doing well, and I'm still proud of it.
Originally I used THESE BFUP, where THESE is physical stuff and BFUP is higher-level stuff. BFUP is Belonging, Fun, Unwinding, and Purpose. It's supposed to be pronounced "beef up", as in "These beef up your health and wellness!" I decided it was more memorable just as THESE.
My checklist
First, I go through the THESE checklist:
Temperature: Is it too warm or cold where I am?
Hydration: Do I need a glass of water, other beverage, or watery food?
I like water, but if you don't, you don't have to drink water. There's nothing magical about water that exists in a glass by itself. The water in diet root beer is the same water. Just watch out for sugar and caffeine.
You can also get water from eating fruit, but that's a slippery slope, because the water in the fruit is also used by your body to help digest the fruit, so you're getting less for hydration.
There is a melon that contains a lot of water. I'll leave it to you to guess which melon it is.
Eating: Have I eaten a moderate amount of healthy food today?
Sleeping: Have I slept enough?
Exercise: Have I gone on a nice walk, done some yoga, gone on a fun bike ride?
Boundaries and "Winning Therapy"
Trauma Healing
Physical Health
Healthy Skincare: Sunscreen, Makeup, Soap
Financial Health
Low-Effort Backyard Gardening in Central Florida
Social Health
How To Meet Friends Who Share Your Values
How To Navigate Friendships Across Ideological Lines
Spiritual Health
Faith and Theology
Women and the Major World Religions
Commentary on the Divine Feminine from the Major World Religions
An Atheist Lesbian Desister's Favorite Catholic Takes on Gender Ideology
ebony.clayton@yahoo.com - interview her!