A Week of Gratitude, Day Three - The Nerd Grrl

Tuesday, December 4, 2012
My Hot Daughter is a complete Nerd Girl. Tumblr, Fandom, Cosplay, Cons - you name it and she's into it. She's always been a much bigger nerd than I, in spite of my status as a female engineer in a male-dominated field. As she notes, she's happy that there are women like me, fighting the good fight, working for a sea change in these fields, but such a life holds no interest for her on a professional level.

Instead, she makes an effort to effect changes in the communities where she's a member - Fandom, LGBT, her University. Social justice and her franchise matter to my daughter.

I came of age in one of the most misogynistic cultures in the country. And yet I was simply awash in my unearned privilege, failing to see the truth of others' reality even when I tripped over it. Part of this was the company I kept (privilege-induced blindness is contagious, I've found), but the simple fact of the matter was that I lived an unexamined life in this respect until personal crises forced me to integrate my personality and become the person I aspired to be.

Not so my daughter.

I believe part of her empathy comes from being a member of a persecuted minority, and part comes from her intellect. But she looks at the world in a fundamentally different way than I did when I was her age. She sees other people's worlds in ways that allow her to recognize how her own privilege has made her life easier, and how her status as a minority has made her life harder. She tries hard not to take her privilege for granted, and comports herself in a way that takes other people's concerns into account.

Today I am grateful that my daughter is a fundamentally decent human being, concerned for others, and that she sees the world as a place that can be improved for everyone, regardless of their life's circumstances.

4 comments:

Matt said...

I'm going to brag on you for just a minute here . . . I haven't seen the Smart Daughter since our San Diego days when she and her brother were little tykes, but one thing I'm sure of: Much of her awesomeness as a person can be laid directly at your feet. You've grown a great deal since then, and you've been gutsy and loving enough to share that journey with your children. It speaks well of both of you that she was willing to add your experiences to her own as she became an adult!!!

Janiece said...

Matt, I'd love to take the credit, but the fact of the matter is that she arrived at her current state of awesomeness mostly on her own due to a very problematic mother/daughter teen relationship.

Which makes her even more awesome in my book.

Anne C. said...

You do have a wonderful daughter, that's true. :)

Unknown said...

Thanks Momma.