Not a political post... Although it's likely to be perceived as a political post, this certainly is not written with that intent. As you can read from the blog post preceding this one, I have absolutely no love lost for either of the former Presidential Candidates. This post is only to say this... "I'm glad to be a woman in the USA."
In the past few days, my Facebook page has literally almost exploded with outraged women over the inauguration of Donald Trump. Don't get me wrong, I understand their anger, fear, etc. very much, and I support 100% their right to peaceably protest unjust behaviors (even though it seems preemptive, but that's also their prerogative). What I don't understand is the way many of the rallies and marches and Facebook posts are being presented.
I am strong, dignified, capable, passionate, valuable, and powerful. I don't need anyone to agree with me in order for those things to be true. They are true about me, because they are true about all people born on earth. I know this to be true about you, reader, and that belief fuels this post. In fact, I believe that if we all believed those things true about one another and acted on those beliefs, we would come face-to-face with the reality of the peace we all claim to want.
I'm not just any human - I'm a female one. I find that my strength is in my softness of soul. My power is in my peaceful persuasiveness. My deference is the difference that makes me entirely unmasculine, and that's exactly what I always want to be...not just female but feminine. I don't want to just look at men and say like my foremothers, "Anything you can do, I can do better." Rather, I want to be and do all the things a man canNOT be and canNOT do. Sure we are able to do almost all of the same kinds of jobs men do, but emphasizing the point we are basically a better version of male while simultaneously acting out the very worst parts of stereotypical females - cattiness, irrationality, tirades, assumptions, pettiness, insults, emotional outbursts, anger, control, mocking, manipulation, back-biting, and death-giving speech?? It's ironic to say the least.
The idea that I can be a more powerful and better woman by becoming more like a man doesn't add up to logic for me. When I see a woman, I see an astonishing degree of physical beauty not matched in the whole rest of creation. I hear her lilting laughter and see her rosy cheeks. I see her beautiful belly round and full with a child she already somehow loves and always will. I see her tenderly kiss a child's pain away. I see her reject the limelight to help those she loves succeed. I see her arrange and rearrange her family's schedule in order that everyone has the absolute most time, encouragement, and nurture she can muster. I see her make meals for the sick and visit the homebound. I see her rock her sister's baby so sis can finally get some sleep. I see her hold her family together by sheer determination when everything around her is falling apart. Why would I ever want to give over a single part of such dignifying, missional behavior for the sake of becoming as much like the other half of the world's population as possible? The world doesn't need women who want to be virtually indistinguishable from men. It needs women not afraid to take on the very real task and intensely personal risk of fully and unabashedly embracing their femininity for the good of all.
The idea that I can be a more powerful and better woman by becoming more like a man doesn't add up to logic for me. When I see a woman, I see an astonishing degree of physical beauty not matched in the whole rest of creation. I hear her lilting laughter and see her rosy cheeks. I see her beautiful belly round and full with a child she already somehow loves and always will. I see her tenderly kiss a child's pain away. I see her reject the limelight to help those she loves succeed. I see her arrange and rearrange her family's schedule in order that everyone has the absolute most time, encouragement, and nurture she can muster. I see her make meals for the sick and visit the homebound. I see her rock her sister's baby so sis can finally get some sleep. I see her hold her family together by sheer determination when everything around her is falling apart. Why would I ever want to give over a single part of such dignifying, missional behavior for the sake of becoming as much like the other half of the world's population as possible? The world doesn't need women who want to be virtually indistinguishable from men. It needs women not afraid to take on the very real task and intensely personal risk of fully and unabashedly embracing their femininity for the good of all.
I'm more convinced every day - as I talk to rational women and men across the political and economic spectrum - that the women who changed and are changing the stereotypes that contribute to our perceived oppression are the ones who ask for no special treatment, no particular recognition, and who exercise control over only one person.... SELF. They go to work, do an excellent job, give respect and humble help to bosses and coworkers alike, and offer uniquely feminine perspective and benefit without simpering apology or aggressive demands.
We absolutely can and should speak out for the women of the world who face abuse, persecution, and marginalization because of their gender. However, I'm not going to even pretend I can somehow empathize with them by implying that my situation in the USA in 2017 even remotely touches their agonizing, often almost Dark Age daily existence. That would be an insult to those trafficked, the mutilated, the abused, the controlled, the hidden, the raped, and the murdered, and women aren't the only ones who suffer those awful abuses. My volunteer efforts for rights will be spent on behalf of all humans in situations mentioned above...but I don't have to be doing volunteer work to make my mark as a woman. I can simply live every day with the full intention of bringing the life that not only my physical body but my mind and sprit were designed to give to all humanity with whom I come in contact today.
We absolutely can and should speak out for the women of the world who face abuse, persecution, and marginalization because of their gender. However, I'm not going to even pretend I can somehow empathize with them by implying that my situation in the USA in 2017 even remotely touches their agonizing, often almost Dark Age daily existence. That would be an insult to those trafficked, the mutilated, the abused, the controlled, the hidden, the raped, and the murdered, and women aren't the only ones who suffer those awful abuses. My volunteer efforts for rights will be spent on behalf of all humans in situations mentioned above...but I don't have to be doing volunteer work to make my mark as a woman. I can simply live every day with the full intention of bringing the life that not only my physical body but my mind and sprit were designed to give to all humanity with whom I come in contact today.
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