What a wonderful article. I am 61, (which still sounds unreal to me) and you almost perfectly voice my position. The ridiculous requirement to divide into prescribed right V left positions has left us in this bizarre place regarding being a woman.
I also come from a family of strong women, so I’ve never felt that I lack power as a woman. (I also have raised two strong, loving, wonderful young men.) But let’s look at that simple statement - my family helped define me as a strong woman. The denigration of the role of family is one of the strongest attacks on healthy gender expression.
When my grandmother was a girl, a generation of awesome, badass women successfully pushed back on the limitations put on women. We even gained the fundamental right to vote.
When I was growing up in the 60s & 70s, another generation of awesome, badass women successfully pushed back on the limitations put on us. We learned that while there were still obstacles, we were strong and we could push past them. (Columbia still didn’t accept women - so I went to NYU. I had a professor tell me “girls can’t do finance,” I got an MBA in it and built an amazing career.)
Those earlier generations faced major challenges in building a society that respected women as powerful humans with the same basic rights and responsibilities as men. But it is clear that the current situation is far more dangerous.
Now, the culture is not saying women are special and their power must be restrained. It is saying women don’t truly exist, except perhaps as a caricature. Being a woman is simultaneously nothing special, nothing innate, but at the same time, we must bow deeply to the men who declare themselves one. It is the deepest, most fundamental misogyny imaginable.
I wonder if my granddaughter’s generation will have the same awesome, badass women to successfully push back on their literal erasure.
PS. You could increase the impact of female beauty to touching something with cosmic power, something that hits the center of being in the observer, grabs and shakes, a transcendent electricity.
Forty-seven isn't old (as a septuagenarian I can say that with confidence) but it isn't youth either. It is one of the great ages for reflection on important matters, particularly matters impacting one's eternal destiny which we are all getting closer to (both in terms of biological aging and in terms of the state of the world day by day) and which God's word has a lot to say about in the Bible.
I resonate totally...I come from a family if strong, independent women...helped raise my three girls to be the same...I love the way they embrace their feminism and the responses of their male friends...no minepulation, seems perfectly natural..I'm a lover of beauty in all forms....even the type evident in your writing...
What a wonderful article. I am 61, (which still sounds unreal to me) and you almost perfectly voice my position. The ridiculous requirement to divide into prescribed right V left positions has left us in this bizarre place regarding being a woman.
I also come from a family of strong women, so I’ve never felt that I lack power as a woman. (I also have raised two strong, loving, wonderful young men.) But let’s look at that simple statement - my family helped define me as a strong woman. The denigration of the role of family is one of the strongest attacks on healthy gender expression.
When my grandmother was a girl, a generation of awesome, badass women successfully pushed back on the limitations put on women. We even gained the fundamental right to vote.
When I was growing up in the 60s & 70s, another generation of awesome, badass women successfully pushed back on the limitations put on us. We learned that while there were still obstacles, we were strong and we could push past them. (Columbia still didn’t accept women - so I went to NYU. I had a professor tell me “girls can’t do finance,” I got an MBA in it and built an amazing career.)
Those earlier generations faced major challenges in building a society that respected women as powerful humans with the same basic rights and responsibilities as men. But it is clear that the current situation is far more dangerous.
Now, the culture is not saying women are special and their power must be restrained. It is saying women don’t truly exist, except perhaps as a caricature. Being a woman is simultaneously nothing special, nothing innate, but at the same time, we must bow deeply to the men who declare themselves one. It is the deepest, most fundamental misogyny imaginable.
I wonder if my granddaughter’s generation will have the same awesome, badass women to successfully push back on their literal erasure.
You might not feel like it now, but forty-seven is still young. Damn, I wish I was forty-seven! Happy birthday, kid.
Well said, brava, "100". Trumpet these words!
PS. You could increase the impact of female beauty to touching something with cosmic power, something that hits the center of being in the observer, grabs and shakes, a transcendent electricity.
What an amazing photograph. Look at all the smiles and happiness.
Forty-seven isn't old (as a septuagenarian I can say that with confidence) but it isn't youth either. It is one of the great ages for reflection on important matters, particularly matters impacting one's eternal destiny which we are all getting closer to (both in terms of biological aging and in terms of the state of the world day by day) and which God's word has a lot to say about in the Bible.
I resonate totally...I come from a family if strong, independent women...helped raise my three girls to be the same...I love the way they embrace their feminism and the responses of their male friends...no minepulation, seems perfectly natural..I'm a lover of beauty in all forms....even the type evident in your writing...
Just saw this now, Jen. Loved it.