Monday, August 22, 2011

Darned if you do, darned if you don't.

I feel a rant coming on; a feminist rant actually. A damned if you do, damned if you don't rant. Yesterday an article hit the web entitled Tough Gals: Do They Still Exist. It was an article that basically said women are becoming too "girly". We're too girly because we blog about gardening, knitting, and cooking.

Yes, you read that right, WOMEN are TOO girly.

I'll let that sink in for a second...

It used to be that women were too "manly"; that we were trying too hard to be like men. The backlash over female politicians is just ONE example of women trying too hard to fit into a "man's world". Apparently women are no longer allowed to be girly, we must be tough, except that when we're tough, we're no longer girly and as EVERYONE knows (insert eye roll here) that's just not attractive.

It seems like women just can't do right by ANYONE. You're either too feminine or too masculine, you're either super mom or a horrible mom, you're either an overly devoted and submissive wife or you're the wife who has her husband's testicles in "her purse"

There is no middle ground when it comes to how we're judged; it's always got to be one extreme or the other. We fought for equality, we continue to strive to make this world a friendly place for our daughters, nieces, and sisters and every other woman out there. We don't want to be seen as the "weaker sex" (because honestly, it's not true-what man do you know can squeeze a watermelon out of a lemon hole and be up walking shortly thereafter?) Women before my generation fought so that we could be tough OR girly...or a combination of BOTH. They fought so WE didn't have to fight for these things...and yet, here we are, all these years later STILL fighting for the right to be ourselves...whether we're ball busting politicians, girly cupcake baking bloggers, or somewhere in the middle.

It seems like it's a never ending battle; as women we'll never please anyone...so we might as well please ourselves, huh? So keep on you cupcake bloggers, you kick ass front line military women, and you somewhere in the middle ladies going about your day to day business. You don't have to live up to anyone's standards and expectations than your own-that's what generations of women before us have fought for-the right to be ourselves-don't let small minded people take that away from you.

1 comment:

bigchiefhossahead said...

I wonder what Betty Freidan would have thought?

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