In light of Women’s Day and Women’s month, I have been interested in what it means to be a woman and what it means to not be… and why we may need to make these distinctions. By highlighting one, are we shadowing another or is it in the light of one, that we simply recognise that there is equal beauty?
Being a woman, for me has always come with multiple challenges. I have always favoured my qualities of strength, and power over my kindness or gentleness. I was brought up in a home surrounded by strong women, where independence and self-sufficiency were highly valued. Being all of me and shining all of me is what it means to me to be a woman.
I recently read something thought provoking on “Time”: “While some people now embrace a rainbow of possibilities between the familiar pink and blue, others hew even tighter to biological fundamentalism. Those willing to recognize new forms of gender feel anxious about misgendering others, while those who claim superior access to the truth are prepared to impose that truth upon those who disagree. What’s right—even what’s real—in such circumstances is not always self-evident. Labeling others contrary to how they have labeled themselves is an ethically loaded act, but “woman” remains a useful shorthand for the entanglement of femininity and social status regardless of biology—not as an identity, but as the name for an imagined community that honors the female, enacts the feminine and exceeds the limitations of a sexist society.”
To all the women out there - Happy Woman’s Day - you too, be all of you.
