Thursday, June 3, 2010

I Am Woman...

It is such a coincidence that the girls in the Sex and the City 2 movie sang this song. As I thought about this blog, it was my full intention to mention this Helen Reddy classic. Because I am middle aged, I remember Helen Reddy singing this song on all the variety shows in the 70's. For those too young, in the 70's, no one wore bras on TV. There were a lot of sagging breasts on prime time. The burning of the bra was to symbolize women breaking free of second class status. Fortunately, women realized that bras were a necessary evil if you wanted to have a torso.

ANYWAY... Women. We are strong, we are invincible..We are Woman! We are a combination of intelligence and responsibility, beauty and strength, compassion and insightfullness. And, frankly, we are damn tired. You see, when women were burning their bras and demanding the right to be equal, we should have shot for being treated better, not equal. We earned the right to work full time AND continue doing all the things women did before. We didn't give up anything, we only added a career on top.

Now, we live in a society where two cars is the norm. We don't live in the small ranches we grew up in. No, we live in colonials and the like. Our children walk around with $200 gadgets listening to music. They have game systems that cost $200+ with corresponding games that cost $35-45. The dolls are $100+ each and the clothes for them cost more than I spend on myself. Oh, and gas for our cars is $3.00 a gallon.

Many women struggle with dropping their babies off at a daycare. Off to work they go, not because they have the ability and want to prove they can do anything men can do, not because we love our careers. We KNOW we can do anything men can do. AND, many of us have "jobs" not "careers". We do it for the money. Even though much of our hard earned money goes back to the people at the daycare, we still do it because we need the money. We have altered the way we live to where we no longer can survive with one salary.

My niece, who recently went back to work after having a baby, said how am I going to do this? My work exhausts me and then I have to come home and try to spend a wonderful hour with my son before he goes to sleep. And, I said the wise (?) words of "It will get easier". It will get easier because "We are strong, We are invincible". But, our hearts want to be with the baby.

I am blessed, I have a wonderful husband. I know that I would have a tough time doing it without him. But, even with him, I have to be medicated. Yes, I am on anxiety medication. As are many, many of the woman I know. Because even though I am strong and invincible, the responsibility of it all gives me the shakes sometimes. So, with a bottle in hand, I declare proudly........I AM WOMAN.

3 comments:

  1. Wow! You've been thinking! I gave it up... No time. Especially at 4:58am! Keep smiling!

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  2. I totally understand what your niece is going through. To find a bright side, this has made me appreciate my time outside of work more. No more 4 hour naps for me on the weekends or after work; I would much rather spend the time with my baby! Guess thats all part of growing up :)

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  3. Yeah, Kim is down to 1-1 1/2 hour naps on the weekends now.

    It's actually quite an improvement.

    Although is it decreasing my video game playing time.

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