I Have A Confession

 

I have a confession to make.

 

I am female.

 

And this seems to bother some people.

 

Sometimes when I walk down the street, a man will tell me to smile.  Or say something sexually inappropriate.

 

Sometimes all I have to do is make a comment that sounds too female and get shot down for being too emotional.

 

Sometimes I say something that is too direct, although if a man says the same thing he’s being honest or a leader.

 

Sometimes, because I am female, people assume I will vote for another female.

 

Sometimes I am too much.  And my femaleness seems to be the deciding factor.

 

Ever have that happen to you?

 

I think about how Betty Friedan must have felt when people commented about her book The Feminine Mystique, which kicked off the modern women’s movement and a whole lot of conversations.

 

And how many times has Gloria Steinem or Shirley Chisholm been harassed for being too much?

 

As time goes by I am learning to embrace my being:

• too loud
• too emotional
• too dramatic
• too assertive
• too quiet
• too smart
• too fierce
• too passionate
• too cautious
• too whatever

 

It’s as if the world put a cap on how to be female.

 

And it’s time to shatter that paradigm.

 

In the words of American politician and educator, Shirley Chisholm:

You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.”

 

Where are you ready to be too outrageously female?

 

Share below.