Feminism
I have had writers block lately. It happens to all of us. Sometimes, it feels like pulling teeth to get the words out of me. I was suddenly inspired today. The topic may seem random to have on a health blog, but as I have grown in my profession, I have become really passionate about mental health and how that affects physical health. Our world is hard, there is so much information being thrown at us all the time, and so much of it is negative. Instead, I want to put this into the world today (something with a positive spin). The topic of today’s discussion is feminism. It has become a sticky word for many. Over the last year, most people have developed a firm stance. They are against it or for it. There are extremist and people who quietly fight for women’s rights or those who find the whole word or cause stupid. All of that is fine.
My effort in tackling this topic is to make it something more positive, at least in my eyes, because lately I have felt like it wasn’t something I was proud to be. This is not a political piece. It is a post about all of the wonderful ways we get to be women. So, maybe it's just changing the mindset a little, at least for me. What finally prompted me to write this was that I was on Facebook randomly scrolling and saw a Buzzfeed article about 8 amazing inventions, all by women. Not women in the last 50 years, women in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s before we even had a right to vote. Now, I will admit I haven’t done a ton of research on every invention and every woman. I was just instantly prompted to come upstairs and start typing away. I feel like it is so easy to forget how powerful we are as women. We hold the world in our hands and we have the ability to be whoever we wish to be. It is something I cannot wait to instill in my children one day. Whether you want to be a doctor, chef, mom, or a lawyer. It doesn’t matter. It matters that you are doing what you love. I have been blessed to be surrounded by many women in my life who constantly raise me up. They give me encouragement and every single one of them is great at what they do. But you want to know something else? I have been knocked down harder than I have in my entire life working with an office full of women who crushed my spirit. Not a little bit, a lot. I won't to go into detail about it, that is beside the point. The point is that I have seen both sides. Women can be the most uplifting spirits or the most evil. The most open armed or keep the tightest circle. I hope that every single woman that reads this post is encouraged to break that mold. This is the single most important part of feminism. If we all walked down the street and didn’t have to worry about another woman seducing our husband (or whoever lol), or spreading your gossip around like peanut butter on a piece of bread, or secretly talking about your outfit, it probably wouldn’t be so hard to get behind each other. We need to celebrate each other, our differences and most importantly the fact that this world could not go on without us.
Loving being a woman does not mean that I am a man hater. It does not mean that I think I am better, it means that I think I am equal. I balance out my husband because I am a woman and he cannot be what I am. I celebrate my body because it can create a child. I also celebrate those who don’t feel like that path is right for their life, and I celebrate every situation in-between. That’s the thing. Once I realized that EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. has a story and that everyone has suffered loss in some way, it made me realize that everyone deserves to be heard and loved and lifted up. That my friend is being a feminist, and what I will identify with. I will not identify with hate. Thank you to the men in my life that have continued to break the mold. Thanks to all of my wonderwomen. Thanks to all the women who have been cruel, you have taught me what I never want to represent.
Sending all my love,
Bump and B