Defying Fortune

Cherry Bomb

((The Music))
Here's a random song that brings an odd sense of empowerment. The gritty, all-girl band The Runaways brought us such classics as "Queens of Noise", "Born To Be Bad", and the infamous "Cherry Bomb". This is one of those tunes where you want to tell young girls to put down Guitar Hero and become their own. Hopefully, sans drugs, but you get me.

((The Life))

Happy International Women's Day

I received this morning a lovely note from a member wishing me a good day, as a woman and a writer. It was very nice, and slightly caught me off guard, yet put everything into perspective as my guy had sent me eCard with some of the same sentiments. There is a day just for women. Makes me think about when is there a day for men. Is that fair to have one without the other?

...but I digress.

I've been contemplating most of the day the strength and resilience of women, and how that has changed over the last hundred years. Around the world, women are the backbone of industry, yet are regulated by outdated social dogma and power schemes. How often times they have gone without thanks for their roles, and yet they still continue the same jobs without gratitude. In many ways, women in terms of rights and social standing, have a long way to go.

Over the course of my college semesters, I've written a few term papers on women from different parts of the world. A staggering statistic that still has the ability to shock me is that one of three women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. In places such as Native American reservations, inner cities and war-torn places such as Rwanda in Africa or Haiti have an even higher stat of one in two. I look at my nieces and sisters and friends, and something inside me breaks. No matter how much we all try, it still happens; and they are the victims who pay. No person should have to live with that grim possibility.

Sharing a cup of coffee this morning with my mother made me realize just how lucky I am. Many of the girls my age with children do not have a handle on their lives as my mom had on hers at that age. When she was my age, she already had two kids, an absent husband, and three jobs to make ends meet. I can't even imagine having that much to handle right now. My mom did it with courage and grace.

Don't get me wrong, I think there are many women my age that have their lives together. They do what they can for their kids and for their families. However, there are also some who don't handle themselves, and a lot of that I feel has to do with their level of commitment level and age. That level of dedication is not the same as it once was. In the end it's the children that suffer for it.

With all of that said and done, women has accomplished many things. They are strong, and wise, and proud. I am happy to be a woman, and am thankful to all of those that came before me.