There's a new commercial out that's creating quite a buzz on the internet. It's being run by Always feminine care products, and it's a special kind of awesome. It's something I've been dealing with my whole life, but from a different perspective.
All of my life I've been labeled a "tomboy" because I liked sports, being outside and doing things that western society had deemed "for boys only". Boys liked hanging out with me because I liked the same things that they did.
I would be told things like, "You don't act like a girl", and that was supposed to be a compliment.
I never got into the color pink, I liked GI-Joe instead of Barbie, I wanted to play army and climb trees and rescue worms from the pavement. I liked my jeans and wasn't a huge fan of wearing dresses. I did, however, play with dolls, cry when someone got hurt, and stood up for the underdog, no matter how big the bully.
As a teenager, I loved wearing makeup, being a majorette and cheerleader, doing girly things and still having a great love for football (one of my addictions), hiking, canoeing, horseback riding, camping, snakes, spiders, et al..
I remember in college, girls who played basketball were automatically labeled as lesbians because lesbians did "guy things". Most of my lesbian friends were NOT into sports. They got the label "lipstick lesbian" instead.
I joined the Navy when I was 19, which was not a typical girl thing to do. There were less than 1,000 of us military-wide. It wasn't easy, because the men didn't want us there. We took up their "shore-duty" billets and they claimed we couldn't do the things they could do, even though we proved time and again we could. When we did, we were told we were the exceptions and that most girls couldn't do those things. Yet, we all did them. All of us.
As I got older, men would tell me how easy it was to get along with me because, "You don't think like a woman." No, I think like me and that has nothing to do with gender. I just happen to be someone who doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve, is introverted and doesn't care to discuss things with most people ad nauseum (my children, my bffs and sister excluded- with apologies to them).
At age 33, I began taking Karazenpo-Go-Shinjutsu Kenpo. I was told once in karate class that I don't hit like a girl. I asked, "Have you ever been hit by a girl?" The answer was, "No". I replied, "I hit like a girl. We hit hard, we run fast, and you should feel what it's like when we kick. We are much more dangerous than a man, because you won't see it coming with that attitude" and I hit the punching bag he was holding for me and knocked him down.
My five year old daughter, Lyssa, also took down her seal-team member karate instructor twice in one session by using both subterfuge and strategically-placed hits.. TOOK HIM TO HIS KNEES. TWICE. AGE FIVE.
Girls cry and like pink and green and black and purple and every other color of the rainbow. We can carry another human being in our bodies and push that human out of them and live through the entire experience. We bleed every month and we still live through it. Our immune systems are 10,000 times more complex than a man's. We are amazing creatures, and there is nothing that a girl can't do when she puts her mind to it. Oh, and by the way, our sexual orientation has nothing to do with any of those things.
It's about time we girls stopped letting society tell us and our female children that being a girl is something for which we should be ashamed, or that when we don't fit into their mold of what a girl should be we should be proud or feel special or be shoved into that round hole. And, I refuse to accept the term "feminazi" no matter who is doing the labeling, because I believe that women ARE equal to men and they deserve to be treated equally.
When someone says, "You hit like a girl", it's time for girls to say, "Thank you, I AM a girl." And, then knock that ball out of the park.
Because, that's how we girls do it.
First, watch the commercial:
Now, I'm not going to get into the whole discussion on these companies like Always and Dove etc.. who are manipulating societal issues to sell their products. The message itself is worth discussing, and if it takes a tampon company to get it out there, then so be it.
All of my life I've been labeled a "tomboy" because I liked sports, being outside and doing things that western society had deemed "for boys only". Boys liked hanging out with me because I liked the same things that they did.
I would be told things like, "You don't act like a girl", and that was supposed to be a compliment.
I never got into the color pink, I liked GI-Joe instead of Barbie, I wanted to play army and climb trees and rescue worms from the pavement. I liked my jeans and wasn't a huge fan of wearing dresses. I did, however, play with dolls, cry when someone got hurt, and stood up for the underdog, no matter how big the bully.
As a teenager, I loved wearing makeup, being a majorette and cheerleader, doing girly things and still having a great love for football (one of my addictions), hiking, canoeing, horseback riding, camping, snakes, spiders, et al..
I remember in college, girls who played basketball were automatically labeled as lesbians because lesbians did "guy things". Most of my lesbian friends were NOT into sports. They got the label "lipstick lesbian" instead.
I joined the Navy when I was 19, which was not a typical girl thing to do. There were less than 1,000 of us military-wide. It wasn't easy, because the men didn't want us there. We took up their "shore-duty" billets and they claimed we couldn't do the things they could do, even though we proved time and again we could. When we did, we were told we were the exceptions and that most girls couldn't do those things. Yet, we all did them. All of us.
As I got older, men would tell me how easy it was to get along with me because, "You don't think like a woman." No, I think like me and that has nothing to do with gender. I just happen to be someone who doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve, is introverted and doesn't care to discuss things with most people ad nauseum (my children, my bffs and sister excluded- with apologies to them).
At age 33, I began taking Karazenpo-Go-Shinjutsu Kenpo. I was told once in karate class that I don't hit like a girl. I asked, "Have you ever been hit by a girl?" The answer was, "No". I replied, "I hit like a girl. We hit hard, we run fast, and you should feel what it's like when we kick. We are much more dangerous than a man, because you won't see it coming with that attitude" and I hit the punching bag he was holding for me and knocked him down.
My five year old daughter, Lyssa, also took down her seal-team member karate instructor twice in one session by using both subterfuge and strategically-placed hits.. TOOK HIM TO HIS KNEES. TWICE. AGE FIVE.
Girls cry and like pink and green and black and purple and every other color of the rainbow. We can carry another human being in our bodies and push that human out of them and live through the entire experience. We bleed every month and we still live through it. Our immune systems are 10,000 times more complex than a man's. We are amazing creatures, and there is nothing that a girl can't do when she puts her mind to it. Oh, and by the way, our sexual orientation has nothing to do with any of those things.
It's about time we girls stopped letting society tell us and our female children that being a girl is something for which we should be ashamed, or that when we don't fit into their mold of what a girl should be we should be proud or feel special or be shoved into that round hole. And, I refuse to accept the term "feminazi" no matter who is doing the labeling, because I believe that women ARE equal to men and they deserve to be treated equally.
When someone says, "You hit like a girl", it's time for girls to say, "Thank you, I AM a girl." And, then knock that ball out of the park.
Because, that's how we girls do it.