When I was in junior high (somewhere after the cooling of the earth), girls were taught to be soft and feminine and stupid. That's right: we were told we should be stupid so as not to intimidate the poor male of the species. Do you know what? I fell for it. I downplayed my brains (I did have some back then) and worked hard to appear the quintessential dumb blonde.
The trouble is, the kind of boy who is attracted to stupid is not someone you want to hang around with. Fast-forward a few years to college (this is around the time that man first moseyed on out from his cave to slay a beast and bring it home for his loved ones), and I discovered the book THE FASCINATING GIRL. Even now, I shudder in remembrance of actually reading that drivel.
Once again, girls were taught to dumb down, to be childish and foolish. Within a few years, I had married and found the sequel to TFG: THE FASCINATING WOMAN. Same stuff, only this time geared to the married woman.
Feminism had come in to full bloom by this time, and I started exploring the dark side. Rather than being told to be stupid, we were told to be men. (And how is that different, I wanted to ask.) Feminists maintained that, to be equal to men, we must act like them, talk like them, and dress like them.
Thought for the day: I don't need to be stupid. And I don't need to be a man. I just need to be me.
Your generation was sold a bill of goods being told to be stupid. Mine was in being told to be a man. I am strong and feminine. I am smart and in need of assistance. These are not the polar opposites we were taught.
ReplyDeleteJane, I had an Aunt Judi who always give me and my siblings books for our birthdays and Christmas. I loved her for it, she give me my first Nancy Drew mystery.....fast forward to Jr. High, she give me either Facinating Girl or Facinating Woman, I read it and my feelings for her plummeted..........sad........I still loved her, but could never really rely on her opinions to be something I believed.
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