This past Presidential Election has been a whirlwind of emotions. I have felt Anger, Sadness, Joy, Laughter and major Confusion. I could go into what happened that caused me to have such a variety of different feelings, But I’m not going to. Frankly. That post would be too long and none of you would want to read it. I know what you guys do, cause I do it to: when you first link to a post you scroll to the bottom of the page and cross your fingers it isn’t too long. If it’s too long with no subject bullet points to help you skim or no eye-catching images then you bounce! To quote a very honest woman, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” So I will do you all a favor and stick with what has been most important to me this election.
Feminism! What baffled me was the shear lack of conversation and media centered on the fact that a woman President would be a huge step forward for the women of America. Yes, I did hear it from some venues but not nearly enough and Nay Sayers usually followed it. These Nay Sayers, when they hear the word ‘Feminist’ think of women who hate men, who are power hungry, vicious, screaming women who wear poorly fitting clothing and no bras to make a point and on occasion have horrible hygiene as to not bring any feminine qualities out in themselves. When these people hear about feminism they say, “Feminist Shmeminist!” But this just isn’t true!! This kind of mentality makes me want to projectile vomit! When has women empowerment and equality turned into such an awful idea? Let’s be honest with ourselves… women have been given a bad wrap for centuries now. Since Medieval times women have been persecuted and killed just for being women.
So when Suffragettes started their movement in the 19th century it was shocking! They suffered unspeakable things because they wanted to own land, vote, and work while having a family. They were fined, imprisoned, tortured, and some even killed just for speaking up. Sadly we don’t hear enough about them and our society still does not see women as equals. Luckily their sacrifice has made it so women can now legally own property, vote, and most of us can work and have families without too much backlash.[ian-ad]
I am just dumbfounded to hear people just don’t care! Now I know that seems harsh and I know not everyone doesn’t care but I heard some crazy statistics on NPR yesterday that just broke my heart: Trump actually got about the same votes that he was projected to get. There was no “Silent Supporters” that came out in droves to vote for him. It was the so-called “Hillary Supporters” that didn’t come out to vote. She didn’t get all the votes she was projected to get. I’m sorry but, What The Crap!? Are we so far removed and uneducated that we just forget what has been suffered and sacrificed just so women can vote?
144 years ago Susan B. Anthony was arrested just for walking up to the poles to vote, she died before she could see women vote legally. Alice Paul was arrested just for peacefully protesting. She went on a hunger strike while in jail. Instead of hearing her out she was strapped to a chair, had a funnel forcefully shoved down her throat and was force-fed raw eggs. Her mouth and throat were cut up and raw by the time she was released. These are only 2 examples out of dozens more and happened fairly recently. The sad thing is that I bet less than half of our population has heard about these wonderful awe-inspiring women.
Back to the election… I will admit that I cried with the outcome of our election. I cried for my daughter that the first President she will remember is a reality star, bigot, racist, and sexist. I cried for our country and the unknown. I cried for the feminists like myself who thought we had come farther then we had in this country we love so much. We all just felt like we got a big slap in the face.
But on a more positive, upbeat note we can only go up from here. Let this be a lesson to all of us that we can’t sit back and hope the right thing will happen. We have to speak up and not back down. We have to do it to honor those before us with love and respect. We need to take action and be examples of real feminism and womanhood for our children and those around us. If we don’t then who will? I know we will make mistakes but we can learn from them and we need to forgive, not hold grudges and lift each other up.
Now go out there and make some mistakes!
–Namaste and Remember to Breathe Deep!