All About Choices

It is a beautiful Sunday, but instead of sitting in church like I usually am, I am drinking gatorade and eating cough drops. You know what is coming- West Side Story! But first, this is a good chance to me to discuss the feminist problem that has developed and how it affects me.

As defined by Wikipedia: "Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights." Basically, allow women the natural political, economic, and social rights as men. Various waves of feminism focused on different aspects from the workplace, home, political involvement, sexuality, and education. Unfortunately it has taken hundreds of years for women to be granted the rights and privileges most men take for granted.

I sit here, near my college campus, working several jobs and paying my own bills. I will graduate in the coming year and obtain my bachelors of science then possibly go on to medical school. Opportunities are abundant, not just for me, but for women around the world. But as women feel a bit more liberated they are turning up their noses at those who choose the traditional roles of wife and mother. In a recent discussion (ok, it became more of an argument), I was labeled "simple-minded" and "uninformed" in my desire to have a family.

Have we gone so far as to forget what the whole point was? That women have the opportunity to choose.

In Mona Lisa Smile, a 2003 movie starring Julia Roberts, a women's college in the 1950's struggles with expectation and appearances. One of my favorite scenes takes place between Katharine(Julia Roberts) and Joan (Julia Stiles). Joan was accepted to law school, but tells her professor that she has eloped and won't be going. And while I believe that women can have careers and families simultaneously, the sentiments they struggle with still continue today.

Joan Brandwyn: It was my choice, not to go. He would have supported it.
Katherine Watson: But you don't have to choose!
J: No, I have to. I want a home, I want a family! That's not something I'll sacrifice.
K: No one's asking you to sacrifice that, Joan. I just want you to understand that you can do both.
J: Do you think I'll wake up one morning and regret not being a lawyer?
K-Yes, I'm afraid that you will.
J-Not as much as I'd regret not having a family, not being there to raise them. I know exactly what I'm doing and it doesn't make me any less smart. This must seem terrible to you.
K-I didn't say that.
J-Sure you did. You always do. You stand in class and tell us to look beyond the image, but you don't. To you a housewife is someone who sold her soul for a center hall colonial. She has no depth, no intellect, no interests. You're the one who said I could do anything I wanted. This is what I want.

Being a woman is incredible. I know we are powerful, intelligent, compassionate, ambitious, and talented. Just look at Margaret Thatcher, Indira Ghandi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Carleton Fiorina, Andrea Jung, Elisabeth I, Golda Meir, Oprah Winfrey, Mary Shelley, and many many more. If you don't know who those women are, look them up.

And for those who think religion requires women to be submissive check this video out.


Now I'm going to get back to coughing and watching Maria and Tony!