Break Free, My Daughters!

Do you know what I want for my daughters? I want them to break free from this aggressive and loud world, the shouting voices screaming at them their definition of woman. The voices that tell them what to believe, think, and do to be a real woman. The voices that say if you don't subscribe to our agenda, you betray your womanhood.

The loudest voices in the current culture have replaced one kind of subjugation for another. We have a lot to be grateful for in the women who called for equality. We still have some battles to win. But a section of voices have decided all women don't get to decide what makes them who they are for themselves. If they don't fit our list of what a real woman is, they don't get to be "one of us."

Some of these voices echo in their own think tank, deciding on high what makes a woman a real woman. We, the unwashed masses of un-elite women, should rely on their definition of what woman is. And if we disagree with any part of it, well, we are uneducated, ignorant, naive fools, and they will just be the good nannies and take the bullet for us in the fight for women.

Sarrah Le Marquand recently wrote an opinion piece claiming all women in Australia should be legally required to be employed when their children reach school age. I hoped this was a joke article. Everything points to its being real. Besides the argument for forcing women to work, she said something that hit the nail on the head regarding some of the loudest voices: "Only when the tiresome and completely unfounded claim that 'feminism is about choice' is dead and buried (it’s not about choice, it’s about equality) will we consign restrictive gender stereotypes to history." There it is, the truth for many of the voices. You don't get a choice. We the benevolent above you will decide what makes you equal and you better fall in line.

My daughters, here's the truth--you aren't defined by these voices. You don't have to be restricted by them and their agenda. You don't need to buy into everything they say. Don't let them destroy your womanhood by telling you exactly what it should look like. You do have a choice and you get to make it. If you don't agree with everything they say, they can deal with it. They may call you a betrayer, they may stomp on your soul, they may question your loyalty to woman--they are wrong.

Break free, my daughters! Break free from the new subjugation, the voices telling you you can't be you and be a real woman. The voices shouting you have to think like they do, act like they do, stand for what they do. You are uniquely you. You are a girl and will one day be a woman. You have gifts and skills and abilities unique to you. You have thoughts and beliefs and opinions that are your own. You are not denying your womanhood if you don't look like the voices.

My daughters, you are beautiful creations of the Almighty. You are beloved, you are championed, you are you. And whatever this woman will look like, she is a woman. Your womanhood cannot be taken from you by loud voices selling you their version of you. Forget the voices! Break free and be you!