Woman to Women: A plea for kindness

The near all-female cast of The Rhinoceros at BYU, circa. 2013 Can you find me?

While I am a straight, white, conservative, Mormon, 22-year-old attending BYU, I have friends who come from many different backgrounds, cultures, religions, political systems, sexual orientations, ages, you name it! And the cool thing is that I can love each and every one of them and learn from them, even if we disagree on some- or even many- points.

Women have it hard. Whatever your belief system is, I think you could agree with me. We have to deal with periods, for one. Those things are NOT the most pleasant to deal with. I almost feel that women are also more susceptible to anxiety and depression. (I would have to do some real research to verify that claim, though.)

The only people on this earth who can truly understand what it means to be a woman are other women. If we band together to uplift each other, instead of degrade or belittle one another, we can do so much more to improve the world around us. After all, women can do some pretty amazing things.

As humans, we tend to be judgmental people. Lately, it seems like everyone gets offended at everyone for everything! Why is that okay? Isn’t feminism about equality?

I get upset when people view stay-at-home moms as somehow less-than because they are not career oriented. What makes someone in a career better than someone who is not? What makes someone who doesn’t go to work every day better than someone who does? Honestly, none of that even matters.

What does matter is how we treat each other.

For instance: My favorite color is Purple and my least favorite color (that I feel was spawned from the devil himself) is Orange. Now, If your favorite color is Orange and you hate the color Purple, we can still be friends without arguing about which color is superior and which color is disgusting and get along just fine. It would be silly to do otherwise!

Why then should we criticize our sisters’ choices? We are unique and beautiful creatures with potential to do great things! If we were all exactly the same and had the same goals with the same path, how boring would that be?

One of the great things about womanhood is that it is not made up of a specific number of characteristics. The only thing that super-defines is what parts you were born with. (Some may disagree with me here, but this is what I understand to be true.) If you have (or have had) a uterus, you may just be a woman. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t be whoever you want to be or do whatever you want to do. It’s the exact opposite. We get to be our own awesome selves, whether we are super girly (like me), or tom-boyish, or some other mix. We can have careers, families, dreams, goals, successes, failures, etc. We can rise above what others expect of us and be who we want to be- without belittling our sisters.

We need to stop arguing about what it means to be a woman in today’s society. If you feel you are treated unfairly, do something about it! If someone elses’ views don’t match your own, try to understand them instead of attacking them.

And above all else: SUPPORT EACH OTHER. You don’t have to agree with someone’s values or choices, but you can be happy for them when they are happy. You can share joy with them without needing to accept their life choices. We all need encouragement when we do good, whatever that good may be.

What are your experiences? Where have you seen good support from your women friends? Where have you not? How would you address this topic? What are your ideas and opinions?

Feel free to comment below! I love hearing other people’s stories. You inspire me.

~Sav

P.S. I chose the photo for this post for two reasons:

1) All but two of the people in the cast were female. (I’m looking at you, Tom Boyd and Winston the cat!)

and

2) Every single one of the women in this photo (including myself) has a different personality, a different background, and a different path in life.