You gotta love a chick with a mind of her own. You gotta love her even more when she’s got a
kickass killer body and more self esteem than a lot of women three times her 18
years have.
Zoe Smith, you’re my hero. Seriously.
You see, I can relate to Zoe Zo Zo. I’ve never felt limited to the lacy, sweet,
stay-at-home-barefoot-and-preggers, serve-my-man type of feminine mystique. Perhaps that’s why I’ve always been a bit
intimidating to a lot of men (or so I’m told anyway). I will tell you what I think. I’m not afraid to be someone’s wingman in a fist
fight. I push a lot of weight in the gym
myself, even at the ripe age of 46. Course,
I also embrace my inner sex kitten. (Oh,
and in the event you’re worried that I might end up a dried up, old spinster, quite
early on I found myself a fearless man whose mad confidence equaled my own, and
everyday we share new adventures.)
In our society post-bra burning era, all went well for a
while. But what has been becoming glaringly apparent in the past few years is
that we’re seeing a strange re-emergence of “anti-feminism”, a good deal of
which is being perpetuated by females in particular. If you aren’t in a slightly cleavage-bearing,
knee-length dress, tasteful stilettos, a ring of Joan Cleaver pearls around
your neck, hair perfectly coifed and nails all frenched out while being demure
and subservient to your man, you’re somehow “unfeminine”. That’s a mighty limited view of what it is to
be a woman, that’s for sure.
Don’t get me wrong. I
like having my nails done. I’m not
opposed to flashing some flesh. And Lord
knows of my love for a wicked set of
heels. I even let my man have the upper
hand without a fight sometimes. But it’d
better be my choice to create that
image of myself, not because that’s the prescribed notion of what makes me “beautifully
feminine”.
Perhaps this shifting of our concept of womanhood is what
needs to be at the core of today’s neo-feminist movement. An understanding that by the sheer nature of
having a vagina (holy shit, there’s that word again!), a woman can’t help but be feminine.
True feminism should be about expanding our choices as women,
accepting every fluid aspect of feminine, thus widening our perceptions about
what is appropriate for us as women both collectively and, even more
importantly, individually.
It’s about empowering ourselves with all the different ways that “feminine” can look, but then even more
crucially, not judging one another for those very personal choices.
It’s about not allowing some men (and I say “some” because I
know plenty of men excited about women expanding their options and positive self-defining
behaviors)—and their limited, often stereotypical notions of feminine—determine
how women are allowed to view ourselves.
It’s about affording ourselves a myriad of choices that increases
our self confidence and self worth, that in turn, brings our whole society up a
notch.
Look, I have a wide variety of female friends. I have those that are “June Cleavers”. They are completely and wonderfully fulfilled
in their choice to behave in the
traditional role of feminine. I support
and respect that. I also have friends
whose burnt bras came from Sports Authority rather than Victoria’s Secret. These women are every bit as magically and
perfectly feminine in their choice of
expressing themselves as women. I support and
respect that, too. Then there are my family and friends who fit into every nook and cranny in between. The empowerment of feminine self definition
is a deeply personal preference that deserves to be supported and respected by everybody.
Maybe that’s the big point Ms. Smith is trying to make
then? When we open our minds to the
possibility that things can look differently (yet still appropriately) from
what we currently perceive as “the way to do things”, we widen our own pool of choices as women (and men, for that matter). Those
additional options redefine societal norms of “feminine”. Diversity means more shades of normal. Now, how in the world can having more normalcy
be wrong?
On the other hand, Zoe Smith may simply have been saying, “I
like lifting heavy shit. You don’t like
it? Cram it, fucko. Because there are plenty of open-minded folks
that do.” And that’s simply the kind of
attitude that makes me love her more.
Yeah, this feminist will be watching the Olympics this year,
but not just for the gymnastics, swim and track events. I’ll be watching to cheer on my new
hero. You go, Zoe! Lift that heavy shift for me, for women, and
for more ways to embrace femininity! You
rock!
Till we mooooo again…
