Eve Ensler: Embrace Your Inner Girl
Mar. 3rd, 2010 12:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
logansrogueEmbrace Your Inner Girl - Video at TEDTalks.
The poem about being an emotional creature nearly brought tears to my eyes. I'll tell you what being a girl means to me:
It was dancing in my nappy (diaper) and singlet at 2 years old in the dusty dry grass of my garden, barefoot, singing at the top of my lungs and imagining I was a cabaret singing sensation. It was thrusting my arms in front of me, running around the yard as fast as I could, singing the Superman theme and knowing I could be a hero if I wanted to be. It was the crazy, heart-breaking devotion to the animals that filled the world around me, that broke my heart again and again and also inspired me to keep on living. It was the mind-blowing love for the trees and the grass and the very earth itself.
It was putting my hands on my mother's pregnant stomach and feeling my little siblings kick back at me, and the warm glow in my heart that brought. It was dancing with my older sisters to music on the radio when Mum and Dad were out for a night - we cleaned the house and we danced and laughed.
It was shouting at my older brother not to kill cabbage butterflies with a cricket bat. It was the pure, unashamed anger I showed right there in my face when boys at school echoed the sexist things they learnt from their father. I hadn't learnt to shut up and "pick my fights". I hadn't learnt about the Terrible Deal I had to make with the world.
It was, it is, that fiery belief in my heart that right should prevail, that good is the natural default, and that the maddeningly rich, deep, painful, wonderful emotions that engulf my spirit, make my spirit, every day of my life were wonderful things that made my life worth living.
Two years ago, I thought my Inner Girl had been destroyed. She was hurt, she was frightened, but she can never, ever be taken away from me. She's there when I share old cat food with wild birds and give them water to play in on oppressively hot days. She's there when I collect shells on the beach and show them to my Father. She's there when I wander the Barbie doll aisle at the toy store, and marvel at the beautiful dolls there, and remember the fun she had with her own dolls once upon a time.
She's there when I hold my cat close to my heart and tell her I love her. And she's there when I am quiet sometimes, dreaming of a day when I can have my own little one, and see the tender little human in them.
So I'm with Eve on this one. Embrace the vulnerable. Embrace the emotional. Embrace the terrifying strength that all the weight of the world's oppression cannot ever break or destroy - it's in every single one of us.
The poem about being an emotional creature nearly brought tears to my eyes. I'll tell you what being a girl means to me:
It was dancing in my nappy (diaper) and singlet at 2 years old in the dusty dry grass of my garden, barefoot, singing at the top of my lungs and imagining I was a cabaret singing sensation. It was thrusting my arms in front of me, running around the yard as fast as I could, singing the Superman theme and knowing I could be a hero if I wanted to be. It was the crazy, heart-breaking devotion to the animals that filled the world around me, that broke my heart again and again and also inspired me to keep on living. It was the mind-blowing love for the trees and the grass and the very earth itself.
It was putting my hands on my mother's pregnant stomach and feeling my little siblings kick back at me, and the warm glow in my heart that brought. It was dancing with my older sisters to music on the radio when Mum and Dad were out for a night - we cleaned the house and we danced and laughed.
It was shouting at my older brother not to kill cabbage butterflies with a cricket bat. It was the pure, unashamed anger I showed right there in my face when boys at school echoed the sexist things they learnt from their father. I hadn't learnt to shut up and "pick my fights". I hadn't learnt about the Terrible Deal I had to make with the world.
It was, it is, that fiery belief in my heart that right should prevail, that good is the natural default, and that the maddeningly rich, deep, painful, wonderful emotions that engulf my spirit, make my spirit, every day of my life were wonderful things that made my life worth living.
Two years ago, I thought my Inner Girl had been destroyed. She was hurt, she was frightened, but she can never, ever be taken away from me. She's there when I share old cat food with wild birds and give them water to play in on oppressively hot days. She's there when I collect shells on the beach and show them to my Father. She's there when I wander the Barbie doll aisle at the toy store, and marvel at the beautiful dolls there, and remember the fun she had with her own dolls once upon a time.
She's there when I hold my cat close to my heart and tell her I love her. And she's there when I am quiet sometimes, dreaming of a day when I can have my own little one, and see the tender little human in them.
So I'm with Eve on this one. Embrace the vulnerable. Embrace the emotional. Embrace the terrifying strength that all the weight of the world's oppression cannot ever break or destroy - it's in every single one of us.
