One of the things I struggle with as I age is the feeling that being a girl sucks. I NEVER used to feel this way, in fact I remember as a kid wondering why anyone would EVER want to be a boy, because in my view girls could do all the things boys could do, but they could also do fun things like wear cool clothes. I remember in fifth grade when we had a field trip--an overnight to Fort Point--and my teacher made this big deal that I was the first girl she had ever made drill sergeant (the "leader" of the trip basically). I distinctly remember wondering why she had EVER picked boys to be drill sergeants, when to me they always seemed incompetent compared to the girls.
Anyway, in the past 10 years the pendulum has swung for me...I am sure it has to do w/ the choices we have to make as women between career and family. It may also be that it bothers me that my girls will go to a baseball game and not be able to think "someday I could do that" which is a legitimately crappy thing about being a girl. That being said, I'm pretty I'm using the "it sucks to be a girl" as an excuse sometimes--there are plenty of women out there kicking ass and taking names, and the fact that I'm kicking toys and taking stickers instead is a choice I've made that, while not divorced from the gender issue, is certainly not determined by it.
Case in point: whenever I watch Tom Brady I get a little angry. Angry that I'm not a boy, because somehow my reasoning is that if I were a boy I would be Tom Brady. (And who the hell wouldn't want to be Tom Brady?) Tonight I mentioned this to Andrew. His response? "Well you're not exactly Giselle now."
Anyway, in the past 10 years the pendulum has swung for me...I am sure it has to do w/ the choices we have to make as women between career and family. It may also be that it bothers me that my girls will go to a baseball game and not be able to think "someday I could do that" which is a legitimately crappy thing about being a girl. That being said, I'm pretty I'm using the "it sucks to be a girl" as an excuse sometimes--there are plenty of women out there kicking ass and taking names, and the fact that I'm kicking toys and taking stickers instead is a choice I've made that, while not divorced from the gender issue, is certainly not determined by it.
Case in point: whenever I watch Tom Brady I get a little angry. Angry that I'm not a boy, because somehow my reasoning is that if I were a boy I would be Tom Brady. (And who the hell wouldn't want to be Tom Brady?) Tonight I mentioned this to Andrew. His response? "Well you're not exactly Giselle now."
Good point.

No comments:
Post a Comment