Weak but Shrill

Its another red letter day for feminism here in my neck of the woods. No it's not the astronaut lady, Anna Nicole, Britney or any of the other more popular negative examples. It's just your completely random, but rather pedestrian, shrew moment at work.

When I was younger I would get very confused because I was taught and happily believed that women were better. Especially with respect to religion. I grew up Catholic (still am) and Mary was a heavy influence. I got away from devotion to Mary; I didn't mean to, but the Holy Spirit has its own plans. Anyway, something made me think about it a few days ago and I realized Mary was, theologically speaking, an impossible goal for women. She was born without original sin. Since all other women are born with original sin, no other woman can achieve the goal of being like her. Now, this is all quite aside from whether or not anyone should actually try to be like her. It's quite possible that an impossible goal is right up your alley. But it did help me filter things out a bit. I don't freak out as much when the hysterical stuff starts happening.

So the woman kneeling in church praying the rosary simply looks more pious, more spiritual, than I do. It has something to do with gender, but it also has to do with being smaller. Somebody confused Jesus' willingness to go to the cross with weakness, so there are very few depictions with the appropriate, gender specific, muscle structure.

And, outside the Christian sphere, there is a long and growing list of women whom I hope younger women will seek to prove they are not like, rather than the imitation that is happening today. Who wants to be shrill?