…anger is very transformative when it is empowered & healthy.  The gifts of anger are strength, energy, & motivation.

–Ashley Judd

Being a woman in the world means never giving up on yourself, on your potential, on your future. It means getting up, working hard, and putting a country or a community on your back.  What inspires me when I meet women around the world is not only who they are but what they do. They roll up their sleeves and they get to work.

–Hillary Clinton at the Women in the World Summit

File this one under “Movies I Am Surprised I Don’t Own“.  Great lines, important story.  It was a movie about women in sports that was just completely be about their love of the game.  & did you know it has been 20 years since it was released?

When I was little, I just loved it because I loved seeing groups of women living their lives.  I delighted in Tom Hanks’ antics.  I loved seeing women intensely involved in sports.  I thought Geena Davis was the bee’s knees.  (& still do).

Now that I’m older, I still love it.  My love has deepened as my values found their way under the umbrella of feminism.  I get the indecency of having to wear short skirts as uniforms, to attend etiquette school, — being treated as partial equals.

They knew their femininity would be called into question upon pursuing athletics with a passion.  They loved it so much they made sacrifices most people wouldn’t have.  These ladies did it because they just wanted to play.

& that’s why it stands up for me after so many viewings & years.

• NY Times: Young Women Often Trendsetters in Vocal Patterns – “The truth is this: Young women take linguistic features and use them as power tools for building relationships.”
• But, Pinterest is for Girls: Sexism & Social Media – “Pinterest is for girls. This also means, of course, that people think it is lesser than other social networking sites, because media for women is less ‘important’ or ‘meaningful’ than media for the mythical everyperson, who mysteriously always seems to be a man.”
• Transformation & Transcendence: The Power of Female Friendship – “Here’s the truth: friendships between women are often the deepest and most profound love stories, but they are often discussed as if they are ancillary, “bonus” relationships to the truly important ones.”
• Female Friends Spend Raucous Night Validating the Living S*!t Out of Each Other – “The entire night we just went balls out with the confidence-boosting…”
• Via Lists of Note: The Anti-Flirt Club’s Rules from the early 1920′s – My favorite might be “Don’t accept rides from flirting motorists—they don’t invite you in to save you a walk.”

I just think that women shouldn’t point fingers at other women for whatever they’re doing to enhance their bodies…other than that – do whatever makes you feel good because, trust me, if a woman isn’t happy with herself she’s going to bring nothing but pain to every f***in’ body around her.

 –Ice-T

“I think a big reason many girls shy away from calling themselves feminists is that they’re worried they won’t be able to live up to this idea of a Strong Woman, and that there’s no room in this club for anyone who isn’t 100% comfortable with herself all the time. You can totally be a feminist who has insecurities. Feminism isn’t about pretending we all feel like Wonder Woman, it’s about being honest when we don’t, and having the conversation on why that is.”

Tavi in How to Not Care What People Think of You

Today while on a streetcar – I heard “I don’t think women are funny” actually spoken aloud by someone.  Before you start looking for a news article detailing a 20-something’s-descent into a Wolverine-style craze, take a deep breath – I was fine.  I felt like I was seeing a mythical creature.

The unicorn went on to describe how he just “didn’t get” the humor of women to his friend, who was nodding absently along.

When (recently departed) Christopher Hitchens wrote the reactive Vanity Fair article, “Why Women Aren’t Funny” – I’m sure women everywhere rolled their eyes.  It led to the follow-up article (also from Vanity Fair) – “Who Says Women Aren’t Funny?” which stated…well, the notion that 50% of the population is inherently unfunny is…laughable.

So why do we keep talking about it?  Why does it keep coming up?

Because of articles like this, discussing Eddie Brill – the gatekeeper of comedy at the Letterman show that reveals that only one female comic was booked in 2011.  The same man who says, “There are a lot less female comics who are authentic; I see a lot of female comics who to please an audience will act like men.”

Oh.

Okay.

It is exhausting explaining that men and women are funny in a lot of different ways.

The follow-up both reassures & frustrates me.  Eddie Brill has, as a result of this fiasco, lost his job as Letterman’s comedy booker.  But will most likely continue to warm-up the audience pre-show.

Oh.

Okay.

Overall, I think it’s a good time to have a girl in the 21st century because things are changing, with more opportunities for women. But girls are still the underdog, which means they’ll work harder, and everybody loves an underdog. The next Steve Jobs will totally be a chick, because girls are No. 2–and No. 2 always wins in America. Apple was a No. 2 company for years, and Apple embodies a lot of what have been defined as feminine traits: an emphasis on intuitive design, intellect, a strong sense of creativity, and that striving to always make the greatest version of something.

After I read this entry about Women and Solitude, it really stuck with me.  I love the phrase “heroine of solitude” – it makes me think of a women standing on a cliff in a raggedy cape summoning a falcon.  The fact that this is what I think of first shows off my penchant for the dramatic.

For me I am consistently finding ways to balance my craving for solitude with my desire to help the world as best I can.  To see someone lauded as successful who is also described as “hermit-like” is refreshing.  So often women are only portrayed as possessing certain qualities.  My love of home and solitude can often be interpreted as aloofness by outsiders.  I’m almost over-conscious of this – sometimes agreeing to events when I might otherwise prefer a quiet evening with a book.

There are times when testing my limits are a positive.  The Yelp! community is a perfect example of this.  I became an “Elite” member this year & am invited to special events once a month.  I’ve enjoyed the events I go to – I’m surrounded by strangers chatting!  I do still fly under the radar.  I go to prove to myself that I can – that I’m capable of milling about awkwardly & surviving.

Baby steps.  Baby Steps.

No matter where you are, the image of one out of a group being a female looks normal & I think that would explain why, let’s say, on a board when they get to one or two women they feel like ‘OK, we’re done.’ Because that is normal.  I think that can apply to tenured faculty, top law partners, certainly to Congress. Only 16 percent of Congress is women. So, what we need to do is … raise the consciousness of the people in the decision-making process so they actively think about having women.

–Geena Davis