I've Been Robbed

I was looking through my posts the other day and noticed a few things.

Huffington Post has an entry about childless mothers essentially justifying their decision not to have their body stretched to within an inch of it's limit, not to have a grapefruit sized head come through a normally pin sized hole, not to have their breasts engorged and filled with sustenance that some feel is too sexual and want the feeding to happen in a nasty bathroom. They are justifying their choice to continue with their hopes and dreams and not giving into the women-who-are-sexual-without-producing-children-are-sluts mantra that is all over my news feed.

There are the purity balls which scream of pedophilia of the conservative WASP christian type.

Then my home state of Missouri just passed a 72-hour-wait for an abortion after a woman visits a doctor to confirm that sperm and egg met in a sexual encounter approximately 2-6 weeks prior.

If that isn't enough to make me, a woman, feel robbed, then the whole less-than-equal-pay memes, the constant rhetoric around whether black women with natural hair are professional or are authentic; the way people act like stay-at-home mothers checked their brains at the door and dropped their shoes in the
kitchen; the endless misogny, patriarchy, and sexism is enough to make me scream, "I've been robbed!"

In my efforts to raise tween daughters in a way that affirms their personhood, honors their voice,and celebrates their abilities, I've tried desperately to not fit them in a box for someone else to open at their will.

My girls are self-assured and confident.  In watching them stand up for themselves and advocate for the rights of others, in watching them excel in math, instruments, and life, I've felt a bit like I am taking back what was stolen from me.  Taken back to give to the next generation.

Somewhere in the last decade, after the country had their pants scared off, the extreme gained the rhetoric and have been pushing an archaic, early 19th century dogma down our throats, a lot like the gross fathers oogling teenage girls at their prom and having one kicked out because of their impure thoughts.

Women are standing up and speaking out and using all the medium afforded to us.  Like Girl Scout Campaign to "Ban Bossy" and stop the labeling of independent, strong, and intelligent women, many of us have been striving to take back our power that was subtly eroded. I am not teaching my daughters to be stay-at-home moms before I teach them to strive for their dreams of writing, photography, world travel, design, entrepreneurship, and conquering the world.  I want them to know their power without being defined by the "Mrs." and I want them to know they do not have to have their personhood robbed for someone else's agenda.