When people think , ‘ Badass ,’ they often think aggression or a force not to be messed with . I ’ m here to tell you that gentleness is an equally or even more powerful force .
I can remember the exact moment I became a feminist . I had lost a pregnancy . My baby had died inside of me but I didn ’ t miscarry , and the Dr . told me I needed a D & C to clean out my uterus . He said it was a minor procedure that he would do in his office .
While I sat in the waiting room , I began to hemorrhage . I told the nurse and she took me in the room mumbling something about bleeding being normal . She had me lie on the table and put a pan on the floor then screamed “ Oh my God !” and ran out of the room . I lied there and listened to my life blood pour into that pan and felt very calm . I was 22 and dying .
The Dr . rushed in , and while he did save my life , the pain was excruciating and made me wish I was dead .
Later , when my husband wanted a vasectomy , the same Dr . told him it was a minor procedure that could be done in his office but that he also had the choice of going to the hospital and having it done under anesthetic .
“ What ?” The word screamed out of my mouth as I went into an immediate rage . I wasn ’ t given such a choice and I almost died . That was the very moment I realized it was a man ’ s world and it was time to join the revolution .
This was during the 70 ’ s and women were taking the world by storm . And , yes , we made a lot of progress but it was later when I was in my forties that I began to question the way we were going about the fight for equality .
I looked at women wearing ties and carrying brief cases , women climbing telephone poles and joining the military , and I realized that in trying to become equal to men , we were trying to become more like men . This was an ‘ aha ’ moment for me .
While women and men are equal , duh , we are also different . As much as devout feminists might deny it , we are not the same . Science shows us that our brains have differences . Testosterone and estrogen have different influences on our body , and
the list goes on .
If a male and female were somehow magically raised on a distant planet with no societal influence , there would come a point where the woman would become pregnant and wouldn ’ t be able to run as fast from the wild beasts . And there would come a point where the woman would be incapacitated by labor and the man would protect her from said wild beasts . We are different .
I began to focus on our differences , and began to understand that until we , women , embraced our own innately feminine abilities , we wouldn ’ t be walking in our power .
For instance , intuition is something women seem to have more naturally than men . Women tend to be more gentle and
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