I bet Audrey had bad days too 2

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On being a woman

1:18 PM


Today is National Women’s day. Or something about women anyway. . . Don’t remember what the exact name is. I would google it, but I just spent the last 20 minutes googling how to spell “tiered” because believe me, that is not at all intuitive spelling, and when you type in “teared, but not tear, but like layers,” even Google has no idea what the heck you’re talking about.

I am a feminist. In the traditional sense. OK, not in today’s traditional sense, but I am a feminist in what I believe to be the truest sense of the word. I love being a woman. I love getting dressed up. I love making people’s surroundings feel like home. I love beautifying the world around me, drinking anything pink or with an umbrella and empathizing so hard that the empathize-y starts to cry before they even know it. What can I say?

Every woman should have the right to vote, work, read, go to school and do whatever she pleases that is morally right. I don’t believe there are too many people in America who believe otherwise. Yes, there are some, but I believe there are few, and I like you, believe they suck.

I don’t waste time wishing or pretending I’m “tougher” than I am, that I can lift a box easier than most dudes or am less sensitive than the average man. And quite honestly, I am starting to despise what our world is now depicting as the average feminist — This woman who is disgusted by not only traditional roles, but the personality traits that are threaded into our DNA. How is this feminism?

This is me being a girl, or something.
I remember starting my job at Deseret Digital, feeling somewhat inadequate, if not, utterly inept. I felt like I was small, because hello, I am, but I also felt girly, and I felt that I would never be taken seriously by anyone, especially any man. And to be honest, I’m not totally sure I was taken seriously by most people.

One day, after months of perhaps adapting the philosophy of “fake it till you make it,” after crying in front of my boss and wanting to die, I talked to a fellow coworker about my embarrassing moment. He told me about Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg’s speech to Harvard graduates. In it, she spoke about minimizing her womanhood in the workplace. And how she recognized she was who she was, and furthermore, that women should feel free to cry in the workplace. That it’s OK. That those feminine characteristics should be welcomed in an organization. This powerful woman was defying all that Cosmo had taught me. “Never cry at work.” “Don’t show any signs of weakness.” I like Sheryl’s take much more.

My sensitivity, ability to empathize, and own up to things I didn’t understand actually made me a better employee. Parts of my personality I thought were weak, because Cosmo told me so, actually made me a little more irreplaceable in the workplace. And I believe that many of my character traits have a lot to do with well, being a woman.

Looking back, once I had embraced womanhood, I became that much better at my job, and most importantly, I started to thrive as a person, and therefore started to love what I do.

I know this isn’t earth-shattering, but to me it’s something. And maybe to you it’s silly, but again, to me it isn’t.

I hope today women around the world can see how far we’ve come, and also, what a privilege it is to be who we are. I hope we all honor the women around us, and also honor those men who support, encourage and embrace who we are as well. Here’s to holding the X chromosome, and here’s to crying at work.

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