I Love Being A Girl: 8/1/10

22 August 2010

I ♥ Being a Girl, because... II

We had a long-long conversation with girls volunteering at the Latvian Association for Family Planning & Sexual Health and they ♥ being girls, because being a girl to them means being able to:

trust your intuition
have a spice-sense
have unlimited fantasy
come up with wacky jokes
enjoy lacy things
be interested in all kinds of feminine stuff
have that amazing shape of the body
be beautiful
use make-up
enjoy female solidarity
smile while walking down the street
wear sparkly crowns (Ms. Universe gets a crown while Mr. Universe does not)
be a muse
inspire
be boyish
let others carry your heavy stuff
tease
be forgiven more
let to walk you home
show your vulnerability
be taken care of

"all those cool words that are feminine
in Latvian by their grammatical gender,
like inspiration, idea, thought, wisdom, state…"

The beautiful word cloud created with Wordle.

16 August 2010

On the Role-Play Game Called Life

"Imagine that life is a role-play game where the plot develops as a result of the decisions you have made and the puzzles you have solved.
So how could you win this game? What happens if someone starts interfering and making the decisions for you? Is it still your game, and are you really playing it?
Barriers to the individual are barriers to progress
Prejudice, stigma, discrimination, pressure and many more social forces are barriers that lots of people face in the game called Life. Gender role is a maze that girls in particular are often trapped in. Though gender roles vary significantly around the world, they are often demanding and oppressive. Whether they involve the pressure to become a housewife, to have many children, or to starve just to get into a 0-sized dress, they can deprive women of a major human right: to enjoy being who you truly are.
Women all around the world need equal rights, freedom of choice and universal access to services, especially the ones related to sexual and reproductive health. But in order for all of those components to really work, women also need to overcome the self-stigma and the barriers they set themselves. Finding your true identity and being able to express feelings and opinions is at the very basis of making a difference..."

That's how Maya's article Girls, Love Yourselves and Win the Role-Play Game Called Life on what I ♥ Being a Girl is all about starts. Go to Conversations for a Better World and read the rest of it!