Acht! I never had this happen before. I write a sentence, I delete it, I start over. My head is crammed with thoughts that beg to get into coherent sentences and paragraphs. This morning, Loved-One came in while I was taking a bath.
“Watcha doing?”
“Taking a bath.”
“Looks like you’re thinking.”
“I’m trying to put my thoughts together for my Gloria Steinem/Land’s End post.”
“I’ll leave you alone then.”
Yes, this is the actual conversations that a man, who knows his wife, has with a woman who’s mind never rests.
[tweetthis]I’m pro-life. I’m a feminist. Not everyone agrees that I can be both. Yet, here I am.[/tweetthis]
“Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone”
To tell the truth, when I got my Land’s End catalog, I breezed through it before I threw it in the recycle bin. Steinem looked great in the clothes. I thought, I might turn to Land’s End for some new duds. After all, I’ll be attending the BAM conference in a month. I like comfy clothes that double as professional clothes.
The proverbial sh*t hit the fan. Does cyber-bullying just apply to individuals? Or could it be against a corporation? Cyber-bullying is what the negative push-back felt like to me. Pretty soon, abortion pros and cons got into verbal fisticuffs, and now it seems everyone with claims to have a back-bone wants to ban Land’s End.
- Gloria Steinem is a woman. Yes, she has said or done things in her life, that I don’t agree with. A lot of people have.Perhaps I’d have a hard time finding someone who agrees with everything I believe. For the love of God, I’ve said and done things I don’t agree with. I prefer to focus on the things we have in common, and learn from those things with which we disagree.
- Land’s End Legend Series honors “individuals who have made a difference in their industry and the world at large.” Every woman can thank Gloria Steinem for her equal rights activism. Now, thanks to women like Steinem, these statements are rare (yes, these things were actually said to me):
How does your husband feel about you taking this job?
If you want this internship, your husband must be interviewed. If you have children, forget it.
When I interview a woman, I point to a 55 gallon drum, and tell her to lift it.
Sorry, women don’t do anything on this list of potential jobs (from my high school guidance counselor after my aptitude test suggested doctor, engineer, scientist, etc.)
- Frederica Marchiani’s, CEO of Land’s End, interview with Steinem uncovers a thoughtful, almost self-deprecating woman.
If our dreams weren’t already real inside of us, we couldn’t even dream them. I don’t think this requires a great deal of courage…
Every group of women is most effective when we’re working on that which we really understand and know. We just need to support each other while we’re doing it.
The truth is that each person is a unique miracle, a combination of millennia of heredity and environment that could never have happened before in exactly the same way, and could never happen again in exactly the same way. Yet at the same time, we share everything as human beings. We can both find our unique voice and realize that as human beings, we are linked, not ranked.
I’m sorry that Land’s End didn’t hold their ground with the Legends Series. I’m sorry that some readers connected a classic spring cover as religious and found that linked with Steinem offensive. As much as I like the connections I make through social media, I’m sorry that bandwagon-jumping is so easy to do. I wonder how many people took the time to read what Steinem had to say before jumping on one bandwagon or another.
I, like Steinem, think better with a pen in my hand. Public speaking scares the begeezers out of me. I, like Steinem, try to be mindful, fair, and rational. I bet if she and I sat down over a cup of tea,w e’d discover, we’re not that far apart on abortion either. After all, who can argue that the world will be a better place when women had the support and resources they need to make abortion the road less traveled.
Okay, I’m off my high horse for today. Perhaps I’ll relax at PUMP class, weightlifting to rock music. That gets my blood pumping. After that, a glass of wine and a bubble bath and I’m good to go for another day.
