Her eyes were both the sunlit foliage and the shade of their own shadows. Night and day, they were the same, as if for her the very stars gathered near, such was her mirthful gravity. Light could abandon her no more than a flame can deny its heat. As time kept its metronome march, her laughter lines did spread. The once blank notebook of childhood became the sweetest vignette. Age had written its lines from crease to furthest edge. When youth is succeeded by wisdom, it is a thing to cheer. And so, though skin did fold around her eyes through her maturing years, she held a beauty, a soulful ever-spring.
As a woman, I love my femininity, yet have been called masculine and intimidating. Being strong and clever is feminine. Being sporty and confident is feminine. We live in an age where people have begun to believe the stereotypes so strongly that they reject the truth of their own eyes and hearts. Female strength is a wonderful thing. If others have insecurity issues about that, that is their problem. Because being whom I was born to become is my pride, my well earned self esteem.
As a girl I loved pretty ribbons and climbing trees. I loved science and poetry. I loved having long hair and wearing party dresses. I ran cross-country, competing hard, often being asked to run with the boys because I beat the girls so easily. My deep voice was commented on as if it was boyish, and my willingness to play in boyish ways got me called a "tom boy." All these mixed messages. Everything I did was human and all personality traits exist in boys and girls. I was all girl. I became all woman. The rest is bias, stereotypes and judgements based on no logic or science, and certainly without enough heart. Nobody gets to tell me what I am. That comes from within.
Sarah thought for a moment, clearly he felt awkward around her, "Look, Maverick, think of me as a human with different plumbing if that helps you understand me. I'm the same as you in every other way."
A woman's word has carried less worth in this world with both genders for time out of mind. Let us not pretend that patriarchy is only the work of men. For my lifetime as a woman of brain, beauty and athletic ability, I have found more scorn from women than men, more barriers, more hurdles placed in my path. That is not to say that men are not in need of some soul searching in these matters, but to say that making a better world is a task for everyone.
I am a woman, and so my brains and discoveries have been ignored and underestimated, undervalued and patronised... yet, alas, not with financial support. So I use that to my advantage. I have had a great positive effect without attention, the same way as housework or cooking does. You keep on "feeding" people, they eat and leave, some thank you and some don't. They will take from you in ways they'd never take from a man of social standing and academic worth. It still sucks though. It would be nice to be respected for what I bring, for what I've figured out and the good effects it has had.
Women and men are equally capable of empathy and emotional indifference, as such neither is a feminine or masculine trait.
As a woman, I enjoy chivalry. I think it is sweet. I'm okay with being "white knighted" because I am secure in my sense of female strength. Men who take care of women, who are protective, make society better. There is a world of difference between patriarchy (a suppressive downwards force) and chivalry (an elevating upwards force). Strong women enjoy having doors opened for them, I know I do.