New Freedoms

           When the CAP teachers announced that basically, our blogs are boring and we need to make them more interesting (we are in a communications program, after all) there were mixed reactions. Some people were excited to post about their favorite teams or TV shows, and others were upset that we had to write more, period. I was kind of in the middle. I think it's interesting to see what everyone else is interested in, and to see what people think of things. I also know that without guidelines, I'm going to have trouble coming up with something to write about every week. Its not that I don't have passions, I just can't think of anything that others would really find interesting to read, if anyone were reading this. For this specific post, I started by looking at other peoples blogs for inspiration. And some of the things I read were really cool. Cherie wrote about how she wants to become an Olympic sprinter. Alex shared a video that made me cry. Kyra posted an amazing picture of Andrea's eyes. Many people wrote about how they didn't know what to write about. Most of the posts I read made me think. And they changed my opinion about these blogs. At first I thought that although a good idea, the blogs wouldn't work. People don't want to have to do more work than they have to. But now, I see what the teachers were thinking. If people take the time to read each other's posts, we can all learn something new, about the world or about each other.
Wow. That came out really corny. What I was trying to say: I think that it's cool to be able to see what interests other people in CAP and their take on what's going on.

            I decided that for this post, I'll share an article/post that a friend posted on facebook that I found to be very thought provoking. Although the only way that I can relate to it is that I too am a woman (I don't have a job, or a husband, or kids, and I wouldn't go as far as calling myself a feminist...), I think it brings up interesting questions and makes a lot of good points.

You can find it here.

            I think the most important thing that Spar (the author) says is that so much pressure is put on the modern woman: to make sure that she uses her freedom and independence that was fought so hard for to get an important job in an important place and to be successful while maintaining the role of the traditional woman and keeping together the house and taking care of her children. Yes, men also feel the pressure to be successful and to raise their kids, but not at the same level. Society has always and will always make it so that we are always in competition mode, as Spar states. She says that instead of working together, women are too busy trying to be the best at their job, the best PTA member, the best parent. If women were to work together, they could make the load a little lighter. But this does not happen. Spar writes, "Why? Because we’re too busy being perfect." She closes with this statement, which I wholeheartedly agree with and I think is put very powerfully. 

"Feminism wasn’t supposed to make us miserable. It was supposed to make us free; to give women the power to shape their fortunes and work for a more just world. Today, women have choices that their grandmothers could not have imagined. The challenge lies in recognizing that having choices carries the responsibility to make them wisely, striving not for perfection or the ephemeral all, but for lives and loves that matter."