the thing about “well-behaved women rarely make history" is that the author, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, didn’t write it about women who would be considered “badly-behaved;“ she wrote it in a book about a midwife, about women who had been largely ignored and erased from history because as a result of their “good behaviour.” So it’s not a “BAD GIRLS DO IT WELL" kind of quote; it’s a reminder to respect and pay attention to the women who go about quietly living their lives.
it’s a reminder to respect and pay attention to the women who go about quietly living their lives.
i hate academia and institutional learning so much
FUCKING HELL I WANT TO KILL MYSELF LOOK AT THIS BULLSHIT
“Despite the presence of does as beasts of the chase, female animals (apart from birds of prey) appear to have been scorned and, like their human counterparts, are rarely mentioned in their treatises” (Amanda Richardson, ‘Riding Like Alexander, Hunting Like Diana’)
NEWSFLASH ASSHOLE!!!!!
PEOPLE DON’T HUNT THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES BECAUSE THEY HAVE!!!! BABIES!!!! THEY KEEP THE SPECIES ALIVE!!!! FUCKING HELL EVEN MODERN DAY HUNTERS KNOW THIS YOU DON’T KILL THE MOTHERS OR THEY WON’T BE ANYTHING TO HUNT LEFT YOU FUCKING PRETENTIOUS WHACK JOBS LIKE THIS ENTIRE 19 PAGE ESSAY WAS PULLED OUT OF YOUR ASS I CANT FUCKING STAND THIS
this is why i almost killed myself senior year
“women were put in castles because the Big Mean Men wanted to isolate them because society is Evil and Mean”
or maybe!!!!!! women were kept in safe places!!!! because!!!!! they also raise the next generation of HUMAN BEINGS!!!! gee i wonder WHY we would want to make sure the important folks that insure OUR SURVIVAL (because hey guess what!! it’s still the Middle Ages!!! we don’t have a lot of room to screw around!!! people be dying, ho!!!!) were safe!!!! I HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE!! It MUST be because everyone was Mean!!!! that HAS to be it!!!!
I mean, it’d be nice if we can look at the implications of how keeping women safe led to them being sheltered off from certain parts of society and how that was later addressed in Women’s Suffrage and First and Second Wave Feminism, absolutely. We can talk about how the intent to keep women safe for the sake of greater society led to them lacking in areas of power which were later abused and the assumption that since women generally didn’t do certain heavy jobs (physical or mental), it meant they couldn’t, and how far women had to go to prove otherwise, sure.
BUT, maybe it’d be best to keep an objective view of it all instead of seeing everything through our modern lens. There were reasons people did these things that weren’t related to some kind of psychological power play and actually had a practical purpose at the time.
“And remember: the sky is the limit! You can be anything you want to be!”
“Thank you. I want to be a secretary.”
That stopped them short. “What?”
“A secretary,” she repeated.
“But…” they trailed off, dumbfounded. “Why? You could be a CEO, a scientist, a law–”
“I don’t want to be a CEO,” she said. “I want to be a secretary.”
They scoffed. “You want to answer phones all day?”
She smiled. “Yes.”
“Schedule appointments?”
“I like organizing.”
“Be a second banana?”
An affirmative nod. “I’m skilled at helping.”
“I just don’t understand,” they said. “HOW could you be okay with all of this?!”
“I enjoy the work.”
“BUT YOU CAN BE WHATEVER YOU WANT TO BE!”
“I know.”
“Then WHY?!”
She shrugged.
“Because I want to be a secretary.”
Honestly though, this is very similar to my mom’s experience. She’s always been super bright, but has realized as she’s gotten older that intellectual pursuits just aren’t her jam. She dropped out of her PhD program to have kids, and although she has her master’s and was a pretty good school psychologist, she hated having to make huge decisions. She’s a church secretary now and loves it, and she’s GOOD at it; she’s letting her school psych certification permanently expire this year with zero regrets. If you can be anything you want, that includes the things we don’t tend to value as highly as a society. Not everybody is built for or wants the “respectable” careers.
My grandma did this to me, saying that i didn’t want to get stuck on the outside, making coffee and filing papers. The thing is, that’s exactly what I’ve always enjoyed the most, making and organizing things. That would be enough for me.
Nobody seems to realize that if you tell people they can be anything they want to be they will. And not everyone WANTS to be doctors or lawyers or CEOs or scientists. Sometimes, they just want to be a secretary.
I get this a lot about wanting to be a homemaker/stay at home mom. It made me realize that most of the people pushing for women to be able to choose what they want to do as a career (which is super important!) tend to only see it as a one way street. Like you can be anything you want, as long as it fits the narrative. I’m constantly told that I am wasting my potential by not going out and working or having a career but personally I find that I am way more fulfilled as a homemaker than I was when I was working 60 hours a week and trying to be someone I wasn’t.
Let yourselves be seen by all as you really are. Just as we are in the sight of God, so let us be in the sight of all.“ – St. Edith Stein
I am enough. I am a precious gift. I am wanted, needed and desired. I am a crown of beauty in the hands of the Lord. I am passionately loved by the King of Heaven.
I am a daughter. I am a beloved daughter. I am a daughter of Truth. I am a daughter of Light. I am a daughter of Hope. I am a daughter of Peace.
I have been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. I have been filled with grace and His graces are new every morning. I have a seat in heaven. I have a heart capable of immeasurable compassion. I have been lovingly created for relationship with God Himself.
I am a woman of beauty. I am a woman of strength. I am a woman of courage. I am a woman of joy. I am a woman of prayer. I am a woman of thanksgiving. I am a woman of understanding. I am a woman of humility. I am a woman of purity. I am a woman of worth.
I am a woman of life-giving love. I am a woman of Christ-bearing hope. I am a woman who brings hope. I am a woman who brings light. I am a woman who brings peace. I am a woman who laughs without fear.
I am a woman who is passionate about life. I am a woman who embraces freedom by surrendering my life to the King. I am a woman who longs to lead others to that freedom. I am a woman who is tender-hearted. I am a woman who cares about the poor. I am a woman who forgives. I am a woman who brings healing and wholeness. I am a woman who encourages and blesses others. I am a woman who is present and thankful for this very moment. I am a woman who can breathe joy into every area of my life. I am a woman who praises in all situations. I am a woman who proclaims the prophetic.
I am a woman with a unique purpose in God’s ongoing creation. I am a woman with energy. I am a woman with dignity. I am a woman with a heart of worship. I am a woman with creative potential.
I am a woman blessed with wisdom. I am a woman clothed in gentleness.
I am a woman no longer captive to fear.
I am free. I have been called, chosen, sent and set apart by He who has ALL authority.
Our Lady of Victory, pray for us, and persecuted women across the world.
“It is a most certain truth, that the richer we see ourselves to be, confessing at the same time our poverty, the greater humility will be our progress, and the more real our humility” – St. Teresa of Avila
“Women already have the most influential role in the Church. Nothing is more important than children, than motherhood. To have the most exclusive access to children at the most critical stages of development is more influence than any bishop or pope will ever have over them in their lives.”
I hate to be the one to break this to you, dude, but as a general rule, women don’t pretend to virulently hate men they’re secretly in love with as some sort of elaborate courtship ritual. That’s a trope we made up to justify why the male protagonist always gets the girl in the end even when it’s starkly at odds with prior characterisation. In real life, if she acts like she thinks you’re a creep, it’s because she thinks you’re a creep!
Wide Spread Interests 