I don’t know what it’s like to be a dude. I’ve only been me. So I’m not saying one job’s harder than the other, you feel me? It’s not a competition. I can only speak to the work women do to survive, to thrive.
We’ve heard the men-in-the-army phrase, “band of brothers,” which is great. This week I heard a survivor of the recent Michigan sexual abuse nightmare call her sisters, “an army of survivors.”
In one form or another, we’re all soldiers, survivors. We all fight wars; some look a little different.
It feels like women are joining forces, coming together a little better, lately. But can I be honest? It’s not always been that way. For various reasons (JEALOUSY), women can be rough on each other.
There’s a quote: “Be gentle. You are meeting parts of yourself you have been at war with.” I don’t know who said it. But I’m saying it. Sometimes there’s an unconscious yuck that wars within us that causes us to do all manner of crappy behavior. I’m raising my hand, “me too.” Like the Michigan survivor-soldiers, I’ve raised my hand to the hashtag #metoo and I’m raising my hand to this iteration of me too. I’ve been on the dishing-out end and the receiving-end of crappy behavior. Both directions, it stinks to high heaven low hell.
I’ve had honest conversations with women about it. It’s a thing. Women suffer because of jealousy that is unique to women. Let’s talk about it, let’s get real, let’s get down and dirty about the down-and-dirty. And then? Let’s go to work, the good work. Let’s get better about having each other’s back. We’re all kinds of beautiful, and we can be that side by side.
(Photo credit goes to Nancy Revis of Uber Optics, Petaluma, CA–because she’s beautiful.)