Not a bra-burning, lesbo type of feminist, but just one who feels the burn of indignation when women, esp Asian women, fail to see that they're worth so much more than society makes them out to be. Which probably explains why I like Asian American literature so much.
I think when your boyfriend/husband tells you to get a boob job, that's just wrong. You should tell him to f*** off. And when he asks you to participate in a threesome with him and his friends, crashing the vase next to you over his head is a terrific option.
No woman, should ever put up with such shit. I can understand that love can sometimes make us incredibly blind. But surely deep within, we know we deserve so much more than that.
I read about these 2 women who persuaded their daughters to have sex with their husband in today's Straits Times. It broke my heart. No man, not even your husband, has authority over your life in that way. Obedience in this case, is a crappy excuse. Yes, he is the head of the home, but a fundamental sense of right and wrong, should have kicked in prompting you, as a mother and a wife, that its not right.
But beyond abuse even, in the recent series of articles about women earning less than men in Singapore (in line with International Women's Day), because feeling that raising the children's their responsibility more than their husband's. I get that we're more into nurturing that men are, but hey, parenting's a shared responsibility - why do women have to be the ones making sacrifices and doing the juggling all the time?? And why can't we share out the responsibilities, so both partners have equally successful careers? Why can't our husbands stay at home with the kids, when the wives do need to work/have more successful careers?
Maybe I lack experience and insight - I've not been a wife or mother myself. Or maybe I've just viewed the world from an overtly western perspective most of the time.
I talked to a young lady on Monday night, fresh out of law school, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the working world. I asked her what her plans were career-wise and whether she had a goal to make partner by a particular age. Her reply to me was kinda pathetic (to me) - while she'd like to make partner, she thinks she probably won't coz at some point, as women, she said she'd probably want to start a family and put energy into that. So its pretty impossible to make it to the top of her game.
I cringed. If we all start off in our minds that we can't at least aim to have it all (whatever that all may be, ie career, family etc), then it would never materialise coz its not even a possibility in our minds. I noe we need to be realistic, but at the same time, I think we could too, be also a little more ambitious. For our own sake. And I think men respect us more when we actually demonstrate that we are equals on a level playing field.
I think women should stand up more for who they are, and what they're worth. We've underestimated ourselves for far too long. And I'd like to think that while men and women are different in nature, we were created to be equals in God's eyes.
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