Feminism or Female Pride

Back in the day of Google Reader (RIP, I still hate you for that Googly), I subscribed to Feminste.  They write articles promoting feminism and about culture and women and things that repress women and lots of rape culture articles, which were all too soon for me, which is what ultimately led to me unsubscribing from their feed.

There is a part of me that is ALL THE FEMINIST! ALL THE TIME!  But there's also another part of me that has never wanted to burn my bra (which btw, isn't even a real feminist movement thing), enjoys it when a man holds the door for me or opens my car door, I don't mind cleaning the house (as long as it's not expected of me), I don't really enjoy doing yard work..  But at the same time, I don't enjoy being repressed because I have boobs instead of a penis.  Like that one time when the the property management rep asked me if my boyfriend had tried to remove the stuck toilet seat..

Back story: BTW, I never told you the ending of the toilet seat story from last spring...  So a plumber came to fix the wobbly guest toilet and he was also tasked with changing the toilet seat in the master bath.  Yeah HE couldn't get the screws unscrewed either..  Why?  Because the freakin' screws were too rusted.  EXACTLY what I said was wrong.  He had to SAW off the screws to change the seat.  Yeah, I felt totally vindicated and I played the adult and did NOT call the lady and give her a verbal smack down even if it would have felt VERY good.

Anyways, recently I've come across some articles about women that kinda struck a chord with me (don't judge my Buzzfeed articles, mmkay).

This Is What Happens When Women Actually Accept A Compliment From A Man Online

18 Struggles Of Being A Girl Who Sometimes Actually Likes Herself

I don't suffer from a lack of self-esteem, Teh Mom made sure of that.  I sometimes wonder if I suffer from too MUCH esteem, but I don't worry about it for too long and instead turn to the logical explanation that I'm awesome, no matter what.  Let me just put that out there.

I'm not absolutely hideous, but I'm not the prettiest girl in the land either.  I'm not fat, but I'm the "thickest" woman in my office or the skinniest.  I'm not a nuclear engineer, but I'm a college graduate who is entering into a 2nd career, both of which I was/am successful at.  I don't know all the things ever about dogs, but I know all the things ever about MY dogs. See all the esteem that drips from those comments?  It's practically in a puddle below this paragraph.

All that said, there articles kinda hit home with a lot of blogging topics I've seen on my feed recently from women who suffer from practically hating themselves and that is something very difficult for me to understand because I think I'm pretty awesome.  Part of how awesome I am though, is how I am able to accept different perspectives and experiences and be able to sympathize.

Also, I don't understand what "Can I live?"/#canilive means.  It sounds catty and bitchy to me.  I'd much rather go with the common #sorrynotsorry, because I am almost never sorry for any of this (unless of course I was being an asshole and then well, possibly sorry):

At my worst, I'm a force to be reckoned with.  At my best, I'm a force to be reckoned with but I'm on your side.

I loathe and abhor how hard women are on each other.  We're critical and mean and even I'm not exempt.  One minute I'm poking fun of SUPER obese women and the next, I'm defending the pudgy woman in spandex who is out walking her dog to someone who says she shouldn't be wearing that (at least she not sitting on her butt eating potato chips while she watches TV).

We can do better. 

We SHOULD do better.

I should do better.

There are things that I am uncomfortable wrapping my head around, transgender things for instance.  That said, I don't go out of my way to discriminate these people or meet these people.  If I were to meet someone that is transgender, I would be the only one that is uncomfortable and I'd keep that to myself because that is on me.  Just because I'M uncomfortable with something doesn't mean I need to project that onto someone else.  I feel like people need to be reminded of that.

My problems aren't your problems.  If they are, we have something in common, but you don't need to take any responsibility for my problems.  I need to deal with my own problems like the adult that I am.  That means keeping my opinions to myself if I disagree with someone and no one asks my opinion, or agreeing to disagree if the subject is broached. 

We need to face our problems and not make them the problem of the person/thing we have a problem with.  

Back to my point, I call myself an on-the-fence-Feminist because I fall on both sides of the fence regarding different women's issues.  Maybe that makes me a feminist, maybe not.  I don't need to claim a title to know and support women who are discriminated against.  I just want to be better about supporting my fellow vagina-owners.