As a woman who has raised an only child – a daughter – I’ve
mostly focused on ways that girls and women can rise above the issues of an
often misogynistic society. This makes sense, considering that I’m a female who
has been responsible for the care and development of another female, but more
and more I realize that this focus is only half the battle. What about our boys
and men? As women – unless you’ve committed to raising a conscious and aware
son – we sometimes forget that the reason for this misogynistic view is in part
due to society’s restrictions on what is acceptable in male behavior.
I, for one, must admit to telling a man or two to “man up”
when angry over what I felt was a lack of responsible, adult-like behavior on
their part. And when thinking back to those instances, yes, I still feel that
they should have risen to whatever occasion I deemed acceptable, but now I know
that there are better ways to express it. We put such unbelievable pressure on
the males in our society to protect us, be strong, financially support us, and
so on. And as women, we want them to express their often hidden emotions, but
how can they when they’re told from an early age that crying or any expression
of vulnerability is a sign of weakness? It’s the same as telling our girls to
be strong, powerful women, but at the same time to “be nice and polite so as to
not be labeled a bitch”. No wonder we’re all so confused!
It all boils down to, as the message states below,
connecting to that bigger part of ourselves – our spirit. Our bodies are ever
changing, hormonally chaotic vehicles that are here to house us, move us around
the planet, help us maintain the proliferation of our species, and – dare I say
– nothing more. While we obviously need to take care of them for optimal
comfort and pleasure, pushing aside the need to define ourselves by them will help
move us out of the outdated and often harmful gender role constraints we’ve
imposed on ourselves. At the end of it all, we’re all in this together, really,
and our very existence depends on it.
With Love.
PS. Please check out this week’s Featured Guest, an
amazingly powerful documentary in the works that will be released sometime in
2014.
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From Over There:
“Your physical
natures are defined by gender, but not your spirit. To live in human form is to
embrace the capacities that your given physical form has allowed, yet your
spirit-selves know no such limits. It is the evolved being who can combine and
make useful the human features of the physical with the boundlessness of the
spirit. In doing so, one breaks through the societal restrictions and
self-imposed human laws toward the ultimate birthright of enlightenment.”
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Featured Guest:
The Mask You Live In
A new documentary brought to us by MissRepresentation entitled The Mask You Live In will
be exploring the systemic societal problems caused by toxic masculinity.
The director Jennifer Siebel Newsom interviewed men and boys across
the country and what she found was jaw-dropping. She found that although men
are dying to speak, they are taught to stay silent. They spend their life
wearing a mask that they are taught to never remove. See what happens when they
take it off. To learn more, please visit
policymic.com.
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If you'd like more information, to book an appointment, or check
out the current class schedule, please visit molliejensen.com.
