Mirrorless Monday

So today as I walked into the women's bathroom in one of the buildings on campus I was taken aback.  Not because of something disgusting or horrific, but because someone had covered the huge mirror with paper and written messages like "You have so many gifts,"  "Beauty is not perfection," and all these other feel-good messages!   It was so lovely.  So what did I do?  Well keep in mind I'm a bit obsessed with inspirational quotes so I pulled out my handy dandy pink highlighter and wrote some more messages.

What a unique, creative, and important idea.

We have some really interesting conversations in my gender and women's studies class.  We talked today about how language is embedded in gender, for example: women or people referring to humanity as "man," and terms like "policeman."   Also did you know that pink used to be associated with baby boys, until the 1940s when women wanted to reclaim it....so now look at what happened!   I am beginning to see how gender is so intrinsic to our daily lives, in so many ways!

This picture is from our women's link at One World 2010 (a show Pearson College puts on every year).  We tied together Maya Angelou's poem, "Still I Rise" with Mulu's story of the status of women in Africa, with Aneke's story of First Nations women.

Here is the beautiful poem,

Still I Rise 


You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.