Astrid Leila Bust says that the three Cs – church, cooking, children (which were part of every woman’s identity for many years) – have now been replaced by three new Cs: career, combat and no compromise. Of course, this statement does not apply to every woman but at least, it makes us think.
Consciously or unconsciously…many women face a daily fight for survival in a male dominated society. We have to fit into a performance-orientated male world, identify with it in order to have equal chances in jobs, and survive economically. I am not surprised that we have taken on a male armour for these daily combats which we can hardly get rid of in our free time as we are not really aware of it. We no longer see in this struggle for survival that we (have to) neglect or suppress our feminine qualities.
THE IDEAL FEMALE BODY IS ORIENTATED TO THE MALE
Let’s think of the ideal image of the female body which many women have blindly taken over: most women do not want any female curves because the body should be masculinely slender. Just the breasts should still be opulent. Why? Because it corresponds with many men’s wishful thinking… Thus another external determination instead of self determination?
The loss of femininity runs through many areas in life. We have learned how to function at the push of a button, how to prevail and how to keep up with the men in discipline and willpower. At the same time, we forget about our inner female power and strength, which is expressed and lived completely differently to the male one.
MANAGEMENT INSTEAD OF SENSUALITY
We women have to be excellently structured to manage not just us, but also the children, the household, and partly our husbands, so that the system ‘family’ does not collapse. Where is there any room for sensuality left?
The loss of femininity does not make us women happy, as it takes us further and further away from our female potential and the qualities which define us. But also men are affected by this change, and eventually it leads to insecurity between the sexes. What suffragettes fought for, has partly turned into boomerangs in the meantime.
The solution? I do not have any! Back to church, cooking and (only) children is not an option for most of us.
IS THERE A ‘NEW WOMAN’ ARISING?
Maybe there is a solution in the awareness of our masculinised femininity? And as a consequence the attempt to replace it with our female potential?
BUT MAYBE THE SOLUTION IS IN CREATING A COMPLETELY NEW IMAGE OF WOMEN
We are living in times of great upheavals. Why should not the same apply in the area of being a woman? Just like the children of the New Age did not strike anybody’s attention a few years ago, the ‘new woman’ might be nascent. It is up to us whether we want to keep our male behaviour patterns and imprints, or leave them, and remember our feminine primeval power, and live it.
Ingrid Auer for Women 