“One is not born but, rather, one becomes a woman.” So famously wrote the French intellectual Simone de Beauvoir in 1949.
That is to say, biological and genetic characteristics that make women different from men are less important than the cultural signifiers that women choose to adopt. And the truly exciting thing about the time in which we now live — at least in the liberal democracies of the West — is that women can construct whatever definition of womanhood they desire.
For me, I’ll be sexy but strong, feminine but also a feminist, submissive yet powerful, fashion-and-beauty-conscious but also intellectual, compassionate yet assertive, scholarly but slutty, understanding and forgiving while at the same time always seeking peace with justice.
In short, I’ll be nothing less than Wonder Woman! Is that too much to ask? I roar.
“Walking on Sunshine,” by Nigel Hendrickson