Congratulations - It's a Girl!

Today's topic - femininity.

So, being raised in the 70's and 80's - Gloria Steinham, Charlie perfume ads and Working Girl, anyone? - I always thought the pinnacle of womanly success was a corner office in a really tall building, working 80 hours a week at a job most people don't understand, with a male secretary; and wearing suits with pumps.  So, I swore to myself at the age of 17 that there's absolutely, positively no way I would ever get married before the ripe old age of 30, or before I made my first million - which, of course, would be BEFORE I was 30 - and kids?  Please.  Families are for girls who aren't smart enough to succeed in the business world.

So, guess what.  I met Mr. Hottie and got married at 18, started popping out kids at 19, never made my million, and never got the corner office.  I do now have a job that most people don't understand, and a title to go with it.  I've been in love once and divorced twice, and I'm the ripe old age of 41, dead broke and starting over again.

It has occurred to me that maybe I'm doing it wrong.  So I'm not doing it this way anymore.

Guess what, world?  I LIKE being a girl.  I LIKE having a man open the door for me, and I LIKE being domestic.  I LIKE looking pretty and I LIKE flirting with every man between the ages of 16 and 85 that crosses my path - and I so I do.  I DON'T CARE about having a fabulous career anymore, and haven't for years - and I LIKE the idea of being in love.  I LIKE having a man plan our dates, and I DON'T LIKE pressuring him constantly to make time for me/talk to me/commit to me.  I LIKE not being in control of anything other than my own emotions and my own self.  I LIKE being the kind of girl that a guy wants to show off to his friends.

I LIKE being feminine.

I know, this is profoundly controversial, and my feminist friends are probably projectile vomiting as we speak.  But I've shouldered the burden of being both a husband and a wife, a father and a mother, a boy and a girl for my entire adult life.  I want my daughters to see that it's not only okay to be feminine, but that men will shoot each other in the streets for the chance to be with a woman who really is.  I want my sons to see that it's okay to actually BE men and take control of their futures and be the head of their future families, as opposed to the emasculated facades of men which are so prevalent today.  

So we are perfectly clear - I'm the type of person who embraces her femininity.

Okay, reader - your turn.  Fire away.