International Womens Day: #BeBoldforChange

Images of the Feminine

So today on International Women's Day, I receive felicitations accompanied by a heart from a male friend. And I want to say to him, “thank you so much, I appreciate you too”.

I see that gesture as a symbol of solidarity with and support for the hundreds of thousands of women around the globe who want to #BeBoldforChange - this year's theme for the day. And especially now at this time on our planet, it is an appropriate clarion call for all of us, male and female. Too much of our basic human rights and civil liberties are being stealthily eroded.

The abuse and violation of women continues unabated. And today of all days, I particularly want to remember Yazidi women and those who are imprisoned simply because they dare to speak out against corruption, wrong doing and injustice, and those who are in prison simply because they are female.

In some ways this post is a reprise of one written for International Women’s Day 2013. Four years ago emphasis was placed on the feminine soul as the principle of life ..the spiritual part of humankind, in contrast to the purely physical. 

Our feminine soul nature is defined as receptive, soft, inward, encompassing, intuitive, emotional passive, empathetic and relational, while masculine qualities and attitudes are described as active, hard, outgoing, penetrating, logical, aggressive and dominant. These motivations are governed by the left and right brain respectively.
 Understanding the Femine Psyche - Inspirational Women Writers

The qualities are equally represented in men and women but their strength of expression is dictated by socialisation depending on whether you were born male or female. All of us can tap into our innate feminine or masculine qualities at will, depending on whether we choose to be receptive and relational or active and dominant.

The ‘animus woman’ - Margaret Thatcher as an example - had an abundance of active masculine qualities, there was nothing 'girlie' about her. In contrast, someone like Jackie Kennedy would be considered more 'feminine'. For me, women like Michelle Obama and Opera Winfrey integrate the qualities of the feminine and masculine.

From time immemorial the dominant left brain of logic and rationality, the masculine principle, has generally abandoned the intuitive aspect of its existence.  On the physical plane this rejection of a vital aspect of self finds reflection in every society where woman is undervalued and repressed, and even destroyed in utero simply because it's a female embryo.


The rejection and relegation of the Feminine Principle is obvious in the world at large - in government and politics, in the economy, in business, in religion. At the same time there is a strong desire to control and have dominance over the external manifestation of the feminine - the real live breathing woman in society.  There many societies where that is simply the norm...a way of life and how we do things. It is a shock to the psyche when it occurs in a Western more secular society.

And on a day in January 2017, with demagoguery seemingly at large in the world, women all over the globe came out in their hundreds of thousands to say NO, we will not be silent, we will not acquiesce in our subjugation. I called it the Day the Feminine Roared.
When the Feminine Marched in protest against an abusive State

The subjugation, relegation, and overt violence against women is tantamount to the abuse and exploitation of the Earth, a global symbol of the Feminine. Yet try as we may, while the feminine principle can be overlooked and undermined, it will never be annihilated. That reminds me of Maya Angelou's poem, Still I Rise.

And Still we Rise.


 

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