My Message

So I have been doing some major reflecting lately. I have been thinking about the fact that I don't want to be famous and well known, but I want my message to be known. I want my voice to be heard, my message to be shared.

I want to empower women, not to rule the world, but to live a life that is true to themselves. A life that allows them to take their unique set of skills, talents, and passions and do something remarkable. I want women to empower each other. I want to show women that we can do so much more when we work together, when we lift each other up instead of constantly beating each other down.

We live in a world where women are constantly pitted against each other. A world where one of the greatest insults is to be told that you do something like a girl. A world where we are told that we must reach certain standards or we have failed as women. A world where those standards are unattainable. A world where women who are claimed to have reached those standards far too often allow the world to believe they have, even when they haven't. A world that tells us that a man who has decided he is a woman is a better woman than all of the rest of us. A world that has beat us down for far too long.

This world does not show us what can happen when women come together and make miracles happen. A world that does not show us that every single woman has something special and unique to offer the world. That the standards the world has set for us mean nothing. One woman cannot be everything in the world, but she can change her world.

Every woman has her specific set of gifts, talents, and passions for a reason, and that reason is to changer her world. For some women that world his her house and family. For other women that world is a classroom. Other women it is an operating room, a business, a school, a town, a state, or a country. And for some women that world really just may be the world. NO matter what world you are changing it is important. YOU are important. You have a reason. You have a purpose and the world would not be the same without you in it.

"Women are Unfit to Fly"

So recently I substituted for a second grade class. For reading we read this short true story about a woman I had never heard of before. I have been meaning to write about her, but for some reason just have not gotten around to it. I can honestly say there is no good reason as to why I have not posted in almost two weeks, I just have not. I have wanted to write about her, so I figured I should work on it today, since I had my computer out anyways!

Ruth Bancroft Law was born May 21, 1887 in Lynn, Massachusetts. Her parents were Sarah Bancroft Breed and Frederick Henry Law. She had at least one older brother, Rodman, who eventually went on to become one of the first stuntmen. There is not much information about Ruth's childhood, but there is evidence that she was a tomboy growing up and was adventurous. When Ruth was still young she fell in love with flying and airplanes. She purchased her first airplane from Orville Wright. While Wright willingly sold her the plane he refused to teach her how to fly it, claiming that women were unfit to fly.

In the summer of 1912 she started flying lessons at Burgess Flying School and took her first flight a month later in July. The next month she took her first solo flight and in November 1912 she received her pilot's license. Her adventurous streak rolled over into her aviation career. Ruth became a competitive daredevil and was making as much as $9,000 a week doing exhibitions. After three years of flying she announced that she would be performing a loop the loop for her audience. No woman had yet completed a loop the loop. Her husband, who apparently was always nervous when she performed, was against her completing this daring feat. However, Ruth was quite capable and not only successfully completed a single loop the loop, but did two loops!! This made her the first woman to complete the loop the loop. That same year, 1915, she also became the first woman to fly at night.

The next year would prove to be another record breaking year for Ruth. One was an altitude competition, where after competing multiple times and being judged unfairly she insisted that she be judged the same as the men and at Sheepshead Bay in New York set a new record of 11, 200 feet. However, her greatest endeavor was a cross country distance record, which is is the story I read about in the class I substituted for. The former record was 462 miles, she completed a flight from Chicago to New York state, a distance of 590 miles. . The next day she flew to New York City, but had to make an emergency landing while flying over Manhattan as her engine cut out due to lack of fuel. She made this flight in November of 1916, in freezing cold weather. She wore multiple layers, with a skirt over it all, as she was a "proper lady". Crowds celebrated her record breaking flight and President Woodrow Wilson toasted her at a dinner held in her honor in December of 1916.

When the United States entered World War I the following year Ruth promptly enlisted as a pilot. She learned that she would not be allowed to fly in combat and wrote an article for the "Air Travel" magazine entitled "Let Women Fly". She was informed that she would not be allowed to fly, but would receive a uniform and could help with recruiting. She was the first woman to wear a United States Marine NCO uniform and continued to do exhibitions to raise money for the Red Cross.

After the war Ruth continued flying in exhibitions and breaking records. She once again broke an altitude record by reaching a height of over 14,500 feet in 1919. Three years later Ruth announced her retirement from flying. She stated that she had been in the limelight long enough and now it was her husband's turn. She explained by saying, "Why? Because I'm a normal woman and want a home, a baby, and everything else that goes with married life. Why, I've been married almost ten years to Charlie Oliver, the man who has managed my exhibitions, and scarcely anyone knew who he was. And the poor boy was so worried about me all that time that every time I went up he lost a pound. It was a matter of choosing between love and profession. Of course, I'm just crazy about flying, but one's husband is more important!"  

After her retirement Charlie and Ruth moved to California where they lived for almost fifty years. Ruth died on the first of December, 1970 at the age of 83.

Power vs. the Bikini

Have you ever seen this video? Jessica Rey talks about the evolution of the Bikini and goes into research that has gone into how women are viewed when wearing a bikini. Not only does she talk about the bikini, but also about modesty. Take a look.

There are so many different parts of this video that I just love/want to discuss. While there are definitely some interesting points in the beginning about historical bathing suits and policies on the beaches, I am going to skip that part. The part that first stood out to me, both the first time I watched this months ago, and watching it again now is when she mentions how the Bikini was labeled as the millennial power suit, and then talking about the research done at Princeton University.

I found it fascinating/horrifying/not terribly surprising what the study showed about men's brains. I am not at all saying this in a negative way about men, just simply that it wasn't all that surprising that men's brains are wired this way. When a man sees a scantly clad woman, they are going to associate that with TOOLS. Think about that for a second. When you are wearing little clothing, a man's brain is not associating you with a person who has thoughts and feelings, but his brain is connecting with things that he uses. Tools, hammers, screwdrivers, you. Now, this does not mean that that man is going to act that way towards you, but that is what his brain is doing inside of his head. In the video Jessica Rey quotes a Princeton professor clearly stating that the brain activity shows that these men are responding to scantly clad individuals as if they were objects, and not people. Just think about that for a moment.

Let's move on to the next Princeton study she discusses. This study shows that when men saw pictures of women in bikinis they came up with first person action phrases. Phrases where THEY were doing something to the WOMAN. Compare this to when they saw pictures of woman in suits, where they associated with third person action phrases, phrases where the WOMAN was doing something. I don't know about you, but when someone sees me I don't want them to think that they have power and control over me, but rather that I have power and control over myself and my own life.

As Jessica Rey discusses in this video, a woman wearing a bikini does have "power", she obtains the ability to make a man see her as an object, rather than as an individual human being. I do no think that this is the kind of power most of us are truly looking for, and it is DEFINITELY NOT the kind of power that I believe all woman have within them and that I search for on this blog. That being said, I do think that Jessica Rey has the power I look for, she, in my mind, has made a difference, she is sharing a message and is doing something about it.

*If you are interested in seeing/purchasing Jessica's line of swimsuits you can find her website here.

Nothing Limits You Except Your Fear

The above is one of my all time favorite quotes/poems. The text is at the bottom of the post if you have a hard time reading the above.

This poem has alway spoken to me. I think often times many of us, especially women feel like we do not have the right to do something grand with our life, to let other people see the things we can really accomplish. We (okay this is just my PERSONAL thoughts of what is probably going on in my own brain) feel that we do not have the right to dare to dream of doing something amazing, and accomplishing great things in life. Who am I to dare to dream to make a change in the world? Who am I to actually make a big difference? What makes me think that little old nobody me can do something that will actually change something? 

I think that that is where I am standing right now. I am bound by my thoughts, limited by my fear, and controlled by my belief (subconscious or otherwise) that maybe I cannot, or do not have the ability to do something great with my life. I am overwhelmed by thoughts of ideas and possibilities of what I could do and avenues I could set out on, an in the end frozen in a state of fear that is limiting me from actually doing something with my life.

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,

but that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.