Wednesday: Like A Virgin
I was always amused when one would fill out forms in days gone by when it asked for one’s maiden name. I wondered why it didn’t say virgin name.
In the charge of the triple goddess one honors the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. It seems that all of society has thought that these were the three roles of womankind. I can be virginal at my mother’s side and at my father’s table until I am given unto marriage and take on the mother’s role. And after my use is done, I am the shriveled crone with no value left except to sit in a rocking chair and perhaps hold a grandchild on my knee.
My value and the value of all women through time have been our reproductive qualities.
But times they are a changing because of the work of some amazing women who refused the bondages of society. Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in 1916 and promptly went to jail for thirty days after the clinic was closed. In 1965, the year of the birth of my first son, the first law was passed making it legal for married women to obtain birth control legally. On September 6, 1966, eight days before her 87th birthday Margaret Sanger died. Her life, her battle, and her warrior nature freed millions and millions of women to make choices and take control of their bodies, their reproductive rights, and to seek greater and greater strides toward equality.
In 1965 I was as naïve as the proverbial maiden. I did not have a clue about birth control as my mother, like many of her generation, had never discussed sex with me or how I could protect myself. I just knew that good girls said no and bad girls said yes. I think that is the true concept of the maiden – she just says NO. Well what a legacy that was to woman kind. She is taught to say no to her passions until it becomes a habit and then to say yes when she is in a situation that society approves. My grandmother and millions of grandmothers before her were killed early through the drive of the society to reproduce. Those who were lucky enough to survive long enough to be crones and that was about the age of 50 or so, were devalued because they were no longer good breeding stock.
The Maiden, The Mother, The Crone are no longer the mantle that I choose to wear or to have my daughters or granddaughters wear. The times they are a changing and as new roles are offered to us to be creatives, to be business executives and professionals of all sorts, to be captains of our own destiny. Our freedom from the maiden’s curse has been won through the works of women like Margaret Sanger, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, and more.
Romance novels may idealize me
Prince Charming and Taming Unicorns
But for me spin me tales of Hillary, O’Connor, and Rice.
I like it when good girls are no longer nice.
Sex in the City, Madonna, and Chaka Kahn
The Goddess in me chooses her identity.
In the charge of the triple goddess one honors the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. It seems that all of society has thought that these were the three roles of womankind. I can be virginal at my mother’s side and at my father’s table until I am given unto marriage and take on the mother’s role. And after my use is done, I am the shriveled crone with no value left except to sit in a rocking chair and perhaps hold a grandchild on my knee.
My value and the value of all women through time have been our reproductive qualities.
But times they are a changing because of the work of some amazing women who refused the bondages of society. Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in 1916 and promptly went to jail for thirty days after the clinic was closed. In 1965, the year of the birth of my first son, the first law was passed making it legal for married women to obtain birth control legally. On September 6, 1966, eight days before her 87th birthday Margaret Sanger died. Her life, her battle, and her warrior nature freed millions and millions of women to make choices and take control of their bodies, their reproductive rights, and to seek greater and greater strides toward equality.
In 1965 I was as naïve as the proverbial maiden. I did not have a clue about birth control as my mother, like many of her generation, had never discussed sex with me or how I could protect myself. I just knew that good girls said no and bad girls said yes. I think that is the true concept of the maiden – she just says NO. Well what a legacy that was to woman kind. She is taught to say no to her passions until it becomes a habit and then to say yes when she is in a situation that society approves. My grandmother and millions of grandmothers before her were killed early through the drive of the society to reproduce. Those who were lucky enough to survive long enough to be crones and that was about the age of 50 or so, were devalued because they were no longer good breeding stock.
The Maiden, The Mother, The Crone are no longer the mantle that I choose to wear or to have my daughters or granddaughters wear. The times they are a changing and as new roles are offered to us to be creatives, to be business executives and professionals of all sorts, to be captains of our own destiny. Our freedom from the maiden’s curse has been won through the works of women like Margaret Sanger, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, and more.
Romance novels may idealize me
Prince Charming and Taming Unicorns
But for me spin me tales of Hillary, O’Connor, and Rice.
I like it when good girls are no longer nice.
Sex in the City, Madonna, and Chaka Kahn
The Goddess in me chooses her identity.
posted by Myriam Maytorena | 7:34 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home