Ode to an everyday heroine

Recently in class we watched a film about how women are portrayed in superhero media, and in a portion of the film women and girls talked about how the female superheroes inspired them and some talked about real life women superheroes. I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on one of my real life female superheroes, who though not often in popular media is still a heroine in her own right. The woman who inspires me is my grandmother Joy Gensheimer. While my grandmother does not consider herself a feminist she certainly lives up to several feminist ideals. My grandmother is the sort of person who is unabashedly herself all the time, but still manages to be polite and respect others opinions at the same time. She has been for the past few years trying to learn Spanish, and whenever she is at a Mexican restaurant or has the opportunity to interact with Hispanic people she tries to speak Spanish to them. She is not just trying to improve her new language skills, but is genuinely tying to have conversations with these people and learn about them and their lives. She also is always trying to help others less fortunate then herself, a fact that has lead to a Hispanic family with nine children and a older single lady who’s children are her two dogs joining the family for thanksgiving dinner the past three years in a row.
My grandmother is an everyday hero, the kind that you see in three minute long news segments about how the Red Cross helped a family whose house burned down or that you see a picture of next to an article in the Sunday Church bulletin about a uniform drive for less fortunate children in the Church school. I think that, as women, if we want to change how women are viewed in the media then we should start with the everyday heroines who fight the everyday battles of the world. If we start holding up these women as examples for the world then maybe the world will stop viewing women as a symbol of sexual pleasure or as a prize at the end of a videogame, and instead as we are and can be: individuals doing our best to save the world one baby step at a time.

Unreasonable Limits

According to Frye’s “Oppression” our culture requires men to be emotionally restrained and woman to be physically restrained.  This restraint limits, and indeed oppresses, both men and women.  A high school girl who participates in the sport of shot put is likely to be teased and ridiculed for her large arm muscles, where a young man would be praised.  When a woman is brought to tears by a work of art or a poem she is might be seen as tasteful or artistic, but when a man cries over art or poetry he is girly and weak.  A woman should not enjoy the rush of adrenalin a person experiences when racing a motorcycle or watching someone ride a bull that had been provoked to the point of madness. A man should never know the solace of confessing his deepest emotional secrets to a close friend.

When we accept these norms that our culture is feeding us we limit ourselves to less than our best.  By defining femininity and masculinity in this way we push ourselves into a corner where there is no room for differences.  Not all women are designed to be doctors and scientists, just like not all women are designed to be homemakers.  A man can be a nurse or a fashion designer and still be a man.  The world is full of so many choices.  The cultural norms of what is masculine and feminine are absurd limitations that are unreasonable and even unhealthy.