Here I am, as a young girl. I had my best OshKoshs on along with my maroon corduroys all hiked up and ready to take on the day!
My first encounter with a woman suffragette was during this time. I had watched Winifred Banks proclaiming a woman’s right to vote with her song “Sister Suffragette” in the movie Mary Poppins. Outside of myself reciting this same song from the record player and parading around my room, I didn’t really understand what it all meant.
It wasn’t until some years later after reading books and watching historical movies, on the topic, that I would see what my gender went through, before the women’s rights movement. But as a girl growing up in the 80s there were ripples of uneven thinking that I did come to experience. Kids TV shows did depict women mainly as fragile creatures that needed the strength of a man to get through a tricky situation and kid movies always showed the “happy ending” of a woman getting saved by the man and being whisked away for immediate marriage. Luckily, for me, not all programs were doing that.
I remembered watching the uncertain and timid Princess Allura become one of the crew as a determined and strong paladin of the Blue Lion, in Voltron. I also grew up to She-Ra. I can recall this show being one of the very few that gave the main spotlight as well as an incredibly confident role, to a woman. It just so happens that my two faves were both redone, recently, and are inspiring another generation of girls. Well done, Netflix!
By looking up to characters, like these, I feel it influenced me to become the fearless tomboy that turned to sports. In school, the girls would all sit on the picnic benches and talk about feelings and boys, while I was down the hill playing soccer with the boys. Heh, fun times. When I got into the more organized soccer I then witnessed hiccups in the gender equality system. Girls soccer programs were minimal, at best, and when I wanted to join the boys — ha, forget it. I unfortunately had to wait several years for society to catch up with my way of thinking, but I feel what helped it along was getting the see soccer stars such as Mia Hamm and Brandy Chastain, during the World Cup and Olympics, in the early 90s. This started to turn the perceptions of US women’s soccer and women’s sports in general into what it is, today.
Of course, I didn’t stop there with crossing over the “women boundary line”. In 1997, I joined the military. Ironically, (or maybe not so ironic) due to not receiving enough money from soccer scholarships, I then enlisted into the Air National Guard to be able to attend college. I remember just before going to boot camp my dad and I watched G.I. Jane. After seeing that movie and taking off for Texas, I felt a patriotic duty to be a strong woman for not just myself, but for my country, as well.
Yes, television and movies had influenced my perceptions of women, back then, but it was my own choices, dedication and life experiences that made me who I am, today. Women, let’s make sure to pass along our own educated decisions and strength to the next generations, because they, too, are watching…
Happy International Women’s Day <3