Free Your Mind
I was watching last night the movie “Cry Freedom� about Steve Biko the South African leader who was murdered while in custody by the police.
As I was watching the movie and listening to parts of his speeches and his ideology I realized that some of it is also true for women or to any oppressed minority.
Biko was explaining what his Black Consciousness Movement is about. He explained that in order for the blacks in South Africa to become truly free and have equal rights, they first have to change their belief about themselves. They need to realize they are worthy and they have their own history that is to be proud of.
He went on to say that even when they go to school and get education the only education they get is about white men’s history and great things the white men has done which leaves them thinking Black people are less. He even showed how the term “black� is used only as a negative association: “black sheep of the family�, “black magic� and “black day� which, again, has a negative connotation and implements that black can only do bad things.
Therefore his idea was that first black people should become proud of their heritage, learn more about it and connect to the beauty of it and only then they could become free as their mind is free from the bondage of thinking inferiority.
Listening to those words I realized that the same thing is true for women. When we go to school (in those parts of the world where women are allowed to go to school!), we mostly learn about men’s history, not a lot is being taught about the changes and the importance women have made throughout history which leads us to think that we cannot truly contribute to the world.
Now think of the term “the weaker sex� – what does that implement if not that we are weaker then men and therefore obviously can do less. Think on the term ‘hysteria� which literally in Greek meant uterus, which indicates again that mainly women get hysterical and are unable to face fear and are over emotional and lose control. Again, a negative connotation to something tat is only feminine (uterus – not a lot of men have them…!)
All that lead me to think that if as women we truly want to be free and equal it’s not about getting the same jobs as men, it’s not about even getting the same salary as men, it’s about freeing our mind.
It’s high time we as women will start educating ourselves and our children the advantages of being feminine. It’s about being proud of being a woman. It’s high time we will educate our children about the contributions women have given to civilization throughout history (thus changing it from His-story to Her-story). It’s about learning the power that women hold and the advantages the feminine power and energy has.
As usual everything happens in the right timing. This morning I woke up and I got the book I ordered from Amazon long time ago (for some reason it took longer to arrive than the usual time…) The book is called ‘Enlightened Power’– How Women are Transforming the Practice of Leadership. The book is a collective articles all about the different aspects of what Feminine Leadership is about and it does exactly what I realized needs to be done – it shows and teaches us to be proud of being a woman and seeing the added value we can give to the world.
This was for me a sign from the Universe that I was on the right track with my notion that if we truly want to become free and equal we need to free our own mind from the notion that we are less that we need to compete with men on positions and places in the world. We need first to be proud of our own sex, we need to honor our own tradition and ways and we need to value our own energy – the Feminine energy.
Have a great day!
