Woman

(Photo credit: Ugandan batik. My kitchen wall.)

Innermost cells to outermost frame,
DNA, bones, and chromosomes.
Birth to death, conception to disintegration,
She is Female.

Her ease or hardship are inscribed in her bones.
Her skeleton tells her story.
Disease, childbirth, nutrition, age.
Her grave and lifeless body cry out,
"Woman's Life."


(Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wessexarchaeology/118761545)

Her smaller body matures faster but runs slower.
She tires faster but lives longer.
Her less muscular body has its own strength,
Built to withstand famine and diseaseAnd see enough sunrises to grow gray hair.
She is Female.


(Photo credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/old-woman-617871/)

The beautiful mystery.
Creating, recreating, procreating,
and renovating the next humanity.
Connecting the ancestors with the descendants,
The past and future,
Knit together in a tiny, helpless bundle of possibility.
Two parts make a whole.
Male and Female.


(Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacques_D%27Agoty_-_Anatomy.jpg)

Womb, child bearer, child carrier, fertile ground.
The curse and the blessing,
Adds value and detracts, defines and destroys.
Her body holds, expands, encompasses, sustains, and nourishes.
New Life.

Her body is torn asunder.
That possibility violently explodes into reality.
From death comes life and from life comes death.
How many die so that life can win?
Blood and water, tears of pain and joy, grief and change.
A microcosm of life in one first cry.
She is Female.


(Photo credit: https://hellochristian.com/627-paintings-that-capture-the-beauty-of-getting-a-baby by Amanda Greavette: http://amandagreavette.com/index2.php#/home/)

But is she a Woman?
Does womanhood begin at menarche, marriage, or maternity?
At coming of age or a Quinceañera?
Circumcision or consummation?
Does it come through the birth of sons
Or through acquisition of daughters-in-law?
What if she never recreates herself?
She is female but what makes a woman?

She sounds like a woman.
Language, grammar, pronunciation.
Her voice and her songs. Her stories and her jokes.
Her laughter, her tears.
She even sounds like a woman in her silence.


(Photo credit: maybe me or a team mate? somewhere in northern Ethiopia.)

She looks like a woman.
Her pink, her black, her burqa, her dress,
Her gomesi, her habit, her kemis and her huipil.
She advertises her femininity by covering it.
Adorned in jewels and bangles, henna and lace, curls and flowers.
She must show she is a woman.

But that is not enough.
Ethnicity, class, religion, marital status, and age.
What kind of woman is she?


(Photo credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/Akha_laos_11_03d.jpg/256px-Akha_laos_11_03d.jpg)

Not all women are created equal.
Not all women are the same.

Young, old.
Maiden, spinster, widow.
Muslim, Catholic, Hindu,Christian, Pagan.
Rich, poor, middle class.
Third World, modern.
Civilized, savage, primitive.
Urban, rural.
Illiterate, educated.
Slave, free, servant.
Adjectives matter.


(Photo credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sojourner_truth_c1870.jpg)

Woman’s work. Woman’s job.
Woman’s sphere.
Domestic. Woman’s place.
Adjectives matter.


(photo credit: https://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/image/214325~Ancient_Times_Roman-Christian.JPG)

Wo-man. Fe-male. The opposite of male.
Can man be defined without woman?
Can woman be defined without man?
The Other.


(Photo credit: https://pixabay.com/en/couple-love-man-woman-love-couple-1276629/)

She’s the helpmate, the missing rib, his biggest fan,
His other half, his support, his completion.
She’s the temptress, the seductress, the thorn in his side,
His distraction, his destruction, his pollution.
She is dangerous.

Mysterious, uncontrolled, and incomprehensible.
She must be dominated, tamed, and bridled.
She is his conquest, his trophy, his proof of manhood.
His mirror.


(Photocredit: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1029259)
“You play like a girl, run like a girl, scream like a girl, act like a girl.”
“That’s a girl’s job.”
“Stop being such a girl.”
“Girls can’t do that.”
“You are only a woman.”
“But you are a woman.”
An insult, a blemish, a detraction, a definition.


(Photo credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pomare,_Queen_of_Tahiti,_the_persecuted_Christian,_by_George_Baxter,_1845_(frameless,_digital_restoration).jpg)

Not enough, never enough.
Starve, purge, fatten, bind, cut, primp, paint, and fix.
Pursue beauty, find worth, seek value.
She wars with her biology.
She was born with this body.
She is Female.
She is Woman.
How can she escape it?


(photo credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bride_by_prakhar.jpg)

The last resort queen, judge, successor.
Her birth is unfortunate, unlucky.
The unwanted females.
She is buried in death before her birth.
The family burdens.

Caretaker, nurturer, rock, strength.
She ties them all together.
Protector of home and hearth, tradition and ritual.
Caring for the weak, the sick, the young, the old.
Mistress of her castle, matriarch of her kin.
Respected by her people.
She carries the family burdens.


(Photo credit: https://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/11/elizabeth-i-queen-of-the-waiting-game/)

Do not let her read, write, or learn.
Do not let her speak, teach, or influence.
Keep her quiet, ignorant, toothless, bound.
Isolated from friends, kin, and connections.
Marry her to an older man. Marry her too young.
Wear her out with hard labor and a full womb.
Chain her to her place, her world, her sphere.
Then she is safe.


(Photo credit: https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/gr/original/DP118070.jpg)

Educate her. Teach her to read, write, and learn.
Give her a voice, power, platform.
Let her change the world.
Teach her to despise being a mother, to hate her body.
Marry her old or don’t marry her at all.
Keep her single and alone.
Keep her independent, safe, in control.
Make her strong, bold, and competitive.
Let her invade the male sphere,
As long as she knows the male sphere is better, she is still safe.
Who wants to be a woman?


(Photo credit: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/571323902723512426/)

She is bought and sold, kidnapped and conquered.
Her home and body are invaded.
She smuggles drugs and weapons, Bibles and food.
She supplies soldiers, hides her men, and protects her children.
She knows danger.


(Photo credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Kikyuyu-woman.jpeg/512px-Kikyuyu-woman.jpeg)

The mystic, ascetic, the holy.
The shaman and the healer.
She knows the Divine as husband and bridegroom. 
She receives prophesies, dreams, visions, and spirits.
And she was burned on the stake as a heretic, witch, and martyr.

She is too permeable.
The line between her body and others,
her spirits and others, is too fluid.
She is in danger of invasion.
She is dangerous.

She is Woman.


(Photo credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc#/media/File:Stilke_Hermann_Anton_-_Joan_of_Arc%27s_Death_at_the_Stake.jpg)