What happened to feminism and feminists? What happened to their goals of improving the lives of women, making room in the public square for more opportunity? Today, feminists trash urinals in the name of gender equality and demand the right to have the government pay for fertility treatments, or expect subsidies for fertility treatment because they postponed motherhood in order to fulfill their dreams-which apparently didn’t include parenting as a priority as if being a parent were like drawing the short straw.
And of course their biggest concern seems to be rape culture as if rape were happening every minute on campuses. Rolling Stone got all caught up in this “belief” and came out with a whopper of a fairy tale. Facts be damned; it’s the narrative that matters And let’s not forget about the hurt feelings caused by sexist micro-aggressions. Not to worry. I just discovered there are at least “6 Ways to Respond to Sexist Microaggressions in Everyday Conversations.”
These women bring shame to the meaning of feminism and to the feminists before them. All they do is complain and now destroy. But there is hope. There are real feminists out there. Let me introduce you to 17 year old Ella
.
Ella plays defense for the London Devillettes Juniors hockey team, part of the Provincial Women’s Hockey League. She made the cut when she was 15. And at 16 she was offered and accepted a full scholarship to Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. She is now working toward, and hoping for, an invitation from the National Women’s Hockey Team. One day she wants to play on the Olympic team. I watched her play and marvelled at all the young women as they aggressively flew up and down the ice, pony-tails flowing in the air behind them. Without those tell-tale pony-tails I’d be hard-pressed to know that these were women and not young men. Playing aggressively is no different amongst the women than the men. I doubt Ella has ever heard of microaggression-she’s dealing with real aggression. She doesn’t strike me as a young woman who would be intimidated by the juvenile sexist talk of young men. She’s not only had her feelings hurt, she’s been hurt. She’s also heard the word “no” many times, been criticized for not doing “a good job” and still has self-esteem. I doubt she will ever suffer from grandiose infantile delusions of entitlement.
Ella is an honour student in high school, majoring in science, and is hoping to graduate as a veterinarian or kinesiologist. Ella grew up around animals. She’s a farm girl. Her dad hunted and she sometimes accompanied him to the hunting blinds (where the hunter waits for the deer). Although she is quite comfortable around rifles she has no desire to hunt. But that didn’t stop her, starting at six, from running in and out of the barn on the days that deer would be butchered to help bag the meat for the family freezer. Her mother told me Ella would stand at the table, in blood up to her elbows, examining the body parts-the brain the intestines and everything “ooey” trying to understand how things worked. Her mother told me she would come into the house covered in blood.
When not involved in farm chores Ella skated. Her mother told me that she wanted to play hockey when she was three-probably because her older brothers played. They got her all fitted up in hockey apparel and sent her on the ice where she just stood. Turns out she couldn’t learn to skate while wearing all that equipment. So the gear was put away; she learned to skate and the following winter, at four, was wearing her hockey gear and playing. She grew up skating on ponds when not at ice rinks.
Unlike so many “feminists” at university who run to the dean or the head master when feelings are hurt or there is a fear that something may happen, Ella has learned that there is no point in running to someone else to fix things. She was suspended from a game for a penalty that many agreed was a poor call. What to do? Nothing. No running to mommy or a mommy substitute. Ella at 17 is learning that sometimes unfair things happen and that’s life. Get a grip. Grin and bear it.
I often imagine how Ella would respond to today’s feminists. Placard carrying women angry at the world. Too much time on their hands-destroying urinals, of all things, as if that will make the world a better place for girls and women. We need more Ellas. We need to celebrate the Ellas of the world. Young women with resolve. Young women who stand up for themselves and take pride in their accomplishments, especially in what is often referred to as a man’s world-like hockey. Ella is one of many strong-willed women to break the glass ceiling with passion, talent and courage.
All of these young women are the real feminists. Can’t wait to see what they accomplish when they go out into the world.
