I am a political junkie.  I am also not a fool and hate talking politics with people I do not know.  Actually, one of the rules I made with myself regarding what I would and wouldn't write about on here (yes, there is some things I will not discuss on here, shocking I know) is politics.  Politics is just too much of a dividing topic to discuss on a site that I aim to bring laughs and smiles.  Having said that, I am sick of hearing politicians (and more specifically men politicians) belittle and berate the American woman.  The following is the closest I will get to remotely discussing politics, but I feel it needs to be said....

“Modern women are just bombarded.  There’s nothing but media telling us we’re all supposed to be great cooks, have great style, be great in bed, be the best mothers, speak seven languages, and be able to understand derivatives.  And we don’t really have a woman we’re modeling after, so we’re all looking for how to do this.”

-Jaime Lee Curtis, 2010

I am a woman.  I am a woman who loves Sex and the City, carbs, baseball, and politics.  I am a woman who will not leave the house without applying make-up or straightening my hair.  I am a woman who has flaws, insecurities, and irrational hormonal tendencies.  I am a girl next door, tee-shirt and jeans kind of woman.  And this should be okay.  But it isn’t.  According to today’s society, I need to be perfect.  I need to be a quintessential, modern woman, whatever the hell that even means.  I hate to break it to society, but I will.  Perfection, by its own definition, doesn't exist.  Each one of us has our own definition of what perfect is.  If we didn't, we would all be living a stepford life.  Personally, I would suffocate living that way.  Actually, I loved moving into suburbia for that exact reason.  The cookie cutter, master planned neighborhood we did live in was the epitome of stepford living.  I hated it.

So, what the hell is a modern woman and more importantly, am I one?  I've never thought about it.  And depending where you look to define the term modern woman, yes I am one and no, I am not.  Urban dictionary and Newsweek have differing opinions as to what modern woman means.  Read them both and decide for yourself what definition best suits you.  Technically, we all live in the modern era; hence, we are all modern women.  Do I know how to speak seven languages, understand derivatives, and perform great in bed?  No, No, and The Big Guy stays with me, so I must be doing something right.  I do not associate myself with the term modern woman nor do I actually know anyone who walks around calling themselves one.  I am, plain and simply, a woman.

And I am okay with that.

What I am not okay with is the role today’s society plays in the everyday life of women. The idea that men, society, and government have the right to judge, belittle, and regulate who, what, where, when and why of our lives, is absurd.  It is our life.  Let us live it anyway we damn well please.  You men do, so why can't we?!

On paper, I am an everyday, American woman.  I pay my taxes.  I vote.  I donate to charities.  I (mostly) follow the law.  I have children.  I volunteer at their schools.  Look deeper into my personal life, and I am the woman society loves to hate.  I am divorced.  I have been ‘living in sin’ with The Big Guy for years (yes I call him my husband, no I don’t have the paperwork that says he is).  I curse.  I think pot should be legal.  I believe that everyone in this country deserves equal rights.  I have sex in places other than my bedroom.  I am Pro-Choice.  Today’s “good ole boy” society loved me at the start of this paragraph and hates me at the end.

And I am okay with that.  I live my life for me, not them.

And every other woman, modern or not, who has been shunned by the perceptions, ideals, and regulations that society has placed upon us, should be okay with the way they live their own life as well.

“A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view.”

-Henrik Ibsen

From the defunding of Planned Parenthood, the ridiculous comments aimed at Sandra Fluke, and now the absurd remarks made by Todd Akin, our society has once again slapped its own population of women across the face.  The fact that a few in our government have the right to tell us what we can and cannot do with our bodies or how to live our life is outrageous.  The fact that those same few in society can tell my gay neighbor she cannot marry the love of her life, is beyond the boundaries of our rights as both women and citizens of a country that, lets not forget, is based on ‘and freedom for all’.

As women, we have the power, strength, and motivation to look past the boundaries, expectations and rules set upon us by today’s society.  We have the courage, the passion, the inspiration to throw out the notion that all women have to be perfect.  We, as women, have the power to change the way society views each and every one of us.

Our generation of women needs to stand up and fight.  Fight for the sole fact that you, as an individual, are a woman.  An incredibly, strong, beautiful, woman.  And whether you share the same beliefs as the woman next to you or not, you have the right to be, plain and simply, you.  By bowing down and not holding our heads up high, we are denying ourselves the right to live the life each one of us deserves.  We deserve to have fun.  To explore, experiment, play, travel.  We deserve to live.  We deserve to have choices.  We deserve to make our own decisions.  We deserve to read Erica Jong and embrace her words.  We deserve to live the life we want to live, not the life "the good ole boys" are telling us to live.

Go live your life, stand up for your rights and tell those "good ole boys" to go fuck themselves. 

I'm A Woman, Hear Me Roar!

To read more from me (and I promise, no more politics) visit my blog, http://suburbiainterrupted.com.