The Yin and Yang of the New Feminism

I would never burn the bra or grow my armpit hair and let my arms and legs get hirsute. Not because I'm not for women's liberation, but because it makes me look good and that means feel good too. Many years ago, my liberated best friend gave me very sound advice - "Go out and get what you want and who you want."

I did. And it always worked out fine. But that's because I studied what I wanted closely before lunging for it. Did what and who I wanted show any interest in me? Yes, each and every time. I was appalled at the way most men just couldn't tell yes from no where women were concerned.

Waiting for the Phone to Ring

Sure, we women must stop waiting forever for the phone to ring and for that dream job to land on our laps without moving one little exquisitely manicured finger, but we must also learn to celebrate our womanhood and give the guys a chance to ask.

It was the screen siren Marlene Deitrich who first ventured into a man's suit and made it fashionable. But a woman has to be very feminine to carry off a man's suit or a short boy crop.

The Sacrifices Made by Working Women

When it came to work, many of us rushed to get the jobs that would prove us the equals of men and were even labeled as 'workaholics', a very masculine term till then. We learned not to cancel dates with our women friends for the sake of a man, yet we cancelled dates with our women and men friends for the sake of work.

The world seemed to go round the other way when our children began to resent our absence. We were forgetting our real roles that Nature had bestowed upon us: the roles of mother and welcoming wife. This was ignoring the laws of yin and Yang. Something just had to give.

Women Work From Home
Today it's not surprising to increasingly find women who are opting to work from home and even giving up important positions so that they can spend time with the things and people that give them joy.
Says Saroja N: "I've held high positions in several companies and now I can afford to give them up because I know my worth, I have proved myself and I can use my skills working from home. I have realised that I was stressing myself out completely and beginning to fall ill because I worked long hours almost every day. I was worried that I could be destroying the relationships that mattered most in my life -those with my husband and children - and these were the relationships that would last me a lifetime."

The fact is no man is wholly male and no woman wholly female. The so called male and female hormones are found in both sexes. The ideal femininity then is the balanced one that inculcates both male and female values.

Woman Should Be Both Yin and Yang
The new femininity requires women to take the traditional masculine values of wit, empathy, generosity, strength and competence and blend them with their gentleness, compassion, emotional strength, beauty, creativity and their ability to nurture without which there can be no heroes or heroines.