Wonder Woman and Me

When I was in kindergarten, all of us kids would play a particular game at recess.  The boys would capture the girls, "tie" us against the fence at the far end of the playground, and try to kiss us.  (Don't get me started on the psychological/sexual layers of that!)
Anyway...one day, I decided that I was going to play the Hero.  I "broke" myself free, rescued all of the other girls, and we ran away triumphantly.
I felt incredible! I saved the day!
However...after that courageous afternoon, no one really wanted to play the game with me anymore. Neither the boys nor the girls!  I had changed the rules and made it a different kind of a game, where the girls could be victorious over the boys and win. And it suddenly wasn't as fun for the other kids playing it. They didn't want to play Heroes and Villains. They wanted to play Flirts and Kisses.

I've always tended to hang with the guys throughout my whole life.  First with my brothers and my dad watching action and sci-fi movies (I knew who Yoda was at four years old), then with the neighborhood boys playing Cops and Robbers. Even in high school, I hung out with the guys who played Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering.  (I was SO COOL, guys...SO COOL.)  Today? Yep...still hanging with the guys.  We're actually going to play a board game of Battleship tonight. (I'm still SO COOL.)

I think part of why I always hung out with the guys was that all their interests seemed so much more interesting and fun than the girls' did.  I mean, playing with makeup and worrying about your clothes....or fighting imaginary battles of wit and brawn? Sure, I did the girly things occasionally, but the boy stuff was always more fun to me.

Last weekend, I saw Wonder Woman in the theater...and it hit me.  It was never girls versus boys.  It was the "Idea" of girls versus the "Idea" of boys.  Because women...and girls...can be strong, can be courageous, can fight imaginary battles of wit and brawn, and they can be Heroes.

All this time, I was thinking that I never fit into the typical "Female" profile that others seemed to glide so easily into. But that "Female" never existed.  It was what we thought and were told we had to be. based on some pre-established social paradigms that were as antiquated as the Victorian corset that strapped them in.

I wish that today's kind of consciousness and realization of what really is "feminine" and what really is "masculine" had been around when I was a little girl.  I'm happy to have it now though, as an adult.  And I'm so excited for all of those little girls out there, who can feel free to play Cops and Robbers, Heroes and Villains, Flirts and Kisses, and whatever it is that makes them happy, passionate, and their true, honest, courageous selves.  It's about time.

So thank you, Wonder Woman.  God, you're so kickass.  My kindergarten self would have donned your cape proudly.