#LikeAGirl

I am a big fan of this #likeagirl movement. It all started from an emotional commercial for Always feminine products. If you live under a rock and have yet to see it, the commercial has an unseen director figure asking a range of people in a typical studio setting what it means to perform a number of actions "like a girl" such as throwing like a girl, running like a girl etc. The first to be asked are adults and they all perform the acts in an overly gentile, weak, degenerate way. Then the questions are asked of young girls. These girls present these acts as best their bodies can.

The whole idea of course is that the idea of doing something "like a girl" is a put down. In one of my favourite movies, The Sandlot- a movie about young boys playing baseball in an empty lot- the main group of boys are having an exchange of words with their rival team. The words go back and forth with words like:

But of course, the ultimate put down that ends the entire argument: 

But why? Why should that be a put down? I should add here that part of my Bachelor of Arts includes not just a major in English but a double minor in Psychology and Women's Studies. I took Women's Studies because I thought it was fascinating. I will never forget my first class, first year when the professor said "What is a woman?". As a room full of 17 and 18 year old mostly girls and a rare boy list elements we've come to know as "girl" the professor debunks them all. Things like long hair, makeup, wearing dresses, having breasts and lady parts are what we know to be "girl" but you aren't any less of a girl if you lack these. Girl can mean whatever we want it to. I quickly came to learn how much of a social construct gender truly was. My line I love to use is "gender is just your parts". I am not saying go and do all the opposite of what we know to be "girl". What I'd really love is for people to realize how much of a social construct gender truly is so  that no one feels like they are wrong or less of a girl if they don't fall within the stereotypes and constructs. Men and women alike should feel empowered to express themselves as who they are. 

So even though it's an advertising ploy I like the whole "like a girl" movement because as women, no matter what we are doing, we are doing it "like a girl", because we are girls. I am happy to be a girl, happy to be strong and capable and fit and active. I certainly do run like a girl and all that means is I am a girl who runs. I absolutely ski like a girl because I am a girl and I ski. 

My car, Denise, has a new bumper sticker. I am not a big fan of bumper stickers because I don't want my car to get too cluttery but a friend gave a "runner girl" one and I loved it so on it went. Then, this past week I spent skiing real mountains for the first time in my life out in Alberta and BC.

So naturally I had to pick up a souvenir along my travels. As soon as I saw the bumper sticker I knew Denise needed it. 

'

Boy or girl, no matter what you may be, do what you do with all your heart, with all your might. God has blessed us all with bodies that are made to move. Do what you love. I do, I run like a girl, I ski like a girl. I do a lot of things like a girl and that is no put-down because I know many boys I could smoke. Not that it's a competition.