to all the girls

I am a fan of strong women. I will forever be grateful to my 11th grade english teacher who introduced me to Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice; to my sweet friend Katie who showed me how to be an athlete, yet still be feminine; to loads on loads of heart friends who show me what it looks like to be a strong, beautiful woman who loves the Lord and people. however, there is a difference in the women I just described and the "strong" woman many think of today. today's strong woman is still confident, wise, and fierce, but we added some harmful things and have lost something really important... **disclaimer: I realize many will not agree with me, and I'm ok with that**

who are the women we look up to in today's society? beyonce, rhianna, miley cyrus, and the list goes on and on. these are all women who have been on the covers of countless magazines, are super successful in their field, and are role models for countless young women. but let's think about the archetype of woman this is: strong, smart/business savvy, talented, rockin {unrealistic} bods, sexually liberated, and confident. don't get me wrong, I have been a fan of B for years, and I jam out to "flawless" probably more than I'd like to admit. however, over the past 6 months my eyes have slowly opened to the message these women are passing to me and countless other women: that we are valuable for our bodies and being a woman really means being confident and liberated sexually **cue miley butt-naked swinging on a wrecking ball here & let's not even mention bey's soft-porn music videos** here's the deal, this doesn't actually value women at all. it plays into this objectivity of women; it communicates to us, and the world, that women are only valuable for their bodies, what they can do with them, and how many men want to go to bed with them. yikes... strong woman? that's not how I want to be remembered... in fact, why am I even going to law school when my intelligence is not something the world considers valuable? yesterday I went to a conference called "Human Rights and the Sexualization of Culture" where Benjamin Nolot from Exodus Cry said, "if you conducted a survey of 100 girls from 11-14, most, if not all, could tell you the top 3 women pop-culture icons, but I bet you would be hard pressed to even find one who could tell you the names of the three women Supreme Court Justices." I'm ashamed to say that I didn't even know there were three women Justices, & I'm in law school... so how do we change this? what is the right view of women?

for a long time I struggled with the Proverbs 31 woman as this woman who was quiet and did what her husband told her to... but then I started to really read it. "the heart of her husband trusts her... [she] works with her hands in delight... she brings food from afar, she rises also while it is still night... she considers a field and buys it; from her earnings she plants a vineyard... she girds herself with strength... she extends her hands to the poor, and stretches out her hands to the needy... strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future... she opens her mouth in wisdom..." to quote Elizabeth Bennett, "she would certainly be a most fearsome thing to behold." women and men, when are we going to stop valuing women for their bodies? when will be begin to value women for the content of their character?! let's quit buying this lie, and exchange it for the truth that our identity is worth far more than what the world is telling us!