International Women's Day 2013: What Does Masculine/Feminine Mean To You?

Happy International Women's Day 2013!

I've been celebrating all month by signing up for this email summit called I Heart My Moon Cycle (about exactly what it sounds like).

President Obama just signed an expansion on the Violence Against Women Act that aims to implement global strategies.

In my personal life I've been working hard as a woman on all levels - signing up for an online business course, joining a virtual meditation summit, slowly but surely querying my novel, delving into what it means to be feminine.

This last one is an interesting topic. I was raised as the "only son" of the only son, which in Chinese culture is a big deal. I had to be the one to go to Harvard; I was supposed to be the one to go into law or i-banking. Couple that with being a New Yorker and a Leo, and you get a girl used to living in the doing, action-oriented, goal-achieving mode. Or as the relationship coaches define it, the "masculine".

Only in the last few years have I received the knowledge and taken the space and time to explore the receptive, self-loving "feminine". I'll never discard my Type A personality - it's not even possible. But I do love embracing the feminine and the kind of peace it brings me.

This might be a triggering topic to some, but I'm curious what you make of the feminine/masculine. Do you live your life in a particular mode? Have a strong sense of what masculinity or femininity means? Conceptions of the feminine and masculine fascinate me, so please share!

A Woman's Space, A Woman's Voice

This week was the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day.


In light of the recent New York Times victim-blaming screw-up (Kristin Cashore wrote about it here and you can sign the petition here), I wanted to give some positive energy to women and highlight some things important to women writers.

Laurie Halse Anderson is a lucky lady!  She and her husband designed and built an eco-friendly writing cottage complete with a "magic window" rescued from a church.  I teared up at the end of the video when she thanked her husband for giving her the best gift possible. It truly is!

My space is the loft in our house where I keep my desktop PC, a pink beach monkey lamp I got from Target, and my weighted keyboard where I play everything from classical to pop to my soprano part for my a capella group.

I had originally wanted a room with a door I could shut, just as Woolf instructed, but my boyfriend has since learned to play Call of Duty with headphones on so it stays quiet enough.

I haven't appreciated this space enough over the last year, and soon it will be gone when we move into a 1-bedroom apartment in April!

***
Honolulu Girl Suz posted an interesting (and chilling/moving) video of James Bond becoming a woman in support of International Women's Day.
***

And lastly I want to give praise for a woman's voice.  The YA community I've entered so far is composed mostly of women writers, which I believe accounts for the warm and fuzzy quality of our community.  This bodes well, gals.

It's not something I consciously think about during the writing process, but the fact that so many women give voice to their heartsongs and work our butts off to share these works with the world is a wonderful thing.

Keep writing.  Keep speaking.  Keep supporting each other.

The word is our power.