When you looked at this title, what was the very first thing that came to your mind??
But please wait...hold on
Before you decide to heat up the comment section down below, I need you to take note of a veryyyyy vital piece of info, which is....
Whatever it is you read on this particular blogpost, know that it's taken 5 days to compose.
Yep.
5 good days, my friends.
And I'm sure you ask, "why so long for just this one piece?"
Well...
that's simply because I was looking for the right story to launch this new column I decided to title "Girlily"!!🥳🥳.
For hours on end, I'd asked myself:
what is the perfect story to start off this column which is going to be a smogersboard of everything concerning the female race??🤔🤔.
I'd rolled on my bed, paced my house like a madwoman and simply sat in front of my screen looking lost regularly (I'm pretty sure my sisters must have wondered if my brain had suddenly grown wings).
All of the above which are testaments I am sure every writer can attest to...
And then, like chilled "pure water" after the beating of this heavenly oven called Lagos sun...BOOM!
It came!.
And now, here you are, reading this!
I decided to call it "THE 21st Century Woman".
So, now, back to my question:
What was the very first thing you thought about while checking out the title?
I'm sure you might say you pictured women who are always on social media, buying and selling one thing or the other.
Or perhaps you pictured some of these influencers who always give selfcare tips and always look so smartly upbeat and independent.
Well...
As for me, I pictured something different.
I pictured the past, the present and a glimpse the possible future.
I pictured a growth, a synthesis, a...transcendence.
I pictured woman as she once was.
From the very First Ages, she was formed and shaped by society to become the very thing society always thought her to be—silent, submissive, with no voice, no thought and no strength.
I pictured her growth through the 1700s and the 1800s, when her eyes of knowledge opened and she fought for her freedom.
Her freedom of expression, of Education, Of equanimity.
I remembered her fights in the International faces of Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott.
I remembered her slow victory in a world were victory was always a man's toolbox.
And I see her now...
transformed into a free-willed being with the Willingness to keep pushing, keep fighting, keep thriving and keep surviving.
So, Is it now correct to say your ideas may be wrong and mine right?
Of course not!
None of these answers are wrong. We just simply have different perspectives.
So I have given my own insights on what I pictured when I thought of the 21st Century Woman.
But...
who really is she in Reality??
She is one Western Nigerian Young lady, the first daughter in the family, who is responsible for taking care of her family.
She struggles to keep up with the hassle of work and all the wahala that comes with living in Nigeria. She puts food on the table, and somehow, still manages to look and feel good too!
She is one Arab lady who has learnt to find her own path in her religion and daily life...
Who has learnt to move past the many obstacles in her way and instead, develop her own solutions to life's many problems.
To the far end of the peninsula,
she is an European who rose and grew herself up from virtually nothing.
She hustled her way through crime, through pain and through self-degradation to get to the highest ladder of success she wanted to be at.
It was and is still not easy.
Failure faces her more times than she can count but with her chin raised and her head held high, she faces it right back and gives it "the finger".
She is an African American woman surviving as a single mother to adolescent boys.
Life for her is not easy.
She has learnt, in the long run, to balance her career life with motherhood.
As if dealing with the never-ending racism isn't enough,
she still lives with that constant discrimination that follows women for all eternity.
And yet, she still survives and decides to face her own happiness!.
Yes.
So when I ask myself again, "who is the 21st Century Woman?"
I say, She is ALL OF US.
She is Everything Feminine, everything unique and everything strong.
She is Strength. She is Courage. She is Faith.
But she is also Insecurity Because she feels everything human...sadness, love, hate, guilt, indifference, respect.
She is also faced with life's many surprises all wrapped up with obstacles and dipped in a sac of constant wahala.
But somehow, she still manages to thrive and survive.
She is ALL OF US.
And I am dedicating this particular column to everything "HER".
Soo so nice
Wow 🥺 i enjoy it 🦋 Keep it up babe❤️
Well-done
👏👏