Adventures in GALing

[AntoniaB]

Thanks Beatrice, and I do think the US has a lot of antiquated gender situations. I meet young women all the time in college who will readily admit that they are there for a degree but only see it as a backup plan because they really just want to marry a rich guy and never work, maybe have a kid or two...

Here's a great illustration of how subtle the myth-building mechanism is: I met a woman in the summer who was separated. She was the leaver because she said she felt he and her STBXH were friends and not lovers. She was 30ish, she wanted out. 3 kids. So she moved out. Since then she joined this gym and she is hugely into fitness and has even been doing training of others. She is physically so strong for such a small woman it's remarkable, and to me, she has been inspiring because of how take charge she has been with her life. Lately she's been posting a lot on FB about her workouts and how empowering they are and how much she's getting out of them.

Well guess what? Last night she posts that she's in a rela. with someone, then the whole 9 yards happens, pics of the guy, friends who never comment on anything else she writes falling all over themselves saying how lucky she is now to have a guy and how lucky he is to have her.

Two things bugged me: one, people didn't seem to celebrate anything she did until she posted she had a guy in her life. And two, SHE admitted that the entire reason her workouts that she'd been posting about were so good was only because HE was there.

So the whole reason I felt her to be inspiring fell apart. She's just as needy for someone to validate her as many women are, and only NOW, she's claiming she is happy. She had so much to be happy and proud of before, and she's ignoring it all. What a shame.