When I was younger, my mother told me — when I wouldn’t do something — she would forget about it. It just wasn’t getting done.
But the opposite was true. There wasn’t much they could keep me from climbing or destroying, despite my parent’s disapproval.
I was called rebellious and stubborn. That hasn’t changed much as I’ve gotten older.
The only difference is now the names are bitchy or — my favorite — crazy.
I find it interesting that ambition and determination in men is seen as positive. Yet, when it comes to women, it can be perceived as a negative, unattractive quality.
Women have been told to live up to the Disney princess dream, a be-seen-and-not-heard stereotype that only fits within the hot pink limitations of a Barbie Doll box.
I hate to break it to everyone, but Disney characters don’t exist, Barbie is unrealistic and — unless men would like to take up the role as Prince Charming — I doubt I would be able to comply with the damsel-in-distress label.
I’m sure I’m not the only stubborn, bitchy or crazy girl that’s ever walked the earth. In fact, I could probably prove it.
For years, women have been told they can’t play sports well. Or how they have no place in politics, working in the current workplace or certain fields of work such as science or business.
I’ve even heard one say women’s talents are not outside of the home.
Perhaps that person never really looked into what women have done for society.
Women’s determination and ambitions have helped society progress in ways that it likely would not have without our
willful qualities.
For example, the 2008-09 University of Louisville’s Women’s Basketball team carried the Cardinal pride to the national championship game.
Women’s basketball and their successes had been completely overshadowed by men’s sports during the season.
While the women’s basketball brought attention for their efforts in the end, no one seemed to notice their undefeated rank.
Where did Louisville’s Men’s Basketball rank that year? Not even in the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Championship.
It’s not just in sports that women seem to be taking over the boy’s games, either.
In the political realm, women have recently taken further strides with Nancy Pelosi as the current Speaker of the House of Representatives since 2007.
Her, as well as Hillary Clinton, who gained enough momentum to be led into the presidential primaries in 2008.
Rosalind Franklin, a biophysicist, was the first to discover DNA after doing the first X-ray diffraction images of DNA.
James Watson, a molecular biologist, and Francis Crick, a molecular biologist, went to hypothesize the structure of DNA using her data.
Watson later published an article commending Franklin for her work, offering appreciation for her determination, but the two are widely credited as discovering the DNA while Franklin is ignored.
Some of the most important to remember are the women like Rosa Parks.
Parks was on a bus in 1955 in Montgomery, Ala., standing up for herself and refusing to move from her seat. Parks became the pinnacle point of the straw that broke into the Civil Rights Movement, leading Congress to eventually call her “the mother of the freedom movement.”
My grandmother told me once that I would know I was doing something right if I had a couple enemies.
Not everyone is going to like it when I stand up for myself or what I believe. But life is not a popularity contest, and I’d rather be called stubborn for my achievements than be considered sweet for shutting up and only reaching for the status quo.
By JESSICA MEYER
Sports Editor
jessmeye@umail.iu.edu