K/R

...for a while. I am getting counter vibes about this one.

It is expected.

And it has nothing to do with Feminism.

You need enemies to exist, so you create them.

A very short-sighted strategy.

But I will not be shoe-horned into your preconceptions nor used as a foil without speaking up for myself.

If you object to people posting Pro-Feminist videos, you are in the wrong place.

It makes a good point. The gender can make a difference on how words apply. I was talking to my friend this afternoon and she said she had to backtrack and smooth out a misunderstanding. She called her friend Betty a mean woman. She took offence. I may have too. But my friend meant it as strong, capable, and able to get stuff accomplished. So we continued the talk and I said funny how it's different if a man is called mean, it doesn't seem as shameful. Guys might even be proud to have the perception of being tough no nonsense types. Say like a mean boss. I said something like women don't like to be seen as mean in the usual sense of the word. And then she said something interesting.

When men are mean they might be rough or physical to the outsides of each other but when women are mean they try to hurt each other on the inside, emotionally. She said she thought that could be worse. I thought it was an interesting observation.

Excellent coverage.

but you got here first with it.

Interestingly, I just had an incident of this commercial thrown in my face in the most horrendous way. I went on a Multiple Sclerosis forum into a "venting" thread and posted about how very angry I was over losing my career to the disease. The posts that came back shocked me.

I shouldn't be angry. I need to let go of the past a become a "new" person. I shouldn't be so "self-interested." One person straight came out and said I sounded selfish. One person said it was probably good MS slowed her down or else she might have become an "aggressive" career woman like me and not realize the "important" things in life. Another person said she didn't want to be one of those "bitter" old people no one wants to speak too alluding that was what I was becoming.

Well, I've always been a fighter and I came back and said, if they didn't think my work was an important thing in life, they just didn't get it. I had fought for workers rights in the Ronnie Raygun 80s in two union executive board positions by the time I was 25. I had run the credit card division of the largest limo company in in the world (Dav-el Inc.) by the time I was 36 and by the time I was 42, I had run three foundations and helped to set up two non-profits; Women Waging Peace and Boston Landmarks Orchestra.

Some said oh, oh it was nice you did the worker's rights things and the non-profits... I came right back and said, "So what? What if I had come on to this board to vent because I used to be the CEO of yahoo.com. What did it matter that I chose career over having a family? Did they miss all the decades of feminism where we decided those of us females not meant to be Mommies could have the choice to be something else?"

All I'm saying is that all they saw was an aggressive career woman who was bitter and really needed to let go of her anger and concentrate on the important things like family. I mean shit! If you had the career of your dreams and had to drop out because of a disease wouldn't you be pissed off for a good while? I am pissed off. I have the right to be angry even if I so happen to be female and it doesn't look too pretty.

One woman actually had the nerve to say to me, "When you're on your death bed, what are you going to be thinking; I wish I had spent more time at the office?"

Truly pissed off now I replied, "When I'm on my death bed I'll be thinking I cared about the world, not just my own family. Whether the world cared back was not the point." Did they get the point? I have no idea. I'm still too pissed off to go back to that particular board.

are we cut out for motherhood. It would be cruel of me to bring a child into the world knowing that I have no interest or capabilty of raising a child. I wish people could just be happy with thier own choices and leave those of us who choose other paths to live our lives as we choose.

is a terrible thing. But his courage actually helps me through my minor health problems because I know he has it much worse than anything bothering me at the moment. No wonder you are pissed off! Only another ms sufferer would know what you feel and the misery it can bring.

Why on earth wouldn't it be shown in the US? sigh...

thanks for posting this.