Impromtu Manifesto for overcoming the increasingly negative image for women-please feel free to add your own

[Jacqueline Hynes]

I was reading a post 'female chauvinism' and I felt so frustrated and I had to do something...And these are personal statements, no judgment of other women's preferences intended.

1. I will NEVER get a Brazilian wax.
2. I will NEVER wear a thong.
3. I will not endorse negative stereotypes of women in the form of playboy shirts etc.
4. I will not purchase trash magazines
5. I will blog on here more often
6. I will challenge the women in my life
7. I WILL go outside without makeup and feel beautiful.
8. I will worry about eating junk food as it pertains to my health and not to stay 'skinny'
9. I will not call another woman a slut, a whore, a fluzy or anything like that which might stem from jealousy
10. I will maintain positive relationships with the women in my life and seek to expand the company of women
11. I will respect my body and my mind as my own, not be given away out of insecurity or for approval
12. more to follow...

[Jacqueline Hynes]

Thanks for the reading suggestion and your lovely comments...

Here is another one for the list-And this one is not so much a personal statement, as I strive to achieve this in my life, but a promise to continue and hopefully inspire others:

12. I will forgive the women I encounter who express hate, jealousy, or anger toward me/women in general and attempt to show them the error of their ways through kindness and example-I will not hate back.

[Missiz]

Hey Jackie,

Love the Manifesto!! I am going to adopt it myself.

I picked up another book at Chapters this weekend that might interest you. It's called Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape. It's a collection of essays that are both eye opening, but also inspiring and validating.

Here's the amazon page http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580052576/ref=cm_rdp_product

They also have a blog: http://yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/

Seeing this smart positive fearless comment does a lot to counter my general feelings of despair. It even - dare I say it - gives me hope.

[Jacqueline Hynes]

It breaks my heart that those young girls don't fully understand sex and are so ready to put themselves on display-I mean I still don't understand sex and attraction and the other stuff!! And I should revise that and say that they need guidance and support (from their parents supposedly) to develop a positive image of themselves...It's not their fault. I feel it must now be some kind of survival instinct...Must be primal, must be visible...It's awfully sad.

[Rosemary House]

Wow. Good manifesto my dear. some things quite radical in a way - to seek to expand the company of women. That's crazy talk!
How about - I will never let a child walk out the door in skank ho outfits outfits. Which goes to Anne T's post and the current and apparently now never-ending hyper sexualization of girls and women. Aaargh. I see private school girls on the street here in Toronto wearing kilts up to their arses and of course the boys are dumbfounded. I can't blame the kids. They are following Darwinian impulses of procreation plus lifetimes of sexual conditioning and sexist video, advertising, media. But who is letting the girls out the door in the mornings dressed like that! Jaysus! It's gotten so in Ontario that private school boards are banning the kilt. Yes. We are oh so liberated.