Bitch

Isis the Scientist has posted the first of her Letters to Our Daughters Project letters and it does a bang up job of reducing down to a few paragraphs something I've written about before here and elsewhere and something that was a huge topic during the presidential election, particularly during the Democratic Primary.  Assertive women are often seen as "bitches", certainly by men and often by some other women as well.  Let me give you a particularly good paragraph from the letter here and please go read it for yourselves--it is really more about being a strong woman than about being a women scientist, The Letters to Our Daughters Project--Dr. Pascale Lane:

When my daughter was starting middle school, I explained the world to her in my own warped way. I give my students the same advice. If you have a voice that gets heard in the world, someone will call you a bitch. If you perform acts of kindness and charity, someone will say that the bitch is showing off! If you show more spine than a jelly fish, someone eventually will brand you a bitch. Accept it. If someone calls you a bitch, you are probably doing something right.

Comments

[Robin]

i was once told by a really wise woman, now dearly departed, that you havent succeeded until you have known enemies. she said people will always criticize you behind your back and amongst cohorts but until it's public information and they are in your face, you hadnt been perceived as a threat. you want to be a threat and make'm sweat. well, without rhyming preferably.