Sunday morning ramble

Perhaps you saw the review of Emily Bennington's "Who Says It's a Man's World?" in this morning's roundup, and perhaps you've followed the feminist infighting over Sheryl Sandberg's book. Maybe you love Nora Ephron's commencement address to Wellesley as much as I do and never miss an opportunity to quote from it, as I did recently with "... of course you can have it all. What are you going to do? Everything, is my guess." But this morning I'd like to draw your attention to this part:

Every attack on Hillary Clinton for not knowing her place is an attack on you. Underneath almost all those attacks are the words: Get back, get back to where you once belonged. When Elizabeth Dole pretends that she isn't serious about her career, that is an attack on you. The acquittal of O.J. Simpson is an attack on you. Any move to limit abortion rights is an attack on you—whether or not you believe in abortion.

These words came to mind as I read Marianne Williamson's "A Woman's Worth," particularly the part that starts with,

The invalidation, the crucifixion, of feminine power is one of the most emotionally violent and subversive forces at work today.

She goes on to write about how every attack (of any kind) on any woman is part of the fate of every woman. Ms. Williamson goes on, to the confusion and/or disapproval of some (Joseph Campbell she is not) to frame this in terms of the Goddess archetype. She also urges all women, Catholic or not, to "Go talk to Mary." [See what I had to say about Maureen Dowd's disappointing column, in the roundup.] But she also gives you the option of finding "a Greed goddess or female Indian avatar you can relate to" instead.

Are you waiting for my point? I don't actually owe you a point, since this a ramble, but I'll see if I can come up with one anyway: quit slamming other women because they have succeeded where you have failed or failed where you have succeeded or because they're thinner than you or fatter than you or married or single. Those women are not the enemy; the enemy is the idea that finding and using your strength is anything but feminine. How you find and use that strength isn't up to anyone else, and it isn't up to anyone else to denigrate it. I'm certainly not saying I'm there; nor am I immune to the pratfalls. I'm saying it's worth getting there.