Girl Power?

No matter how far we've come, I can't help but believe that women still have it harder than men. Well, I should say, we have it different. Being 24, I feel limited in a sense by my womanhood and by the various obligations I inherently have.

Women are nurturers. But modern women, young women like me sometimes give themselves too much to others, namely men only regret it later and lash out. I feel sometimes stuck between what I 'should' do and be like and what I think I want to do and be like. Sometimes I get to a point that life is so uncomfortable that I MUST break free of it. Are the binds we put ourselves into and the way we “give give give” instinctual or are they a product of what we think we “should” do to be women in today’s society?

Also floating around my mind right now is this idea of conspicuous consumption and culture of buying beauty, and in turn, happiness and status. Is this a women-only phenomenon? Many of us strive for bodily perfection. We have the technology to perform surgeries to augment and contort our bodies into ideals. And really, only the wealthy can really participate. (Bad plastic surgery and fake Prada bags are worse than not having them at all I think.)

How does the idea of doing as we 'should' relate to perfection, and then also to our relatively newfound equality? We are told from an early age that women are just as good as men, you know, girl power! and the like. But when we reach adulthood, we are limited. We can’t get all the top jobs. We are expected to get married and pop out babies. Do we want to do these things because we really want them or is it just the way things are?