Fem·i·nin·i·ty

Modern woman has a battlecry that sounds like a roar and a blast, like a man and a lion. Feminism is the word, isn't it? Let's fight for our rights, let's hand out flyers, let's take it to the streets because damn it, it's a man's world out there and it isn't fair. It isn't fair that they get dibs. It isn't fair that they get more money. It isn't fair that they rule. 

But you know what? That fight isn't fair to us either.

It isn't fair that we wish to be their equivalent, that we hope to share the same podium, that we dream of being like them. Because it was never meant to be that way. 

So what if we focus on something else? What if we change the direction of the waves, the tone of the voices? What if we drop feminism and embrace femininity? 

At the very core of our femininity, we are true, and pure, and good. Women are intuitive, and detailed, and relational. Women are beautiful, and inspiring, and creative. Women reign with love, and love with sacrifice. Women are heroic in the quiet, mundane moments, the moments that make up most of our lives. Women are duly afraid of not living, not being, not doing. Women create, and build, and embrace. Women are the gifts that keep on giving, the reason why we are all here. Oh, and what did one great man say? Yes, woman is the crescendo of all creation.

Embodying this femininity is an act of humility because we accept this: that we are their equal but not their equivalent, that we don't have to speak from the same podium because we have our own, that we cannot be like them because we are already significant in ourselves. And in this embodiment, we find the true freedom to be who we truly are.

So let's drop the fights and the roars. Let's just live and discover and be. Let's whisper words of gentleness and beauty and grace, through the silence of our being. The world needs us to be this way. Because no one can do it better than us. 

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Discovering and living authentic femininity has always been the foundation of my blog thus this has been one of the more difficult pieces to write. I hope you can join me in this movement by embracing your own brand of femininity, whether it be twirling around in floral dresses, traveling in a top and jeans and sneakers, or something in between. I promise it's worth the good fight.

Photos by Aya Cabauatan. Dress by Vania Romoff.