SS #4: Girl Power

Introducing the Saturday Scoop:
The Saturday Scoop is a weekly post hosted here on Leopard Kitty Girl Books. Each week, I pick a new topic to write about and just rant and rave about that particular topic. Enjoy. :)

This Week's Topic: Girl Power

I know I said my previous post was going to be my SS post for the week, but I have time to do a real SS post after all! So this week's topic is going to be girl power.

The past couple months, I've realized how awesome it is to be a girl. We've come so far in the past century. It wasn't too long ago when we were in skin-tight corsets that practically asphyxiated and

could not "speak unless spoken to". My role models are some of the feminists in the early 20th century, because let's face it, they were awesome.  And now, there are some really awesome books out there featuring kick-ass heroines and examples of real girl power.

I was thinking about the book "Looking For Alaska" by John Green. One of my favorite books. Oh, it was amazing. Alaska was messed up in a lot of ways, but was so feminist that a reader could not help but love her. For example, this line (this is a rap she's making up of the top of her head):

“Oh shit did you just diss the feminine gender
I'll pummel your ass then stick you in a blender
You think I like Tori and Ani so I can't rhyme
But I got flow like Ghostbusters got slime
Objectify women and it's fuckin' on
You'll be dead and gone like ancient Babylon.”

I'm not going to even remove the expletives from that quote, because that's who Alaska is. And I love that quote. So much. 

This next quote is from Pride & Prejudice. I love that book, as you might already know, and even though it was written at a time when women were still considered unequal to men, Jane Austen manages to stealthily squeeze in a few feminist lines from her beloved heroine, Elizabeth Bennet. 

[Miss Bingley:] "Oh! certainly," cried his faithful assistant, "no [woman] can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with.  A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half-deserved."

"All this she must possess," added Darcy, "and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading."

[Elizabeth Bennet:] "I am no longer surprised at your knowing only six accomplished women.  I rather wonder now at your knowing any." 

What's not to love here? Jane, you're amazing. Jane, you're awesome!! 

Ok, so I've given you two feminist quotes from books, but the only feminist moments aren't in books. The other day, in History class, we were talking about Abigail Adams and how she was telling her husband to grant women rights. I'm like, 'Yeah, Abby! Way to go!" but then there's this reallllyyy annoying kid who sits near me and he's mumbling sexist things under his breath but everyone can hear him. My teacher hears him, too. She says, "Hey... You're never gonna get a wife if you keep saying those things." Yeah! I know that's not the best example of a feminist moment, but it's still awesome. I'm not going to mention the part where I said a little too loudly, "You're not going to get a wife anyway," and the teacher goes, "Okay, okay, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, miss." Oh, oops. Guess I just did mention it. Whatever. 

Anyway, my theory is when boys "diss the feminine gender" it's because they're afraid of us girls, and they're worried about being outsmarted and getting their ass kicked by girls. :P So yeah, I just needed to post this, because it's a really important subject to me. And if you're a dude, I'm not saying that you're lower than girls or anything like that. I'm just pissed with all of those careless jerks who don't think about what they're saying before they say it. Girl power all the way!