Ladies, Please!

I've been out of commission with a bad back lately and didn't feel like sitting at the ole blogger dashboard, but a recent story on the news propelled me out of the comfort of the lounge chair and straight to the keyboard, in spite of the ache.

Last night, at the Olympics, the Canadian women's hockey team beat the US for the gold medal. It was a hard fought game, but the Canadian girls came out the winners and their joy was well deserved. The arena, in the home country, went wild of course and the singing of "Oh, Canada" was loud and moving. Exactly the kind of stirring scene we have come to expect and enjoy from watching the Olympics over the years.

What went on in that arena later, however, prompted the subject of this commentary! After the music ended, the last high-fives with the 2nd place Americans were exchanged, and the fans had gone home, the Canadian women took to the ice again...but this time, to sit down and celebrate with booze and cigars. Naturally, nothing in this day and age ever takes place in private, so the pictures hit the air this morning, showing the hockey team gals, in uniform, pouring champagne on each others and puffing on stogies. In spite of the fact that women in full hockey array already don't look particularly feminine, these chicks looked especially rough around the edges.

Now, on one hand, the players had worked HARD for their victory and certainly deserved the right to celebrate. I don't think anybody would begrudge them the momentary lapse of propriety. My problem with the scene, however was that they chose to get down and waller in their lack of decorum right in the middle of Olympic ice, with cameras rolling--not in some local bar where that kind of behavior might be the norm!

This very subject arose on our local t.v. station's FaceBook page and I was definitely in the minority with my opinion that the actions of the hockey team were distasteful and tacky. One young woman said, "This is the 21st century! We don't HAVE to act like LADIES any more!"

Oh, really???

When did the change of millenium suddenly dictate that women should toss out their modesty, grace, and charm and just get down into the gutter to waller like a pig? How did the concept of women holding themselves to a higher standard and remembering that their femininity makes them special vanish just because a calendar page was turned? I must have missed the memo on THAT one!

Girls! Come on! We need to rediscover just WHO and WHAT we are! Why should we be so loath to admit that we are different and unique from men? Why in the world would we want to abandon the natural virtues of our gender and try to pretend to be some new variety of "GUY?" Over the years, after sporting events and frat parties, the people rolling around, dousing each other with booze, and blowing toxic smoke all over each other were usually male...and it wasn't all that attractive when it was just the MEN who were doing it. Why would women now want to mimic that rowdy behavior and claim that, in doing it, they are somehow "just as good" as the men folk?

"We don't HAVE to be ladies?" No, I don't guess we DO "have to," but then, why wouldn't we WANT to?

Somehow, the concept of being a lady has gotten the bad rap of meaning that we are weak, helpless, or incapable. For me, nothing could be further from the truth. My mama was one of the most lovely, elegant, stylish, and graceful Southern ladies one might ever hope to meet...but she also wore iron under-drawers! She could bat her lashes and pucker up those ruby red lips with the best of them...and take you apart at the seams at the same time. She knew exactly how to work what God gave her. She was charming and she was tough and she was gracious and she was a spit-fire. She put on white gloves to go to town when I was a kid, but could pull one of those gloves off in an instant to stick a manicured finger right up in the face of some uppity shop clerk to inform him she'd have his job if he didn't show her some respect! Mama was a lady but she was nobody's doormat.

That, I think, is the balance that modern young women have somehow missed. They don't seem to understand that, as women, our power comes NOT from trying to be just like men...but from being totally DIFFERENT from them and making sure they always understand that difference. A man isn't going to pursue and treasure a woman that props up on the bar next to him and lights up a cigar. A fella isn't going to write poetry and buy flowers for the chick who challenges him to an arm wrestling contest. Wars were never fought over the broads who could out cuss, out spit, and out fight all the men around them! Men aren't looking for women who look and act just like THEM!

A woman's TRUE strength doesn't come from trying to be a man! Don't misunderstand me--I'm not talking about job equality and the usual feminist mantra. That sort of thing is covered by law and is an entirely different issue. What I am talking about in this instance is the simple fact that, as women, we totally short change ourselves when we don't recognize that God make us wonderfully beautiful and special in so many ways that our male bretheren could never hope to understand. Our femininity is not a weakness by any means! Men are one part of the puzzle and we are the other. Though different and unique from one another, we fit together perfectly in our differences because that is precisely how the Lord intended it. When He decided that it was "not good that man should be alone," God didn't make another being exactly like the first. He made us to compliment and mesh with our male counterparts like perfectly fitted gears. (And don't mistake this for a discussion about sexuality, either! This is about our respective places in society and our roles as human beings together on the planet! We need the feminine every bit as much as we need the masculine for everything to flow as it should!)

While it is true that we don't HAVE to act like a lady in this modern, enlightened, sophisticated era, I would argue that we are totally missing our greatest strength and impact when we don't. Ladies, Please! Don't toss away your beauty and elegance and grace and graciousness to become a cheap imitation of a man!

So, CAN we sit on the ice and chug a few brews and talk smack with a big cigar hanging out of our mouths? Certainly...but then again, why would we want to?