Why would women want to be like men?

I mean, yes, we deserve to have the same pay for our skills and all of that. But there are some who try to prove that us women can be just like the men.

But we are not.

And why should we be like them?

I believe that women shouldn’t try to be like men  because, well, crap, we are not them.  There’s not good reason why I would want to be a man.

Well, outside of the ability to pee anywhere.  But I digress.

We are built differently.  We have strengths they don’t.  And they have strengths we don’t.

So what?

We are more emotional in a way that men could never be.  We have a way to develop deep relationships.  We nurture.  As mothers, we can withstand a whole lot more…like drool and vomit and all the gross stuff that would send a grown man run screaming from the room. We can stand the discomfort of pregnancy and pain of childbirth. Not to mention the monthly pain and bleeding we have to go through for most of our lives.   Would men have the patience for that?

(Okay, another thing some of us wish we didn’t have to go through.  But then again, this monthly discomfort builds our characters.)

Hank said on King of the Hills, “I don’t trust anything that can bleed for 7 days and not die.”

Because women *can* handle bleeding for seven days and not die.  Hank is right.  He and the menfolk should be very afraid of our abilities, the strengths the men didn’t think we have.

Am I an anti-feminist? A sexist?  I don’t know what I am.  But I just believe that as women we should celebrate our given gifts and abilities.  We *can* have it all without becoming a man.

Instead of trying to be like men, I think we should focus on our strengths and be really good at it.

I really believe in the Jurassic Park logic.

“God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs. …Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.”

Because we are not men.  We are better off that way and we should celebrate our womenhood in every way!

Anyways.  While on this subject, I want to celebrate all of the phenomenal ladies I have come to know online and off.  But there are a few who have really inspired and awed me in recent days.

Aurora continues to amaze me.  Since our cooking classes, she has been cooking a lot more than I do with her crock pot.  This is the girl who hasn’t cooked much before a couple of months ago.  I am soooo proud!  And all this motherhood stuff?  She’s got it down.

My colleague Sonia ran her first Los Angeles Marathon in just under 7 hours.  Enough said right there.

Annette lives in Lancaster with her teenage son, commutes to Burbank to work, AND comes down to Long Beach on certain weekends to hang with her little girl.  In the meantime, she works that interweb like it’s nobody’s business and continues to meet new people.  How she did it all is an inspiration and a half.

Amy G. is whot anyone should want to grow up to be.  Strong. Smart.  Funny.  Moreover, if you throw this lady in a room full of strangers, she’ll walk out with a room full of new BFFs.  I mean, I have never met anyone like that.

My sister-in-law Pim is a yoga practioner, who now has “students” all over the Big Mango.  You look at this gorgeous, tall skinny Thai girl and you wouldn’t think she’d be atheletic, but you’ll be sooo wrong.  Pim also runs and works out on top of her daily yoga routine.  She always encourages everyone she speaks to to discover the benefits of the yoga practice.  She believes in it and that makes us believe in it too.

My Thai BFF Tong is planning to move to New Zealand to open a restaurant with her partner.  For an (over)protected only child, this is a hell of a breakaway.   The girl has always love food.  It’s about damn time she actually gets in the kitchen!

The other BFF Joy just gave birth to her second son a couple of weeks ago, and she’s playing with Jett, the 2-year-old, one moment, feeding new born Jade the next.  In a few more months, she’ll be back running the show at her family business again.  AND she paints. I mean, seriously now.  There must be a Wonder Woman cape under her bed somewhere.

And then there’s the final Thai BFF Lily who just came back from a solo trip to the French Open.  Lily has travelled more than any of our gang and she’s done a lot of it on her own.  This is a girl who we all knew as the one who didn’t like English back in K-12, then surprised all of us when she got into the English-language Economics program at Thammmasart University. THEN she came to spent her grad school in Texas and training in Miami.  And then you start getting postcards from her from all over the world as she trots the world.

I salute you, ladies.  You’re my inspiration.