Monday, October 12, 2009

I found this in some stuff of my grandma's. It was clipped from a newspaper back in 1970. It's still, if not more, applicable today. I've been wanting to share it for awhile now.

I haven't always agreed with this. If I had read it 15 years ago, I would have scoffed at it, mocked it, maybe even been offended by it. Now I am ready to embrace it. I feel it to be so true.

Open Letter to Woman

I AM man.

I WANT you to be what you ought to be, a personification of:
GENTLENESS
UNDERSTANDING
RECEPTIVITY
LOYALTY
And LOVE

BUT…while you ask me to regard you as more than a mere sexual object, DO NOT prohibit my doing so by distorting your womanhood.

DO NOT be random in giving the treasure of physical intimacies and then expect me to value you more than you value yourself.

DO NOT, especially when we are with others, abandon that modesty which indwells your nature, for I depend upon you to be my touchstone of moderation.

DO NOT use crude speech, and mock my efforts to make my words to you respectful.

DO NOT applaud the public vulgarities of those who, in the name of artistic expression, disclose their contempt for women and depict you as a slattern.

DO NOT be fooled by the exploiters who would convince you that femininity is a weakness and virtue is retardation.

YOU are strongest when you are most feminine.

YOU progress when you embrace virtue.

REMEMBER that I will accept you at your own evaluation of yourself.

AND IF YOU DO NOT RESPECT THE SUBLIME BEAUTY OF YOUR WOMANHOOD, YOU CANNOT ASK ME TO.

I WILL spend much of my life in concern for your welfare.

I WILL want to provide for you, to protect you, to accept your love and to give you mine, for it is only by uniting with you and doing all these things that my life becomes truly meaningful.

SO, uphold my image of woman, that I may more easily be the man you want me to be!

~written 8 March 1970

2 comments:

Vicki said...

Now there is some heady stuff. Gives one pause doesn't it. With 3 daughters - oh, the questions, the concerns, the "stuff" I want to share with them about being a woman. So much garbage out there. Hannah will be 21 soon and I am in the contemplating my gift to her. Nothing you can put in a box and wrap up, I won't be the mom getting drunk at some bar with her, but I feel the first twinge of what I really want to share with this amazing young woman. Thanks. 2 gifts in one day. Gotta love it.

Lorilee said...

Thanks! That is beautifully said...and true. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy.