Wonder Woman

We, as girls, grow up with role models like: Cinderella, Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Hanna Montana (Or in my case Lizzie McGuire). Then in our teenage years we look up to Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie, or whatever celebrity is out there. As our education progresses we start looking at women like Oprah, Rosa Parks, Abigail Adams, Mother Theresa, Hilary Clinton and many other women that changed the course of life for millions of women around the world. And it truly just makes me wonder... Can we do it all? Can we all be Wonder Woman? And if we can, what doest it mean to be Wonder Woman?

All these questions started racing through my head as I watched "Mona Lisa Smile" during connect group today. Simply summarized the movie is about a free-thinking art professor who teaches conservative 50's Wellesley University girls to question their traditional societal roles. As I watched this movie I carefully started thinking about my life. When I was a young girl my biggest dream was to someday be rescued by Prince Charming and live happily ever after, then I was taught that the most important thing was to be sexual and attractive to the boys around my life. And after, I was taught to be independent, to have my own mind and ideals, not to conform to this world around me but to change the world on my own! How confusing; now I feel like a girl who wants to be beautiful enough to be rescued by my Prince Charming, sexy enough to attract him, but independent enough to not need a man in my life.

This whole train of thought makes me think, do I even want to get married or is this something I have been brain-washed and sold by ideals of Disney Princesses? Do I want to be sexy or is this something I have been brain-washed by magazines and music videos? Do I want to be independent and have my own career or is this something I have been brain washed by a feminist movement? Or can I be all three, or even none? Can I be a wife, a mom, a sexy girl, a business woman all at the same time?