On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with Elaine Madsen about her award winning documentary film, I Know A Woman Like That. We will be also speaking with the celebrated author Maxine Hong Kingston and Barbara Hillary, the first known African-American woman to reach the North Pole, at the age of 75 in 2007.
The documentary features women passionately engaged in spirited endeavors at a time when the world expects them to be in their rocking chairs. Is there an older woman in your life who counters stereotypes about growing old? Join us live at 11 or send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org. What can we do to honor "older people?" It's Your Call, with me, Rose Aguilar and you.
Guests:
Maxine Hong Kingston, an eminent Chinese American author and Professor Emeritus at the University of California.
Elaine Madsen, an Emmy Award winning writer producer, director, playwright, poet and documentary maker.
Barbara Hillary, the first known African-American woman to reach the North Pole, at the age of 75 in 2007.
Click to Listen: Do you know "a woman like that?"
Thank you for addressing this important topic, one that is rarely acknowledged.
ReplyDeleteI work with mostly female college students, and I am troubled about the prevailing qualities I see in them: timidity, passivity, lack of self-direction and individuality. As a 1970's feminist (I'm 57), I am rather stunned by this retrograde stereotypical "femininity," and I worry for them. There is a sense that they do not control their own destinies, that they will"get fat when they turn 30", and that they are just helpless pawns in their own lives. Being too concerned with others think is a very bad thing.
It is up to parents and adult mentors to
convey to young women that they must define themselves or they will be defined by a rarely benevolent society.
If they focus on defining themselves through their looks and sexuality, they will be very shocked and traumatized indeed when they hit middle age.
A sense of self and self-will must be developed early, and it comes from good health and hard work and an interest in life. A sense of identity will not come from the men in your life.
Plenty of older women are doing amazing things. We just don't hear about them. Probably the best thing about getting older is that at a certain point you realize it's your life and you don't give a rat's a** what anyone else thinks anymore.