It all started as a not-to-be-taken seriously post about a prominent piece of female anatomy, but it triggered very serious blog conversations all over the place about sexism, feminism, femininity etc. etc. I was glad to see those conversations happen and I personally hope the thread continues as a way of clarifying how various of us women feel about ourselves as biological women. This is something we ought to be examining and sharing, and this is something men should be interested in hearing and responding to. It helps the genders to understand each other better.
This post on the issue by Andrea James is not the first of hers that made me sit up and take notice of the fact that this young woman has wisdom way beyond her years. Months ago, Andrea and I did a little cooperative playful conjuring as a way of giving a fellow blogger some moral support. I named her my Apprentice Crone, recognizing a shared interest in perceiving the ordinary magic inherent in our creative lives.
So, when Dorothea Salo referred in-not-terribly-positive tones to my Cronedom in one of her recent and excellent posts about her own experiences as a female-as-perceived-by-others, I felt prompted to defend my self-proclaimed title.
Just as many younger women are struggling to be recognized and respected for all that they are as women and not for how closely their physical appearance adheres to the Victoria Secrets stereotype, I

This was posted as a comment to my 9/3 post, but I think it deserves more visibility. It was posted by the author, who also is my kids’ Dad.
FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS
Little girls are nice
but we do them wrong
fussing with their hair and dressing them up
like dolls —
teaching them from the start
they are playthings.
Better we should feed them
words and numbers and tools
to remind them
that before women, they are people.
Teach them love and caring and nurture, yes,
but not as the entirety of their being,
else those qualities become walls and prisons.
Give them, as well, wings
and teach them to fly —
in case later in life
someone builds walls around them.
Little girls are nice,
but daughters who are their soaring selves
are better.