Milk does a body good. Do you remember that campaign where everyone in the commercials would have a milk mustache and a smile? Milk was the star everywhere, and then the spectrum shifted, and then came along choices of different kinds of milk for different kinds of issues. We went from having the choice of white, chocolate, and strawberry to fat-free, almond, and oat milk. The slogan says milk does a body good, but which milk, and whose body? One size doesn’t fit all, apparently.
There are a lot of slogans and sayings that float around in the atmosphere, but we have the choice to adhere to them or not at all. “My least favorite is I wasn’t whole until I found you.” This implies that you’re not a complete person without the presence of another person. Sure, having a partner in life is great, and should enrich this experience that we call life. However, when we give another person this much power over our happiness, it becomes very dangerous. Were you not a whole person before this new addition came into your life, or were you half of a person, maybe even a 2 percenter? Now the other person completes you, but what happens when the new addition becomes a subtraction? Does your value decrease to the original sum, or does it plummet even lower now that you’ve finally gotten to see what being whole is like?
From the beginning of time, the world has based the value of a woman on the man in her life. Rather she is married or not determines her worth no matter what she stands for, or her contributions to society. That’s just how we are viewed, but what’s even more disturbing is that women are now voluntarily measuring their worth on that same demeaning scale. We have quietly accepted the notion of our self-worth being summarized by whether or not we have a ring on it. So much so that a lot of us are getting married to appear acceptable or to be in competition with other women. A lot of marriages are toxic and unsafe, but we hold on to them because we believe that we are or will be seen as less than without them.
The single woman has become an outcast in society. So much so that even if we aren’t married and have a child, the woman becomes the man’s Baby mama. The man is still the man, and his stature remains the same. As women, we must realize that our self-worth is only valuable if we attribute you and only you to that equation. Standing firm in yourself without all of the commas. It’s only from that position that you can have a meaningful life, being your own woman, full and content in your wholeness.
