I’m a vintage Feminist with the soul of a Hag. I’ve been called witch, I’ve been called bitch, what I am is a female chauvinist and proud of
As a vintage Feminist I’ve been given the title “Old Hag.” Fairies hold hags as wizened, old women a kind of aged fairy, a kind of goddess that appear as old women. Pele, the volcano goddess of the Hawaiian Islands was a role model for me growing up.
Don’t expect me to a lady because I can swear like a sergeant. I learned that from my father whose favorite word was the “F” word only next to the “B” word.
Running in the hippie movement set a foundation for all this. That’s where I developed my individuality as I slowly came out of my shell. A shell thickened by years of having to shield myself from my surroundings.
Coming out of my shell took years. Years of listening, learning and starting to speak my mind. As a girl child of the fifties this wasn’t easy. Where this led me to was the Second Wave of the Women’s movement.
I embraced the sisterhood in the way people embrace home. Home a concept I never grasped growing up in the military. I think I understood where I had come from in this embrace. Today I’m not afraid to speak up about a cause. I get on my soap box being focused, fiery and determined to explain.
In my title of “Old Hag,” I hold the legacy of the second wave of women’s liberation. A movement that started during a time that women had no status beyond the man in their lives. Rape was an unspoken. Violence against women was common place. Birth control illegal in most states and women had few career options. And here we are today in a very different world.
Thank you to all those women with me who ventured out of the mold to redefine what women could do. Changing the role of women. I’m not saying that women are liberated, I’m just saying the second wave of women’s liberation was a time in that liberation struggle that followed the suffrage movement amplifying women’s liberation into a tsunami of change that continues to day.
We “Hags” carry the legacy of the history of women. Women like Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Janet Flanner, Shirly Chisholm, Hilary Clinton and all the grassroots women who work endlessly. We come from a history that has villainized women, held women up as far back as eve as the source of evil. The way to equality for all of us is a dangerous, rough road. I hope to see all of you somewhere along the way.
