Now at 29 hitting 30 it’s been way over due I pay homage to a woman that taught me so much about being a woman in a male dominated society. All in one song, while I'm sure she was just seeking a hit in the 1980’s, she sang an anthem for the rest of us girls/women. The anthem I am talking about is “Girls Just Want to have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper. Don't feel isolated in thinking her erratic sense of style has little in common with yourself, but hear the lyrics and a familar tune lurks searching to be vocalized. The freedom to be who I am and just have fun when I want. If boys can be boys, then we girls should be us girls. The double standard of being a girl concerned me little while trying to extend my curfew growing up in a conservative town where gossip travels fast at the local Wal-Mart and Sonic drive- in; all I wanted was to be free to do as I please and have fun doing so. It's true, “some men take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world”, quoted from her song. My interpretation was to stay away from dominating and possessive men because they destroy your self esteem and you never know your full potential if the only thing you know straight out of high school is homemaking, rearing children and serving a spouse. Being a wife with children at a young age was not the way I envisioned my destiny. “So what if the phone rings in the middle of the night”, is what I thought. It wasn’t until my father explained to me boys don’t call after a certain hour if they have respect for you that I understood a girl/woman sets the standard for the way she wants to be treated; now of course that doesn’t mean there aren’t times when you just go with the flow and lower your inhibitions. So what did I learn from “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, we woman/girls seek to occasionally break free from the roles imposed upon us whether they be social, religious, family upbringings, or double standard.
