Strong, Successful, and Feminine

Bright red lipstick.
Flouncy dresses.
Tough as nails,
without being androgynous.

A woman succeeds

not because she acts like a man,
but because she embraces
the feminine side of human strength.

Playing tough in a man’s world

yet still feminine.
Powerful women, strong women,
making a life of their own.

Closure for women of my generation comes from melding our feminine traits with those traits usually considered to be masculine traits—strength, ambition, toughness.

This picture comes from http://cdn.blogs.sheknows.com

I’m illustrating this poem with a picture of Kyra Sedgwick because I took this poem from an article in the Orlando Sentinel about her show “The Closer” on which she plays a very feminine, very strong woman.  And because, in real life, she is a very feminine, very strong woman.