age

On New Year’s Eve I got all dressed up and went out for dinner and a dance with some friends at a nearby Jamaican club. My friends and I were the youngest people there and I attracted some attention in the strapless dress I was wearing, one that hugged my curves as I danced to the sweet reggae music the DJ was playing. It was a good night though, we danced and ate good food and counted down in that special New Year’s spirit where everyone forgets that they are strangers and truly wishes the person next to them happiness.

We left tired and happy, but unfortunately without my passport. I went back to the club to get it a few evenings later and the atmosphere was decidedly different.

I just got back from the coffeeshop here, and got a chance to talk to Jayne. Jayne's a workingclass, 60something, matriarchal, peacenik feminist who does a lot of work w/the local homeless population. Last year Jayne came to the annual Women Studies party, and tonight she and I reminisced about how wonderful it was that she boldly expressed her opinions to academic, upper-middle class feminists, really exposing them to some of their unexamined class prejudice that, even as feminists, they didn't want to discuss. Jayne is a revelation and a national treasure.

And I was thinking how great it would be for all of you bloggers to take a minute and try to find a woman whose life you feel is totally different than your own, and write about how this is so. Now, it may be hard to do this in real life, so think about women and girls in the movies, tv shows, or in books that you're familiar with. Maybe she's from another country, or another class, or another agegroup- but somehow you feel that she's 180-degrees different from yourself.