Being strong is one of the hardest things a woman can do. It must be as strong as circumstances require of it, but not to the extent that it breaks out of the framework outlined by history and society. "You're strong, you can handle it" is one of the most disgusting phrases that many women have to hear.
Sometimes you meet such women in front of whom you just want to fall on your knees and thank for the fact that they manage not break, although you are well aware that a strong woman in most cases is nothing more than a mask that has grown tightly to face. And in most cases, a woman does not want to be strong, and does not want everyone around to consider her as such.
Frustrating woman
In the last 20 years of my life, I have cried in public three times. And all these three times she made a splash with her performance and almost got the applause because the audience was really amazed. If I burst into tears in the light of day, then something truly terrible and irreversible had happened - at least that's what others thought.
In fact, nothing tragic. It's just that the water wears away the stone, and at one point the heavy cobblestone is washed away by a mountain stream and carried away downstream.
To cry in public for me is a public act of the fall, as if you disappoint everyone around you. Everyone thinks that you are impenetrable, and you are the most ordinary woman who hurts, who cannot be humiliated, insult who wants to sleep 8 hours a day, and not sacrifice herself in favor of the weak (stupid, thieves, mediocre). Not because she is a woman, but because she is a living person. But it’s so humiliating to hear:
"Ah, we thought that you... And you, it turns out ...". “I never thought that someone like you... Well, you must! "
If I relax, everything falls apart
My physics teacher, when I (humanities) went to the blackboard, said with a laugh:
"Come on! The whole country is looking at you! "
A strong woman often sees herself as a connecting link between all the threads that stretch from her to many people, situations, and problems. And it seems to her that as soon as she becomes limp, everything around will collapse, fall to the ground, break, scatter to pieces.
The heroine of one film, who worked in a high position, told her subordinate:
“Have you ever seen me cry? No. If I allow myself to be weak, everything around me will fall apart! "
Once, during a conversation with my friend, I jokingly said that again all the problems fall on her fragile shoulders. She answered with tears in her eyes:
“They are no longer fragile. After so many years of training! "
Workouts, handkerchiefs and nails
Being strong is the most exhausting exercise for women's shoulders. Holding back tears is a skill akin to pressing the platform with your feet from a prone position. A powerful workout that ultimately allows you to stay on your feet and not break.
A weak woman is not left alone, because there will always be someone who will pity her, who will allocate money for the eyebrows and nails, kiss the crown of her head and give a handkerchief to wipe away tears and snot. Not even because she is weak, but because she is a woman. Princess.
In the strong, rarely does anyone see a textbook woman worthy of care. And she forgets about it herself. And so I want at least someone to remember this. Sometimes this alone is enough to make her eyes sparkle and a smile on her face.
A strong woman cries at the window, and quite often. And where else can she cry if the whole country is looking at her?
© Asya Shutkova
