Real Women 1

Finally.

When Molly tagged me for the real women meme panic set in. All the real women memes I had read were very professional, erudite and some, even, awe-inspiring. My inate desire to keep my end up led to all kinds of doubts and ditherings, hence, the long delay.

Well, here goes.

Firstly, for the last couple of weeks, whenever my mind turned to thoughts of "real women" and memes, I had some difficulties, in fact, lots of difficulties.

Real. Well, if you're not real, what are you?

The Collins English Dictionary defines real as genuine, sincere, honest. The opposite of real is fake.

So if one is not real ... . is one a fake?

Fake is defined as artificial, false, counterfeit ........

At this point the dictionary is no longer required.

I know quite a lot of women. Not very well but well enough to know that all of them consider themselves to be very real. Because of the line of work that I'm in (the fitness industry) I tend to come across all types ..... young, old, tall, small, fat, thin, pleasant, unpleasant, beautiful, not so beautiful, content, discontent, happy and unhappy. But they all share one characteristic.

Neediness.

A need to have their existence acknowledged and accepted. A need to be recognised as unique. A need to feel part of the greater scheme of things.

A lot of the women recognise these needs either openly or at some other level and deal with them in their own way. Others do not.

Its these others, who are sometimes, leading lives of quiet desperation, that I feel are the real women because they are the survivors.

They survive physical, mental and emotional abuse.

They survive tragedy, loneliness, heartache and anonymity.

They survive illness, rejection, poverty and wealth.

They survive life.