Sister Courage Wears the Shirt of Action- excerpt from Gloria Feldt’s book “9 Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power”

Sister Courage Wears the Shirt of Action • What makes you angry enough to take action? • What makes you inspired enough to take action? “I love your T-shirt,” chuckled Jenny, my twentysomething personal trainer, as she stretched my aching legs. “I never saw that before.” I hadn’t noticed which of my many message T-shirts I had thrown on when I rolled out of bed before sunrise. Most of the folks who populate New York’s Columbus Circle Equinox gym sport workout clothes that bear designer labels, but seldom do I see any that pack a message punch. I figure my chest is valuable real estate — why not use it to communicate my convictions? I looked down and saw that I’d grabbed one of my favorites: Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History. Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s wry observation became one of the guiding principles of the women’s movement during the 1970s, and living it seems as natural to me now as balance ball crunches do to my lithe trainer. Perhaps because of their delicious candor laced with felicity of expression, these words have become a slogan for boundary-breaking women everywhere. But just because it’s proudly emblazoned on mugs and bumper stickers […]

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