Since this is a blog about women I thought it would be appropriate to give a nod to October being Breast Cancer Awareness month.  My paternal grandmother, aunt, and mother-in-law are all breast cancer survivors.  I’m pretty sure everyone I know knows someone who has fought or is fighting this terrible disease.  And this disease isn’t just any cancer, it attacks one of the things that symbolizes being a woman…the tatas, the part of our bodies that nurture our children.  This makes breast cancer a beast to deal with, but losing your boobs doesn’t in anyway make you less of a woman and don’t let anyone make you feel otherwise.  A woman is who you are on the inside…your heart…your soul.

Now I know its just a big marketing ploy developed to gain our loyalty and trust, but I can’t help but fall for it.  I love how every October, stores are filled with pink products and some of your money goes to research a cure for breast cancer.  So cool!  I get so excited when Yoplait yogurt is suddenly topped with pink foil; Bath and Body Works spotlights its pink fragrances, and Target busts out the pink cookware!  Who doesn’t need a set of pink measuring cups!

For more ideas on how to support the fight against breast cancer other than shopping, visit the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

On the Today Show this morning they wished happy birthday to a woman who had voted in the first election after women earned the right to vote 88 years ago.  She has voted in every election since then, never taking that right for granted ever again.  I don’t want to get political on this blog.  I don’t think that is any religious organization’s business telling people how to vote or pushing a political agenda, but I do think it is within ethical boundaries to encourage people to simply vote.  I don’t care who or what you vote for, just that you vote. 

There are women out there who can remember a time when they could not walk into that little booth and punch a hole next to their candidate’s name.  I guess those in Congress thought our minds were too weak and easily swayed by PMS to choose who would govern us.  Finally, after decades of protests, conventions, creating awareness, writing to legislators, publishing articles in newspapers, and being arrested for illegally voting, women’s voices were heard and the 19th Amendment was passed, and women were given the right vote.  Thanks to the tireless efforts of  Susan B. Anthony and others, our voices, the voices of American women, have been heard and will continue to be heard.  There are women out there who remember the fight and struggle and who will never take this sacred right for granted; we should remember with them.  

So I encourage you to get on your computers and research the candidates and the issues, not only for the presidential election, but your congressional and state elections and help guide our nation to a better tomorrow.  This right is a gift that was bought for us at a high price, paid for by our sisters before us.  We should honor their memory by making smart decisions and exercising our right. 

I want to back track in the book of Esther.  Last week, I wrote about Esther herself and how she was able to be used by God despite her insecurities.  But there’s another important woman in this story, the woman who started the story of Esther, Queen Vashti.

Queen Vashti doesn’t last very long in the book of Esther, but she paves the way for Esther’s triumph.  In studies of Esther, Vashti’s actions are ignored, seen as disrespectful, or praiseworthy.  If Esther is a young girl struggling with insecurity, Vashti is a strong woman who respects herself.  This isn’t to say that Vashti is better than Esther.  God is able to use Esther to save her people from genocide even though she struggles with insecurities and fear.  Vashti is just a different kind of woman, maybe the kind of woman Esther could become as she grows up.

Vashti’s story starts at the very beginning of Esther when her husband King Xerxes throws a feast for all his officials and servants.  Xerxes shows of all his riches for 180 days (that’s a lot of riches) to all the governors and nobles of Persia.  At the end of that ridiculous tour, Xerxes throws a feast that last seven days and seven nights.  While he entertains the men of his empire, his wife Vashti entertains the women.   After seven days of heavy eating, drinking and partying, Xerxes decides to finish off the party by showing off his wife to all the men.  While this could be seen as a very flattering compliment to Vashti’s beauty, it also could be seen as Xerxes objectifying her.  We only have to look at the tour Xerxes gave prior to the feast to see he is all about showing off his riches and prized possessions, the greatest of which is his beautiful wife Vashti’s.  He wants to show her off just like all the other riches he paraded before the nobles of Persia.  Vashti knew this, was not flattered, and reacted the way any woman with any respect for herself would…she refused to appear before her husband and his guests.

In an empire where appearing before the king without being summoned specifically could be punished with death, Vashti’s act was a radical statement of her self-respect.  She refused to let herself be objectified by her husband and his cronies.  Unfortunately, living in the time that she did, her bold act was not praised but punished.  In an effort to keep her disobedience from influencing all the wives of Persia, Xerxes was convinced by his advisors to punish Vashti.  He stripped her of her title and sought out a new queen, who eventually became the irreplaceable Esther.

I want to stress that even though Vashti was punished for standing up for herself, she showed courage in doing the right thing.  I don’t believe it was God’s will that Vashti would have submitted to her husband in this case.  God doesn’t want women to not respect themselves.  God doesn’t want women to be objectified, and in Vashti’s case, Xerxes was attempting to objectify her.  She was a tropy wife, and God doesn’t appreciate trophy wives.  While we may not reap earthly rewards for following in Vashti’s footsteps, I believe that everytime we stand up for ourselves when no one else will, we take another step in gaining the respect of others not only for ourselves as individuals but all women.

Much love–Char