Monday, June 27, 2011

Why Woman's Work Is Never Done!


So, I log on to a free clip art site. Hmm, I’m thinking, maybe I’ll start by just typing the word “women” in the search box.

Wow! Lots of great pictures! Women reading. Women talking. Women exercising.

But it’ll take a month of Sundays to view all the photographs, and who really has that kind of time. Definitely need to narrow the search a bit. Did I mention I’m creating a photo collage of women of, you know, a vibrant age? No? Well, I am. Or was.

Anyway, to tell the truth, when I looked at the first few pages under the broad (gotta love homonyms!) search, it was hard to determine if some women had yet reached the big 5-0.

The next thought was what if I use a picture of a woman who isn’t at least 50? Of course the clip art is free and the woman photographed obviously provided the picture for use within public domain rights. So, no, I wasn’t worried about getting sued or anything. And anyone seeing the collage might question the age of certain women, but still that wasn’t my main concern.

Face it, how many of us want our 49-year-old or younger countenance portrayed a day older than we really are? Seriously, not good.

Kind of like when someone asks you when the baby’s due, and you’re not pregnant.

Nothing would do but for me to search again. This time I precede “women” with a dreaded word. Slowly I type s-e-n-i-o-r. It results in four pages of pictures.

Oh, I could have stopped there, but no. Still don’t know if the next search makes me feel better or worse, but I typed “older women,” and only one picture surfaced.

I’m choosing to believe it is not because people do not wish to see pictures of older women. I submit it is because a woman runs the clip art site and refuses to use that label. (She was probably on vacation the day that one picture was added.)

Bottom line, I thought the search was over. The product finished. Because just look at it, it’s indeed a vibrant nation of women, don’t you think? Yes, definitely vibrant.

But, how do I say it… Now you’re reading this post. And I’m thinking, the reflection on your computer screen, yet another vibrant woman has appeared and should be included!

Oh, woman’s work is never done!

(No clips or art were harmed in the making of this collage :>)

--Diana Black