Woman Thou Art GREATWritten by Lisa Bartley-Lacey
"Be not afraid of greatness, some are born great, some achieve greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them." -William Shakespeare You are GREAT! No matter what aspersions have been cast upon you by either yourself or by others, you were born for GREATNESS. Greatness is within you Woman. It is true. Deep within every woman alive is seed of awareness of her queenhood. In her soul every woman knows that she is infinitely more than prime cuts of meat that popular culture attempts to dissect females into. I know this because I live this. As a child I was never accepted. I was called ugly, useless, "black" & stupid. I was offspring of a domestically violent household. My mother eventually escaped with my siblings and I to live on welfare and government cheese in Detroit City. By 15 my virginity was stolen from me by a 24 year old child rapist. By 16 I was drinking and trying to forget myself. By 17 I was suicidal. By age of 18 wounded by a difficult childhood and troubled teenaged years, I got pregnant with first of my 3 children. I was a mess...yet there was GREATNESS within that mess. GREATNESS is within you too. In order to be useful to you, I had to go through a process. This process was very painful. In this process I might have perished. It continues. This process is more commonly known as "life." My demise, however, though supported by this world, was not sanctioned by Universe. By God I am still here. You could have died before reaching and reading these words, yet you are still here. We are here! We have arrived in this moment for a reason and with a divine Purpose. When you learn... Teach When you get... Give -Maya Angelou, Our Grandmothers When I was just a little brown baby girl hiding and cringing in closet listening to my mama being beaten, GREATNESS was within me. When I was just a skinny little 15 year old Black girl in Detroit City being physically threatened, emotionally annihilated and spiritually devastated, GREATNESS was within me. I was a Queen, but I did not know it yet. When I wallowed in despair weeping as a young adult in wake of self-destruction and negativity, GREATNESS was within me but I did not know it yet. When I cried alone as a poverty stricken unwed teenaged mother, GREATNESS was within me but I did not know it yet. As I bore weight of being a divorced single parent of three children thumbing through my food-stamps, GREATNESS was within me but I did not know it yet. While lying up under benighted males in search of love and validation as a lost woman, GREATNESS was within me but I did not know it yet. As I walked across stage to collect my BA then my MA degrees, thinking that they were legitimizing me, true GREATNESS was within me, I thought I knew but I did not know true GREATNESS yet. God knew it though. My Purpose is to proclaim Creator's gift of GREATNESS within YOU as I reveal it within myself.
| | The Women’s Plus Size Clothing RevolutionWritten by Donna Monday
Once upon a time, not too long ago, if you were a woman who wore clothes over a size 14 your clothing choices were limited to cheap looking, baggy and unattractive clothes that made you look old before your time.My how times have changed! There has been a cultural shift in acceptance of plussize women, particularly in fashion industry. Women’s plus size clothing is no longer relegated to back of isle racks. Now days, it’s easy to find trendy plus size clothes such as: dresses, workout clothes, evening wear and swimwear. Plus size celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Camryn Manheim, and Star Jones have also helped to usher in era of plus size fashions. These women take pride in looking fashionable no matter how much their weight fluctuates. You can even see a once thin actress, Kirstie Alley, strut her stuff in her new cable show “Fat Actress”. This would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Even high fashion industry has taken notice. Models such as Emme have become famous for modeling large size fashions for women. Agencies are also looking for aspiring plus size models. Women looking for designer plus size clothes online will not be disappointed. In past, clothing for large size women 22w to 44w was extremely difficult to find – and forget about being fashionable. Now, companies are springing up like Making It Big, who cater exclusively to this fashion hungry niche of clothing for big women. If you are looking for big women clothing, you now have more choice than ever when it comes to large size clothes for women. Another old taboo in full figured clothing was that plus size women didn’t look good in ladies intimate apparel. Oh, I’m not talking about women wearing a large size bra (which it’s now easier to find comfortable large size bras). Plus size bras have been available for a long time. No, I mean really sensual full figure intimate apparel.
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