Embroidery and Beadwork by Mary Yaeger

My female merit badges illustrate female "rites of passage" as well as the myriad physical manipulations women undergo to achieve cultural ideals of beauty, such as weight watching, whether or not to shave or wear makeup, etc. I've created tiny replicas of female products, such as a birth control pill pack and a pregnancy test. The miniature scale and meticulous, hand-embroidered surfaces convey my impressions of growing up female in our culture.

Female Merit Badge Descriptions for a Poster by Mary Yaeger

"It's time women stomped on a few feet (or inches) and took back our words: slut, bitch, hag, whore and all the rest of them. They belong to us. Words are our power. No man really has the same power with words that women do. I think that's why men have tried to throw words at us like darts. They chip at our glory with our own greatest tool and assets. But, the words are ours, still.

Think, what are women so well known for which men have never grasped? Communication. Men will even admit this if you catch them in a particularly honest moment. I've seen them post it, right here at Adult BW even.

Also, did you know most bloggers are women and the numbers of women rise dramatically when it comes to sex bloggers. Women talk about relationships, passion, sensuality and sexuality. Men are close mouthed. Or, they will talk about the crude basics like how well they nailed her. Sadly, they may be the only one who thinks that way about their skills. Which is another whole column I will write someday. I think I should have that third lover first though. Real versus cyber but still, I've seen some sad fumbling whether on my flesh or virtual.

Anyway, back to the words. I want women to stop thinking being called a bitch is negative. First of all, think how surprised people will be if you take the worst word they can hurl at you as a compliment. If you say "thank you". If you laugh while they stand there red faced, eyes still bugging out and looking amazed that their insult missed the mark so completely.

Don't think of Bitch as a female dog, think of it as a powerful woman. A woman who knows her own mind and is not afraid to use it. A woman who knows what she wants and goes out there and gets it. Ball grabbing and everything, just like those bags of mostly testosterone.

Slut and whore are no longer words to chip at our sexuality. Now they prove our sexual virility, our sensuality and our power over men, especially when it comes to sex. If they call you a slut you know you've done a really good job making him drool. Good for you! Let the dog lie there in his own wet spot and wish he could have a slut like you.

Hag, that's a word meant to hit us right between the eyes. We think of hags as old women, grey, washed out, worn out, wrinkled, ugly and badly groomed to say the least. But, a hag is not actually any of those things. The hag is the wise old woman, the woman of the woods, the witch, the midwife, the wild Earth Mother. Hags are powerful women too. Women of nature and power. Most of the less than complimentary words for women have come from powerful beginnings. The power of these words was drained away as was the power of womankind. As we stopped being matriarchies we lost our best words. I still would not like to be called a hag or a frump or any of those others. There is malicious intent behind the words. However, the words themselves are being unfairly (ignorantly) used.

It's time for us to make the words mean something else, make them positive and powerful. Then we will have all our best tools and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Call us what you will, it's all good. We are Woman!"

About us: "The Top 10 Myths about Girl Gamers ? by Mercurial (Original link is gone.)

Girl gamers. Evidently, we?re difficult to figure out. Lucky for you, I?ve compiled this nifty little handbook to give you some hints.

1.) We want to control the entire game... and you. You think we want control of such a rag-tag group of guys? We rather go bobbing for apples in a deep fryer. If we wanted to control you, we would show up at the game with a chair and a whip. Sit and ponder that, friend.

2.) We’re there because you’re there. A girl gamer, a REAL girl gamer, is there because she wants to be. Let me ask you this: Do you think you’re charming enough to make a girl unwillingly spend an entire evening with a bunch of people who get that excited about shooting other people? I thought not.

3.) We make an effort to date every gamer in the group. You got us there. We actually keep lists of the gamers we haven’t dated yet, and we check them off as we go. I got extra Girl Gamer Points (GGPs) because I dated all the eligible guys in our group and then managed to cause a major schism, causing half the people to quit talking to the other half. I traded my GGPs in for some rulebooks and a new game and now I’m on the lookout for new victims… Get real.

4.) We should be in charge of dinner and/or cleanup. The next time you think about saddling the girl gamer with dinner preparations, consider her character first. If she’s playing a bitter extraterrestrial/terrorist type character who hates everyone without provocation and dabbles in torture on the side because it’s fun, it’s probably not a good idea to ask. If her character is primarily engaged in kissing up and crocheting, go ahead. Ask.

5.) We’re only interested in playing sex kittens or innocent ingénue-types. Hello, Pot. I’m Kettle. You’re black. Sure, girl gamers have schticks. So do you, Mr. Lone Wolf… and you, Mr. Combat Monster. And, while we’re at it, let me ask you a question… How many of your characters wear black trench coats? Whose brilliant idea was it to give all the bad-asses black trenches?

6.) We are utterly incapable of understanding the rules. Once, I heard a gamer comment, “Hey, man, she’s a girl. Girls don’t get the rules; it’s like a math thing or something.” Buddy, I’ll out-math you any time… and then I’ll tear you into tiny little pieces and eat you for breakfast. We are quite capable of understanding the rules, if you’d explain them in something that approximates English, or loosen your death-hold on the rulebook and just let us read them for ourselves.

7.) We flutter our eyelashes at GMs to get our way. I did that once. The GM very politely gave me what I wanted and, then, I realized I didn’t want it after all (because, as we all know, a good GM gives you what you want and then makes you regret having ever asked). The end result was that I had to extract my foot from my mouth. If you let girl gamers walk all over you as a player or a GM, more fool you. You need to get out and date more, friend

8,) We hate other girl gamers. Well, sure! Why not? After all, other girl gamers might hog all the GGPs and then we’d be out some valuable prizes. We have to protect our territory, after all. Get real. If a true girl gamer can’t stand another girl in your group, it’s either a personal thing or maybe that girl is one of those fake, scheming, break-up-the-group types.

9.) We don’t appreciate a good combat. Correction: We do appreciate a good combat. What we don’t do is a) get sexually aroused over it or b) spend hours upon hours memorizing the caliber and number of shots for a revolver that was last used with regularity in the 1950s. We’ve got better things to do than memorize gun statistics. Like planning out how to spend out GGPs, for instance.

10.) Because we are girls, you cannot hope to understand anything about us, including our role-playing. Well… maybe there’s a bit of truth in that one, after all.

Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just take the rotten apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy.......

The apples at the top think that something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

Passed along from Jewel, editor of the Sex-Kitten.net

I want ALL women to take up their scepters, don their tiaras and rightfully claim their thrones. In my all-powerful opinion, I believe transforming yourself into a queen means finding your own stream of inner wealth—independence, self-understanding and courage. Being Queenly, then, means nothing less than reaching your highest potential! Here’s what I think. Embracing the Queen archetype is a means to obtaining personal authentic power—just what we all need and deserve! Keep in mind, I am taking liberties here and asking you to step outside the traditional definitions of the Queen (or at least the definitions that we’ve heard in fairy tales, right?). Here, you’ll find a rewrite of the outdated queen model. Ah yes, it’s good to be a queen. Join me in the Queendom, grab the Queen Power and live your best life!

Grab the Queen Power: Live Your Best Life! - Suite101.com