#119 inspired by Civil Rights

This was not an easy challenge. And it needed to brew in my brain for quite some time before I got a real feeling for what I was going to do with it.

I knew I wanted to talk about begin a woman, a little bit of feminist talk perhaps, just a few of my personal feelings.

And as it happens, LOAD214 #20 asked us to bust the myth that quotes need to come from a real book or a famous person just at the right time and this all came together for me.

I was listening to a BBC report where they were discussing that despite the fact that female authors have been scooping up all the literary prizes recently and that women make up more than 50% of book readers, book reviews of books written by women, and female writers of book reviews are still woefully in the minority. Sometimes as low as 25% of reviews. Mmmm. Got me thinking. And then the report had requested a response from the London Review of Books. Their statement started with the line, "Counting is a feminist weapon". Bam - that got my attention. It took me a few minutes to realise what they meant and how it related to the context. But it stayed with me. Of course, this statement can be used for both sides of the feminist argument, depending on how you build on it. But my brain was whirring and I even noted it down in my iPhone while I was driving along.

This would be the basis of my layout.

To begin with, I made the main page with the title and quote before deciding I could use it as a note to my niece - now only 18 months old. I used a photo of my sister when she was heavily pregnant, mostly because I seem to have three copies of the same print and I think it's so lovely that it seems a shame not to use them in any way I can!

This uses items from my Counterfeit Kit Challenge February kit, Tender - lo#8

Then a few days later I found the time to make an additional 12x6 page for the journalling. As ever, I tried to ensure that there were a few elements of paper and embellishments to tie the two pages together into a coherent design. Finding the right words, however, was more difficult. I wanted to try to maintain some positive feelings, even though there is a little bit of negative in there. But most of all, I wanted to express my views on what I see is a realistic assessment on what it is to be a woman today. Not all good, but not all bad either.

I'm not sure if I did that, or if it comes across as a bit silly, or if anyone agrees or disagrees. The main thing is, that it turned out pretty much how I had imagined it which is always a winner in my book, and whether I'm right or wrong, this is what I'm thinking, right now in February 2014.

Which direction did this prompt take your brain? I hope that you'll share any creation you were inspired to make with us over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#119.