Commoplaces in Girlhood

 

My commonplaces are very much different than those of my daughter. For me, my commonplace was in the kitchen cooking with my grandmother or my mother that was my girlhood. It was the feeling of fulfilling my mother’s and grandmother’s wishes that I would become a great cook and a good homemaker. In retrospect they were grooming me to become the kind of girl that would be good marriage material. My girlhood was about following the cultural traditions of my family. Realistically it just made me a girl that would rebel against her cultural ideology that never married but became an excellent cook.

My commonplace in womanhood is my bedroom. I come from a large family and I never had a place to be alone and just think. My bedroom is a place for me to escape. It is neither pink nor is it frilly, it is just comfortable, a sanctuary of sorts. My daughter and granddaughter have different commonplaces than my own.  My daughter grew up in a totally pink world that was heavily influenced by my mother’s cultural ideas, however as she grew up she is creating her own identity and independent thoughts and ideas. My granddaughter will hopefully have a girlhood that will be a positive girlhood, that’s all that I can hope for.