By Amie Windsor
A girlfriend and I recently fell in love with a song titled, “Golden G String.”
“I legit never thought I could fall in love with a song called that, but I totally have,” she texted me.
I knew exactly what she meant. The title of the Miley Cyrus track makes me want to cringe. But that’s kind of the beauty of it, because Cyrus’ lyrics are all about understanding femininity and how to harness our female power amid a world dominated by men. Read a few of the lyrics:
“Yes, I’ve worn the golden G-string Put my hand into hellfire
I did it all to make you love me and to feel alive
Oh, that’s just the world that we’re livin’ in
The old boys hold all the cards and they ain’t playin’ gin
You dare to call me crazy, have you looked around this place?
I should walk away
Oh, I should walk away
But I think I’ll stay”
It has 1000% been on repeat in my earbuds while driving around Sonoma County, delivering copies of The Sonoma County Gazette.
As we celebrate Women’s History Month, I can’t help but think about where we’ve come as women and how far we still have to go as a society.
This pandemic ripped open the instability and injustices of our culture and country, and women, like many other minorities, have been strewn across the floor like spilled coffee beans or rice.
Nobody is there to pick us up. There’s no container or safety net.
And that’s scary and frustrating. But it’s also liberating and gives us a chance to build our own safety net. To say, “if you want the rice and the coffee, you need a place to keep it safe, protected, cared for and rested. You can’t open it up, let it scatter on the floor and expect it to fend for itself.”
Cyrus also writes: “Maybe caring for each other is too 1969.” As someone who ‘s also in her 30s and didn’t get to live through the hey day of the hippies, I get it. I long for a society where we can lead with compassion and seek to understand rather than to be understood.
It takes work. And I know I’m part of that work. So, as Miley sings, “I think I’ll stay” and be part of that work.
Originally titled “I am woman, hear me roar,” in a March 3, 2021 email.
Amie Windsor is the publisher of the Sonoma County Gazette. She lives in Sebastopol with her husband, two young daughters, dog, cat, and seven chickens. Amie got her start in Sonoma County as a reporter for the Independent Coast Observer. She moved to Sebastopol in 2015 when she became a reporter for Sonoma West Publishers.
In between her time as a community reporter and publisher of the Gazette, Amie also served as the Field Representative to Supervisor Lynda Hopkins and was involved with Social Advocates for Youth in their development team.
In the oodles of free time she has, Amie enjoys baking pies, writing about motherhood and drawing with chalk in her driveway.
Pick up a copy of the Sonoma County Gazette in your neighborhood newsstand.
