Always one to support female empowerment I was excited watching the 2017 Emmy Awards on TV Sunday night. The three women who stood out for me were Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Ophrah Winfrey. Their speeches involved women in front of and behind the scenes in television production. Female empowerment can be an instinctive emotion or it can be generated by specific situations. I’ve always believed “I can do it myself” as opposed to “I don’t need a man…or anyone”; I’ve resisted seeming submissive, suppressed or vulnerable. I’m a self-reliant person, who just happens to be a woman, and have always insisted upon maintaining my sense of self above all. I remember growing up whenever my parents would allow my brother to do something that I couldn’t I asked why; they would answer “because you’re a girl.” This used to infuriate me; it brought out raw, innate feelings that came directly from my own perceptions and were not socially influenced. I was very aware at a young age that gender had nothing to do with my capabilities; I felt their perceptions were based on prejudices created by traditional rules not facts about me.
At the core of my show are the seeds of my ongoing quest for personal satisfaction versus audience approval. In show business you must present yourself as appealing to a variety of people but you are also doing it from a narrow self-induced perspective. You want to be appreciated and accepted by the masses because that means “success” whether it is a book, a record or a show. However, you want to be true to your inner voice, the same voice you have heard your whole life–the same voice that told me a girl could do anything, back when I was eleven or twelve years old. The intentions of the single mind are as powerful as the intentions of a hundred minds.
Can you hear yourself think?
DENISE MARSA 