There are phenomenal women everywhere I look. Women who are shaping the way for future generations, women who lead revolutions and demand more, women who speak truth to the deeply complex experience of womanhood by living their own. I am in awe of the strength, persistence and power that I see every day in the women around me. Here are three amazing women that you may not know about who deserve celebration and recognition:
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe
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Many people don’t know Sister Rosetta Tharpe, which is such a shame because she influenced some of the most well-known rock-and-roll artists of all time by, you know, just creating the genre. No big deal or anything. That’s right, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a young, queer black woman in 1940s America, is credited with discovering rock-and-roll. So, why haven’t you heard of her? When she started singing gospel music with her electric guitar, Sister Rosetta was doing something no one else had done. She reached celebrity status fairly quickly and began touring the country. Despite her success, she slept in tour buses instead of hotels and picked up her food behind restaurants because they were all still segregated. Still, people loved her music and unique style. Tharpe made it to the early ’50s before white men began to enter the rock-and-roll scene, and Sister Rosetta’s fame started to fade in response. She continued performing and found some success in Europe, but her fame never rebuilt to what it once was. Instead, the stars she inspired, like Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry, became the face of rock and roll. Sister Rosetta wasn’t even inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame until 2018. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was an incredible musician who truly hasn’t been celebrated for her talent and ingenuity as she deserves.
- Frida Kahlo
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Frida Kahlo had a hard life. From polio in her childhood to a horrific bus accident that left her with lifelong pain and a marriage riddled with infidelity on both sides. Bored and bedridden after her accident, Frida found solace in art. She painted her pain and experience and eventually turned art into her career. As she faced more hardships, like multiple miscarriages, Frida continued to cope through painting. Frida is known for the many self-portraits in her collection that portray her experiences as gruesomely as she felt them. Frida Khalo didn’t shy away from gore when it came to her work. In her 1935 painting “A Few Small Nips,” Frida paints the brutal image of a woman whose boyfriend murdered her. Frida connected the painting to personal feelings of nearly being “killed by life.” She didn’t pretend to be a fragile woman. She gave her pain to the world, raw and real. She wore bright colors and beautiful dresses just as proudly as she rocked her infamous unibrow. Frida didn’t strive for conventional in any area of her life, she strived for real.
- Mona Haydar
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Mona Haydar is a rising singer and songwriter, known for her protest songs. Her debut song “Hijabi (Wrap my Hijab)” has been recognized as both one of the top protest songs of 2017 and top feminist anthems of all time. Before her music, Mona and her husband created “Talk to a Muslim” where they would offer free food and coffee to passersby who were interested in open conversation. They wanted to provide healing and connection after the San Bernardino and Paris attacks. Mona has this incredible, powerful energy and she commands the space her platform provides. She doesn’t apologize for who she is. She starts her song “Dog” saying “If you think this song is about you, I don’t know what to tell you.” Mona is clear that her confidence didn’t just come out of nowhere. She had to work to be comfortable with herself and her place as a Syrian American. In an interview with Elle, Mona talked openly about her struggle to “reconcile being ‘American’ while also never being considered fully ‘American’ by white supremacist structures and systems.” Her songs celebrate unity in our differences. Her song “Barbarian” is about the hypocrisy of westernization and in how the Western world defines barbarians. I truly don’t think I’ll ever recover from the first time I listened to this song and heard, “Barbrain? That’s how you really feel? Like you didn’t start war over oil fields?” Mona is brutally honest in her music and recognizes that celebrating each other includes fighting mercilessly against structures that would divide us.
There is no singular definition of what it means to be a woman. Womanhood is an individual and deeply personal experience. Let’s celebrate the women around us and support them in their journey through that experience.