A Piece of a Woman's Mind

Recently my niece had the privilege of attending one of Taylor Swift’s Eras concerts at Wembley Stadium in London. Although my niece was familiar with Swift’s music, she could not be described as a superfan. However, she rapidly discovered that she was attending the concert with 92,000 superfans and that most of those fans were women, mostly millennials like Swift or middle-aged. According to Wikipedia “Swifties are…regarded by journalists as one of the largest, most devoted, and influential fan bases…known for their high levels of participation, creativity, community, fanaticism and cultural impact on the music industry and popular culture…”

My niece said she witnessed a group experience based on friendship. In fact many of Swift’s fans make and trade friendship bracelets. In spite of a very large crowd making its way to Wembly Stadium with some subway stations temporarily not operating, everyone in the crowd seemed to be patient, helpful and friendly because they all shared the common goal of getting to the concert on time so that they could share a great experience. That kind and caring spirit continued throughout the concert and going home after the three and one-half hour performance.

Being a Baby Boomer, I am reminded of several landmark concerts during my era. Of course the best known is Woodstock which was advertised as “an Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace and Music.” Many of the performers sang songs about love, peace and unity. The Beatles, one of whose songs I borrowed for the title to this blog, sang many songs about romantic love as well as love for all mankind. John Lennon and Yoko Ono even had a “bed-in” to promote peace and love–clearly a protest against war.

The power of music to move people spiritually and physically has long been proved. It is wonderful to recognize that a musical experience can take us all to a better place of peace and love. I am particularly heartened by the Swifties and the group ethos that seems to exist for Taylor Swift’s fans. The fact that her fan base is primarily women shows that women are capable of banding together to achieve a common purpose and that women can truly support each other.

This is important to recognize when tackling the common issues that women face today in society. The discussion of those problems is the main theme of this blog. I point out in almost every blog that women have to be willing to act together in order to bring about positive results for our gender. Men have done an excellent job century after century of convinc-ing women that other women are the enemy, the competition, and that we should not trust each other. Of course the rest of the message is that we should trust men instead because they always have our best interests at heart. Not. I have said before and now say again. If you like something in your world, thank a man. If you dislike something in your world, blame a man. Men have been in charge for a long time and still are. If women want to change the things in their world which are bad for women and children, they must stick together and form a sisterhood with the common goal of improving the world for our gender. We must be the Sisters.