The Power of a Quiet Woman
On the early evening of December 1, 1955, at Montgomery, a woman rides on the public bus after a whole day of toil and hard work. With swollen feet and aching shoulders, she sits on the first row reserved for the colored section. But soon enough the bus starts to fill up with people. After a few stoppages, the bus was filled with people without any seats left, and the lady was asked to give away her seat to a white passenger because it was that dark time of civilization when the color of skin was the determinant to protect a person’s basic rights.
That day made the foundation for one of the most momentous civil rights movements in world history. Because the women of color, seating at the front row, told by the driver to stand up, said “No”.
Rosa Parks, born on February 3, 1913, became the face of the biggest movement against racial segregation in the USA after that day. A person with great character and ‘the courage of lion’, Rosa Parks sparked the inner light among every black and colored individual in Montgomery, and eventually the entire world. She continued to support the movement of civil rights and worked actively in the development of youth till her last breath. A woman, once arrested because she claimed her human right to be protected, received the highest honor given by the United States “Congressional Gold Medal” and became the first woman to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol.
Now, the narration sounds so promising and energetic that you might have an image of Rosa in your head already; fierce, bold, vocal. And we have seen such bold women around us becoming the leaders of movements, or spokesperson for a historic event. The examples set around us are full of women with amazing public speaking ability, top-notch networking skills, full of vigor, unbeatably unique personas.
But, to have all of these qualities and become that versatile leader, change-maker, charismatic personality has a major flaw in itself.
This perfect picture says that a quiet, introverted, or not-so-well with public speaking sort of person cannot be the change maker, the top executive, the positive influence that any event needs. Being a woman and conquering the existing social barriers already needs a lot of our life’s work. On top of that, thanks to mainstream media portrayal, social media culture, pop-culture, and concurrent literature, to be an influence in whatever field of work you’re interested in, you’ve to fulfill this unrealistic standard of being the extroverted, eye-catchy personality with always on-point hair that it automatically turns your motivation off to be the face of your work, to be the leader, to be the person who knows her work and shows it.
On 8th March, International Women’s Day, the time of the year, when everywhere you’d see how women are contributing strongly to their field and wouldn’t be the one to relate to this portrayed perfect woman image, remember Rosa Parks.
Rosa Parks, who was named as “The mother of the civil rights movement”, was described by others as soft-spoken, shy and small in stature. But her pupil remembered her for the courage, humility, leadership.
But if she was an introverted, quiet person, how can she be the heroic trailblazer who stood for her race?
Maybe she answered that question thrown at her, which the introverted souls still face all the time, just with the title of her autobiography “Quiet Strength”. In every phase of our life, we face stereotypical labeling to state ourselves. We are masculine-feminine, black-brown-white, Asian-African, extroverts-introverts, this and that. Our society was built upon this perplexing partiality towards every aspect of being a human, that even if we ignore the partiality for men and women for this discussion, it makes us feel inferior regardless of how differently beautiful as a person we are.
Nowadays women are always showcased as the picture-perfect image of presumed modern-day women who have very little to do with how we constantly feel inside ourselves. In the era of influencers, beauty vloggers, extravagant pop stars, and curated social media characters, let’s recall Rosa Parks. The woman who was tired, swollen, repressed, overlooked. The woman who was an introvert, the one who avoided the crowd, yet voiced her opinion strongly. Let’s appreciate our inner introverted-ness, not feel inferior about it. Even when there are numerous examples of introverted women who peaked their potential, let’s remember Rosa Parks to keep ourselves authentic to us.
Less mended, more healed.
Rosa wrote in her autobiography “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically. The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
On this occasion of celebrating womanhood, let’s be tired of giving in to social stereotypes and celebrate our own company, maybe just with a warm cup of coffee, unapologetically.
