"Natural" Woman?

Romance is a beautiful thing.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a helpless romantic. I love love, I love Frank Sinatra, I love little notes written on the bathroom mirror and I love dimmer switches.

While I’ve always loved romantic stories, listening to adorable marriage proposals and Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks movies, something recently stopped me in my tracks that got me thinking: Aretha Franklin’s A Natural Woman.

I’ve always loved this song: it’s got a great rhythm, great orchestra, great voice... and let’s face it – it is the mother of shower-time belt outs. It wasn’t until I was listening to it today with open ears that something about it made me stop humming and start “hah-ing.”

Looking out on the morning rain I used to feel uninspired
And when I knew I had to face another day
Lord, it made me feel so tired
Before the day I met you, life was so unkind
But your love was the key to peace my mind.

Now, I am definitely not a feministic person, far from it actually, and this opening verse really manages to get under my skin. Aretha sounds undoubtedly pathetic and helpless before she “met her man.” And while that plays a common factor in many fairy tales such as Cinderella or Snow White, I thought we were past the whole “knight and shining armour thing.”

I feel like a woman is really only ready for a relationship when she can entirely adore and love everything about herself as a single individual. Know yourself completely, make your own decisions – make up your own mind, values and beliefs... and then find someone that fits with you.

It is doing this that really makes the natural – and deeply respected – woman.