greetings one and all!
as promised, here is my attempt at explaining what i am now referring to as “the katie girl project.”
i majored in women’s studies in college, and one of my enduring passions over those four years was reading the stories of women’s lives. eleanor roosevelt, adrienne rich, gail griffin, katharine hepburn, toni morrison, willa cather, the list goes on and on…these are the women i learned about, the lives i read about and wanted to make my own. as we grow and move through this world we collect bits and pieces of these wild, courageous women, and incorporate them into our own lives. we make mistakes (lots of them) on the path to self-actualization and understanding. as my favorite college professor once said, “we come to knowledge through a lived life”. this idea is the inspiration for the katie girl project.
the name of the project comes from one of my favorite episodes of sex and the city where carrie, miranda, samantha and charlotte are sitting around having drinks and talking about the movie “the way we were.” big has just gotten engaged to natasha, breaking carrie’s heart and she has spent the episode looking for an answer to why he didn’t choose her to marry.
as the girls carouse in the bar they start talking about the barbara streisand movie “the way we were,” where streisand (the lovely, passionate activist) falls in love with robert redford (the dashing and talented, but conventional, writer). at first it seems an unlikely match (the gifted golden boy meets slightly awkward, over opinionated mensch) but eventually a role reversal transpires, as streisand comes of age and stays true to her passions while redford sells his talent short as a television writer. the two part ways and streisand moves on with her life. when they meet by chance in front of the plaza hotel some years later (in one of the most famous final scenes in hollywood history) where it becomes apparent that streisand has come into her own, stuck to her passions and displayed courage and clout while redford has merely settled. streisand tells redford’s character: “your girl is lovely, hubbell” in the heartbreaking final moments where the audience understands that sometimes love doesn’t conquer all.
the recollection inspires carrie’s epiphany that there are two types of girls. the simple girls, and the katie girls. “i’m a katie girl!” she shouts. after the women leave the restaurant she encounters big after his engagement brunch and says one of my favorite lines from all of sex and the city: “maybe some women aren’t meant to be tamed. maybe they need to run free until they find someone just as wild to run with.”
so this is the inspiration for the katie girl project as it currently stands. your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to send me an e-mail (ellen.draeger@gmail.com) that explains why you are a katie girl. it can be a picture, a short essay, a work of art, a quote, or anything else you can think of that helps express an important part of your “lived life” to the world.
i plan on featuring a different “katie girl” story on my blog every week. as i continue to collect stories, ideas, art, etc. i hope that i eventually have enough to do something really big with the project. so if you have any ideas on that…feel free to include those as well (!) also, please pass on this information to any fun, fearless female that you know who would be a great candidate for the project.
above all, the katie girl project is about celebrating the unique role women play as teachers in one another’s lives. we have all learned some major lessons about life, love and following your passions…we celebrate together, cry together, learn together and build our lives together. the more connected we are the stronger we become.
xoxo.
ellie
p.s. remember to e-mail me with your stories (leave a comment here with your e-mail address and i’ll get back to you). all submissions will be posted anonymously (unless you request otherwise), but for my records include your name, age and e-mail address.
