Sundays are bittersweet. While they are the last remaining hours of the beloved weekend, there are few things more anxiety-inducing than sitting down on a Sunday evening and making your to-do list. Stress and regret set in as you suddenly remember that your essay is due Monday and your math test is on Wednesday and all you did on Saturday was consume alcohol and sleep. I fully empathize with the panic that is experienced in these lingering moments of weekend, so to motivate you for the trials of the upcoming week, here are six bada**, modern ladies (besides Beyonce) to take inspiration from.
Hillary Clinton
Even if your political views do not align with Clinton’s, she is still indisputably bada**. Aside from her instrumental role in countless government initiatives, being the most well-traveled Secretary of State (she traveled to 112 countries!), serving as senator for New Work and authoring two memoirs, she endures an immense amount of scrutiny and criticism for her physical attributes/things related to being a woman in general, with grace.
Quote: “I believe that the rights of women and girls is the unfinished business of the 21st century.”
You don’t like Minaj? She doesn’t give a f***. She’s not afraid to call out the music industry on its blatant sexism and simultaneous discrimination against people of color, and was especially vocal on Twitter after the 2015 VMAs (recall her feud with Taylor Swift).
Best quote: “When you’re a girl, you have to be everything. You have to be dope at what you do, but you have to be super sweet, and you have to be sexy, and you have to be this and you have to be that and you have to be nice, and you have to — it’s like, I can’t be all of those things at once. I’m a human being.”
Malala Yousafzai
At age 19, this woman is the youngest ever Nobel Prize laureate, advocating for girls’ education despite the Taliban issuing a death threat against her. Her book is dope; she is dope.
Quote: “‘Let us pick up our books and our pens,’ I said. ‘They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.'”
Gloria Steinem
As the co-founder of the Ms. Magazine and well published author, she essentially started the modern feminist movement, tackling taboo topics like domestic violence way back in the 70s. Read her hilarious satirical piece If Men Could Menstruatehere.
Quote: “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.”
Mindy Kaling
She created and starred in The Mindy Project, wrote and acted in The Office, and authored the hilarious book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). Hilarious and witty, Kaling is an important advocate for how women are discriminated against in the film industry.
Quote: “I never want to be called the funniest Indian female comedian that exists. I feel like I can go head-to-head with the best white, male comedy writers that are out there. Why would I want to self-categorize myself into a smaller group than I’m able to compete in?”
Laverne Cox
Cox rose to fame portraying Sophia Burset on Orange Is the New Black and was the first trans-person to be nominated for an Emmy and appear on the cover of Time. If you were lucky enough to see her at Wake last fall, she had an incredible speech that outlined her commitment to pushing legislation that demands equality for and protects trans lives.
Quote: “Each and every one of us has the capacity to be an oppressor. I want to encourage each and every one of us to interrogate how we might be an oppressor, and how we might be able to become liberators for ourselves and each other.”
All these ladies said it best. Now slay that to-do list!
