Journey to the Woman I've Come to Love (BOOK REVIEW)
Journey to the Woman I've Come to Love:
Affirmations from Women Who Have Fallen in Love with
Themselves
by Miki Turner
CreateSpace
Paperback, $25.00
196 pages
ISBN: 978-1478259497
Book
Review by Kam Williams
“About
10 years ago, I was hanging out with some old high school classmates… drinking
wine… and wondering what fresh hell lay ahead for us as we approached menopause
and all the other absurdities that come along with aging... [Their] obsession
with maintaining their youth made me sad.
Why
couldn’t they just accept themselves as the smart, wonderful and beautiful
women that they are? A few wrinkles should not affect one’s self-esteem. That
conversation was the genesis for this book. I needed to know at what point did
women fall in love with themselves.”
--
Excerpted from the Foreword (pg. v)
Did you
notice how much attention was devoted to the First Lady’s appearance during the
presidential inauguration festivities? The media felt perfectly comfortable commenting
on everything from her new bangs to which designers’ dress, coat, shoes, belt and
other accessories she was wearing.
Even First
Daughters Malia and Sasha’s clothes (one wore J. Crew, the other, Kate Spade) were
assessed and closely scrutinized. By comparison, I don’t remember hearing even
one word about President Obama’s sartorial choices.
Given the
disparity, it is easy to see how many women in this society might suffer from
low self-esteem due to the considerable pressure to keep abreast of fashion
trends. And that is probably only further complicated for non-white females when
you factor in the frustration felt trying to measure up to European standards
of beauty in terms of straight hair, skin color and body type.
For this
reason, Journey to the Woman I've Come to Love arrives like a breath of fresh
air. The book is basically a collection of unpretentious black & white portraits
of about a hundred accomplished women from all walks of life, including actress
Halle Berry, choreographer Judith Jamison, poet Nikki Giovanni and singer Toni
Braxton, to name a few.
The author,
award-winning photojournalist Miki Turner, posed just one question to each of
her subjects, namely, “At what point did you fall in love with yourself?” Their
revealing responses range from “When I became a mother” (author Terry McMillan)
to “When my appendix ruptured” (Donzaleigh Abernathy) to “When I was diagnosed
with breast cancer and went on the air bald” (ABC-TV’s Robin Roberts).
Civil
rights icon Myrlie Evers-Williams’ watershed moment arrived when she somehow
summoned the strength to attend a rally the morning after her husband Medgar
was assassinated. And a recently-deceased Holocaust survivor named Rosa said she “learned early on to love myself” in a
concentration camp where “it was the only way to make it through all the
insanity.”
Priceless reflections
on female empowerment from a variety of role models who’ve arrived at a place
where they recognize and embrace both their inner and outer beauty.
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