Memoirs of a Geisha

"My daughter Sarah and I saw this wonderful movie tonight. I was so touched by the story, and the scenery and the costumes were beautiful. The characters are so real, their stories so tragic, it makes you wonder how women like these lived. Their lives must have been agony. I cannot imagine living such a life, a life where you have no choices, where your very existence is dictated by a rigid standard of behaviour. Where others control your every action. Where nothing you own is yours, not even the clothes on your back, in this case exquisite kimonos, collector's items, like the very women who wore them. Things to be desired, possessed, bought and paid for. Not real women, but the image of the perfect woman.

Is our society any better? Do not the women of today find themselves buried in the same way, by a society that says to be accepted you have to dress a certain way, wear a certain kind of makeup, do your hair like a million and one other women? Do our young womem have any more of a chance to really be themselves than did the slave girls who became geisha? I am not sure they do." I whisper.

Are you listening?