Lessons from the Cat #5: Talking about Powerful Women
Lilith |
Lilith, my cat companion of almost 19 years, moved onto her next life last month. Her mission was to explore strange new tablecloths, to seek out new crevices and closets, to boldly go where no cat had gone before. Mission accomplished!
Since she came to live with me at the age of 5 weeks, Lilith was a fearless and headstrong explorer. No cupboard was off limits, as far as she was concerned. Nor was she was aloof, far from it! She was fearless as well as demanding in getting lap time and pettings. For a while I had to pet her tummy for at least 15 minutes before I would be “permitted” to do my morning yoga. Even then, she felt entitled to play with my hair whenever I was in “downward dog.” My clever cat of steel was featured in this blog post about a year and a half ago, and in this one a year ago. Lilith is sorely missed.
Last month I began a few revisions to my website’s home page. The goal is to make it more informative and easier to navigate. I was working on my sub-heading, playing around with words for women finding their super powers of protection. I used the phrase “super shero.” Sent the draft around to a couple of friends. One in particular disliked the phrase. She felt it too contrived and off-putting. So we were brainstorming alternatives. My friend came to this conclusion:
It’s a crying shame there’s such a paucity of terms for positive images of female power. Would be nice to have lots of choices from which to select the one with the perfect nuance.If only the whole world knew who Lilith was. If a woman learned to project such presence, it would never occur to anyone to even think of messing with her. The only figure I can come up with who’s maybe even a distant second is Elizabeth II, Queen of England.
I have to agree, there are few truly positive adjectives for powerful women. Especially in a public venue.
Lilith watching . . . |
Most of us don’t consider women when we think of powerful, intriguing, or even interesting people. Last week I taught a self-defense class for teen girls at a local high school. They paired up for an exercise, but first I asked them to introduce themselves to their partner and think of who they’d want to have dinner with tonight if they could pick ANY historic figure. Only two (of 12) picked women.
How do you talk about powerful women, or do you even positively talk about powerful women? Might you want to change that?