Don’t Ban Bossy, Ban Beyonce!

Flopping Aces ^ | 04-19-14 | Dave The Sage
Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In and Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, has a line in her book that states "I want every little girl who's told she's bossy to be told instead that she has leadership skills." As you have probably heard by now, her Lean In organization and the Girl Scouts of America have teamed up with various celebrities and some other well-known female figures to urge us to ban the use of the word bossy. As part of their "public service" campaign they have released a short ad featuring these women lecturing us about how they were called bossy and other names as children and therefore we should "ban bossy." The "Ban Bossy - I'm Not Bossy. I'm the Boss" video has gone viral while stirring up some controversy along the way. It has now been viewed over 2,250,000 times on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dynbzMlCcwPlaying a prominent role in this campaign is the pop star diva Beyonce. It would appear that the Girl Scouts believe that Beyonce is an appropriate role model for impressionable young girls and someone who should be emulated and looked up too. That is disappointing, and the fact that they cooperating with her on any level should raise more than a few eyebrows. Any objective observer would be hard pressed to not point out that Beyonce apparently believes that empowering women not only calls for the banning of certain words but also the constant sexual objectification of females and dressing up like a stripper at every opportunity. Whoring yourself out just because "sex sells" is hardly edifying to the female gender and is worthy of condemnation. Yet here she is, front and center, in the Ban Bossy ad campaign sponsored by an organization supposedly charged with the mission of building the character, self-esteem, and self-respect of young girls. For the Girl Scouts and Lean In to showcase her as a spokesman in their campaign is pathetic at best. One of the last people we should be encouraging our daughters to pattern their lives, thoughts, actions, and attitudes after is her. Yet our little Feminist friends apparently have no problem with that. Influencing millions of little girls to sexualize themselves at a very young age is far more damaging than calling someone bossy, and recruiting a spokesperson who is married to a man who routinely calls women "bitches and hoes" just smacks of idiocy and hypocrisy on every level. Conveying the message that a girl has to portray herself as a shameless sexual plaything to gain fame, success, and attention is far more detrimental to the female gender in general, and to entire upcoming generations of young women, than one ten-year old girl telling another to quit being bossy on the playground. And we wonder why vast numbers of young women have self-esteem, eating disorders, and body image issues in our culture. In the Ban Bossy video Beyonce tells us that "Girls are less interested in leadership than boys," while Lynch adds, "And that's because they worry about being called bossy." Really, that's why? Are you really telling me that the fear of being called bossy has somehow stymied generations of women? How come I'm not buying that? And so what if a somewhat smaller percentage of "girls are less interested in leadership than boys." Is that the end of the world? Are we really to believe that there must be some sort of contest and competition between the genders when it comes to the percentages of each in perceived leadership positions? Or is this really perhaps just another attempt to fuel the fires of conflict and tension between them by those who don't really care much for the male gender to begin with? These are questions worth pondering. Is it so far-fetched to fathom that maybe males and females aren't actually exactly the same and perhaps, just perhaps, it is just a natural trait for a majority of both sexes to see males as leaders more often than females? And if so, is that really such an inherently awful idea? We are not born as 'clean slates' but already have a vast network of natural inclinations and predispositions already inside of us as we enter the world. That is not to say that culture and society doesn't play a significant part in who we are and what we become, but to dismiss basic genetic factors and behavioral traits when it comes to gender is both foolish and naive. It's probably not patriarchy and misogyny they should be complaining about here, but basic biology. Perhaps we should spend less time fighting against it and more time learning to understand it. (Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...