THE WORLD HAS GONE POWER MAD. POWER IS THE REFRAIN OF INDIVIDUALS, MINORITIES (IN PRACTICE MEGAMINORITIES, WITH MILLIONS OF MEMBERS) AND ALSO THE SEXES. I SUGGEST SOMETHING BETTER AND MORE BALANCED, NAMELY BALANCE.
(A girl is not a woman, language is quite clear about this. We can, and I often do, call a woman a girl, but there IS a difference. In age, in maturity, in grownupness.)
I am tired of Girl Power. The more noticeable (those most seen and heard in media, including social media) members of the “fair sex” are more and more masculine, more and more shouting, kicking and yelling. More and more Yang.
Yes, the times are a-changing and roles and energies are moving on. But I don´t think that women taking over the less desirable aspects of men (aggressivity, cockiness, commercial business attitude) is progress.
Both Yin and Yang have positive and negative aspects. Being more assertive (Yang) can be real retrogression if we do it from the negative pole.
While girls and women are turning more and more Yang I sometimes wonder if anybody understands Yin anymore.
And the emancipation is selective. I seldom if ever hear about women demanding to be soldiers. It still seems okay that it’s mainly young men who are going to die on the battlefields of war.
Power, yes. Yang, yes. But war is messy and it ruins your coiffure.
BOY POWER
I am tired of power games but there is one kind we should talk more about: Boy Power.I am not talking about young men here, but about men and women who practice neither masculine nor feminine thinking, but BOYISH thinking
Boyish thinking means putting the values of technology, gadgetry, collecting (more of something is always better), duels of all kinds (from friendly wrestling in the schoolyard to prestige inflated debates in academia to fiery, hateful political brawls, eventually on to shooting and killing) on a pedestal.
Both men and women have turned boyish. Women politicians, but also feminists whose martial energies are the opposite of Yin. The political arena seems extremely boyish. The exceptions confirm the rule.
EMPOWER, DISEMPOWER, BALANCE
Girl power is about empowerment, so I am told.
“Empowerment” is a word with a positive ring, “disempowered” negative. But between the extremes there should be a balance where you are not disempowered but also do not seek more power.
However, power is as blood to a vampire. Taste it once, want it again. And again and again.
Who of us can say “ENOUGH! I have enough of what I want and need.” Most of us are happy with a bit more, and a bit more. Perhaps with a LOT more. The more-impulse is superbly captured in this great song by Stephen Sondheim.
But at the end of the first girl power video there was something worth serious consideration.
Yes, let´s. Let´s look beyond power to something more balanced. What about Girl Balance?
To reach balance we need to see clear. See the extremes and also what lies in between. There is a world of difference between getting power in order to reach equilibrium, and wanting power just to get more power, in a greedy way.
Plato said that wisdom consists in knowing how far to go, and to go precisely that far and no further. I am not sure about the quote but the thought is here to ponder:
Know how far to go. Don´t exceed.
This brings balance into the picture, not just power. So let´s have Girl Balance and Boy Balance and Man and Woman Balance. In one word: balance!
Instead of this incessant “I want more! More than I had, and definitely more than you had.”
PS: An exception. If what we want more of is balance, great. Sometimes more is just fine.