Who run the world? Girls.

I’ve never been a feminist or into ‘girl power’ and stuff. Frankly, I never really liked girls all that much. I’m guilty of slut-shaming and I think a lot of girls don’t deserve their good fortune – like conniving, materialistic girls who get all the attention from guys, but I’m digressing here. 

Then I came across an article in today’s paper : MORE WOMEN IN POWER A GOOD THING. So I read it, & I was like, wow. It mentioned that in the US only 17% of American Fortune 500 board seats are held by women, and only 3% of board chairs are women. There aren’t many women in the Cabinet either. So that’s what people need – more women at the forefront, making decisions. 

I told my mum about the ‘politician’s wife’ argument in Very Classy by Derek Blasberg (basically, don’t do anything scandalous because someone running for government would want a ‘good girl’ for a wife – & even if you don’t plan on marrying a politician-to-be, a decent dude wouldn’t want someone trashy anyway). 

I always joked, ‘Maybe it’s fine that I’ve never been with anybody. I’ll just stay pure and wait till I become a politician’s wife.’  & she would go, ‘Why marry a politician? Be one.’ 

I’d always just shrug it off, like nah, politics and me don’t go together. I know more about Taylor Swift’s love life than current affairs, which is not something to be proud of. When people ask me what I intend to study, I answer ‘journalism’ or ‘political science’, because I’ve gotten good at pretending that I know what I want to do. 

I know what kind of woman I want to be. But sometimes I’m not willing to do what it takes to get there. Today’s article is a reminder that I should ‘lean in’ and ‘aggressively pursue opportunities’. My role models (Gaga, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Emma Watson) may not be exactly like Sheryl Sandberg, but they channel the same attitude. 

Maybe this is a little silly, but sometimes I stand in front of the mirror and look at myself in my blazer, and think : yeah, I’m gonna be someone important. Someday I’ll be able to speak up for other people. 

I know that I have a lot to work on – and if we’d had Yearbook captions back in school mine would read : Least Likely to Run for Office or even Least Likely to Succeed , because let’s be honest, I’m not extraordinary academically, and I’m not the president of any club. I don’t know much about politics, though I care about people.

But I will get there if I think that I have to. If I’m not entirely sure what I wanna do anyway, then why not aim to do something that people need?