I thought the women would be grateful when, as a female executive, I began to push against this familiar currency, challenging the way women at every level were sexualized. My female counterparts were anything but grateful. To the contrary, they knew this was the only real power they had and they weren’t about to do any currency exchange that might produce a loss.
Until women and girls have real paths to real power, beauty and body are the currency they will trade in—not brains.
The White House Project’s message resonates strongly with women across continents. Women of all ages have an integral part to play in politics and leadership. Their currency—new ideas, energy and perspective—is global.
In Australia, I spoke about how girls could some day run for office, take charge of media images by learning to critique and challenge them, and make the women leaders in their own communities visible—and I can tell you that these girls were ready to build real power for themselves and others. This would be their new currency. I told them, until women have real power, your issues won’t disappear—girls will still patrol the boundaries of the feminine, ensuring beauty and femininity are enforced.
To be sure, it is an uphill battle. As the recent book Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters From Marketers’ Schemes [by Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown] lays out, the media and marketeers have co- opted “girl power” and are profiting from selling the image of girls as “sexy, diva, boy crazy”. These packagers encourage girls “to use their voice” to choose accessorizing over academics, sex appeal over sports, and boyfriends over friends. Our work begins by combating these cultural hurdles.
Real power—the power to make decisions, to create change and lead—is key. Once women have it, the world won’t change for them alone; it will also change for the better, for men, for families, for communities and for workplaces.
I’m so sure this will happen, I would bet real currency on it.
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