Banning Bossy? Puh-lease!

No one was more surprised than me when I started seeing these headlines about banning the word bossy. Obviously, banning the word bossy for me would put my blog clear out of commission, so I'm not so sure I'm down for supporting this cause. Sure, I see where they are coming from...they want young women to feel that their leadership skills are valuable. But banning bossy? I just don't see it happening.

There are a lot of words that hold women back in leadership roles...so let's start there. You wanna ban a b word? How about we start with BITCHY! This word is much more volatile in holding women back. And how about SLUTTY. Can we ban that one too? These two words are much more often used to categorize women in power because either you bitched your way to the top or you sucked someone's dick to get there.

While I believe that we need to instill confidence in young women (I mean, I am becoming a mother to a baby girl in just months), I also think we need to stop being such a nation of sissies. If you can't let bossy roll off your ever-loving back then maybe you just lack leadership skills. I've been called bossy my entire life and I could care less.

I have not spent a single second thinking about the people who called me bossy, and in fact when my husband suggested this blog name, I thought it was brilliant. People only wield the amount of power you give them, and by refusing to allow the word bossy to be used against me, I have turned it into a positive.

I will NEVER renounce my bossy title. So I'm not joining the campaign. Sure, I think it's noble, I see where they are going...but it's a little misguided if you ask me. Because in a world where there are much more horrible things that women are called, it seems a little knit-picky. I think we've got to be a tad more creative than all that. Don't let other define you.

We have enough campaigns to "ban this" or "abstain from that" or causes to support. I can't wrap my head around one that seems, well, petty. So ban bitchy from your vocabulary if you really want to make a difference. Stop referring to pretty women as sluts or whores and suggesting that they handed out sexual favors to get where they are. Stop being jealous of other women and embrace our diversity as a sex. And for the love of god, cultivate some confidence so that when some asshole calls you "bossy" you can flip around and say, "Hell yes I am, and I'm damn proud of it...who the fuck are you?!"

That is all.