If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being a young woman in the 2010’s, it’s that you should always listen to Beyonce. Her backing of the Ban Bossy campaign is no different. Led by Sheryl Sandberg (a chief operating officer of Facebook!) and supported by the Girl Scouts of America, this campaign has one simple motive: to stop the public from using the term “bossy”.
When a man is in charge, he is called a leader; when a woman is in the same position, she is called “bossy”. The man receives a positive title, whereas the woman is given a label with strongly negative connotations. According to Sandberg and her partners (Beyonce included), this negativity leads to confidence issues in girls as young as ten years old. So, if the same quality in a man is considered positive, why should it be any different for women?
The campaign is easy to participate in and understand. Join us and quite a number of other formerly “bossy” women in eliminating this word from our personal vocabulary, and letting others know the effect their words have on the still-blossoming youth of today.
While this campaign has been met with some criticism, many claiming there are “other, more important things to worry about,” the simplicity and purity of its message makes it worthwhile. After all; world hunger may be a more life-threatening issue in this day and age, but perhaps by teaching girls that it’s ok to be in charge, one of them may grow up to find a solution to poverty.
Hitting two birds with one stone? Now that’s what I call an “important thing to worry about”.