As a child, I never felt that I could not do anything because I was a girl.
I had a pink bedroom and Barbie’s everywhere. But, I had a certain streak of being more adventurous; I wanted to play like my friends did– I mean the ones of the male variety. I wanted to play with dirt and play football. I liked trucks and sports. I loved what the boys did as much as I loved what girls were supposed to do. So, I did both and no one stopped me. I was the perfect little tomboy, and it worked out for me. Everyone accepted it. No one ever told me “Girls don’t do that!” or “You can’t do that because you are a girl!” It wasn’t until much later that I realized that I was a rare case where a young girl was not affected by the double standards of the gender.
Earlier this month, billionaire COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg joined together with Beyoncé, Jane Lynch, Condoleezza Rice, Jennifer Garner, and more big-named celebrities to ban the word “bossy.” Their goal was to encourage little girls to become leaders and gain confidence. Sandberg’s campaign called #BanBossy was launched with a website, www.banbossy.com, and two videos talking about how words like “bossy,” “pushy,” and “stubborn” discourage girls from being ambitious in their schools and communities.
Although made with the best intentions, the conversation about the hashtag-campaign has received a wide range of feelings from accepting to half-heartedness to passionate hostility.
Many have taken to Twitter, Facebook, and other social media to voice their opinions about the campaign. Most don’t see the point of it, tweeting in 140 characters or less about their finding little reasoning in “deleting a word from the dictionary to make people feel better.” Some appeal to the message but hate the delivery. Others find the entire thing to be a bit… well, bossy.
Writers, bloggers, and journalists have also picked up their pens on the issue. Writer for Time Magazine, Jessica Roy wrote, “I am bossy. And I don’t give a *$&% if you call me that.” Another Time writer and a father of two, Dave Lesser declared, “I’m going to teach [my daughter] Penny the difference between being bossy and being a leader. I’m going to teach my son the same thing.” Others have just criticized the article such as James Poniewozik’s “Don’t Ban ‘Bossy’: Ban Bossiness” or Noah Berlatsky’s “The Problem Isn’t the Word ‘Bossy’– It’s Leaders Who Abuse Their Power.” The articles that fully support the ban are few and far between.
Personally, the issue does resonate but the delivery of it is very frustrating. I am a firm believer that little girls should be leaders. They should ambitious and wanting to take a stand regardless of what others think. The leadership of little girls should not be denied because of their gender. Condescending words like “bossy” should not be used to bring them down and discourage them.
However, we cannot ban every word that hurts the feelings of children. If we continue in this way, half of the English dictionary will be gone. Instead of banning a word, parents, teachers, and leaders all over America should be teaching children how to be strong and overcome those obstacles of bullying. They should be teaching both boys and girls the difference between being bossy, being a bully, and being a leader. Children should be learning the importance of equality between genders, why girls are just as equal as boys when it comes to being a leader.
According to the dictionary, bossy means “inclined to domineer or dominate.” With this definition, I don’t see any reason why women and men alike should not embrace it and be as assertive as a leader should be.
As a young woman, I have never felt that I could not do anything because I was bossy. I have always felt like I can do everything because I am the boss.