Slacker

In the midst of editing my book, I feel like I am not dedicating a lot of my time to blogging. I apologize if this has inconvenienced anyone other than my conscious.

I’ve started reading 20 something 20 everything by Christine Hassler. I’ve been waiting to read this book for a few months now so I am flying through the first few chapters. 20 something 20 everything is a book dedicated to helping young women navigate their way through their 20s.

The first part of the book is about answering [or trying to] three questions: who am I?; what do I want?; how to I get what I want? There’s a ton of exercises to do to get through the shit you don’t allow yourself to think about for too long. The part that’s really striking a chord is the section on role models. The book says that it’s important to have positive female role models in your life, including your mother.

That’s all good and dandy, but my role models growing up were all men. Most of my role models and mentors today are primarily men. Yes there is a bit of a change going on with the up rise of influential and talented women like Hilary Clinton, Oprah, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. But it’s not enough.

Then I got to thinking, would I be different if my role models had been strong women? Would there be a difference in me? Maybe. I think the fact that I look up to some amazing men makes me want to be respected more than objected by that gender. I am not interested in them being interested in my looks. I’m looking for substance in the way of conversation, of ideas, of progression. Female role models might have been better for my friendships. It’s hard for me to maintain strong female bonds that are not blood related.

But that might be a whole other issue.

Role models. Who are yours?