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To Envision a Female POTUS, Watch "Borgen"
The assumption that a woman learning how to navigate and wield her power equates to authoritarianism is a patriarchal notion. Certainly Birgitte makes mistakes. But her husband - who develops a wandering eye and eventually leaves her - is perhaps even more culpable in not knowing how to handle what it means to be the spouse of a powerful woman.
Birgitte does struggle with being both a mother and a prime minister - something that will resonate with any woman who has juggled two roles. It is at the moment that her teenage daughter requires treatment for an anxiety disorder where she demonstrates that something innate about connection can survive as women assume positions of power...she takes a leave of absence from her job to take care of her daughter.
That's when I realized that THIS is the difference a woman can make as president. I'm not talking about a specific decision to leave office in order to take care of a child. That's the kind of moment when the challenge of the greater good for society vs the particular of what we need from each other reaches its peak. But there are everyday moments when that dilemma presents itself. When we turn our backs on the latter, we lose our soul. And as Alice Walker wrote to President Obama soon after he was elected...it is the soul that must be preserved.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2010/11/it-is-soul-that-must-be-preserved.html
What Birgitte showed me is that what I want to see in a female president is not only someone who understands what it means to be an outsider and knows how to wield her own personal power. But also someone whose soul has been preserved. That's how women can change politics!
Birgitte does struggle with being both a mother and a prime minister - something that will resonate with any woman who has juggled two roles. It is at the moment that her teenage daughter requires treatment for an anxiety disorder where she demonstrates that something innate about connection can survive as women assume positions of power...she takes a leave of absence from her job to take care of her daughter.
That's when I realized that THIS is the difference a woman can make as president. I'm not talking about a specific decision to leave office in order to take care of a child. That's the kind of moment when the challenge of the greater good for society vs the particular of what we need from each other reaches its peak. But there are everyday moments when that dilemma presents itself. When we turn our backs on the latter, we lose our soul. And as Alice Walker wrote to President Obama soon after he was elected...it is the soul that must be preserved.
I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters...We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead...
Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2010/11/it-is-soul-that-must-be-preserved.html
What Birgitte showed me is that what I want to see in a female president is not only someone who understands what it means to be an outsider and knows how to wield her own personal power. But also someone whose soul has been preserved. That's how women can change politics!
Read More http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2015/04/to-envision-female-potus-watch-borgen.html
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It's on Hulu Plus and I have watched the episodes a couple of times.
