Women Who Wear Power Well
by Tabby Biddle
I don’t know about you, but I am practically just as excited to have Michelle Obama in the White House as I am her husband, Barack Obama. I am finding myself totally drawn to this new female role model — smart, sexy, motherly, proud, independent, supportive to her husband and family. She seems to be carrying it all in one package, or at least that’s how it appears. Maybe this package isn’t new, but it feels new to me.
Once upon a time my role models were Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Aniston. While I am still a big fan of all three of these incredibly talented ladies, I find myself now looking toward three new women as my ideals of feminine strength.
I’ll talk about Oprah to start. That might seem cliché to some, but I think there is very good reason why she has become so popular. She is smart, sassy, creative, fun and a great businesswoman. It wasn’t actually until this year that I began to watch Oprah (TiVo adds some great possibilities into one’s life!). I saw right away what an incredible empire she has built all based upon helping people be the best they can be. She has changed so many lives just by being truthful to who she is. If that’s not a fantastic bottom line, I don’t know what is.
Next there is Michelle Obama — our new First Lady! I am so proud and delighted when I see her walk on stage, or walk hand in hand with her husband Barack. I see how they are beautiful loving partners, and I also see that she has an incredible independence and knows exactly who she is. Knowing that she is both a Princeton and Harvard grad, a lawyer and a super loving mom and wife — somehow makes the possibility of being a smart, sexy, talented woman who excels in her career and in her job as a mom and wife — a more realistic and attainable possibility.
And then there is Beyoncé. She is also a recent discovery of mine. (Don’t ask me where I have been over the past decade.) She is creative, smart, totally gorgeous, humble and sincere. She has sold over 75 million albums and last year pulled in 80 million dollars (2nd highest paid musician for that year), but it still feels like you could invite her over to chill out by the pool.
Maybe all of this is so obvious to the rest of you, but I am starting to see some of the true strengths of women in a way I never have. We can all look back to the times when women were either wives, nurses or secretaries, then they became the “bra burners,” then they became the “Wall Street bitches,” and it seems for the last couple of decades women have been in some kind of gender neutral position so that we could ‘push ahead’ in the workplace and somehow manage the rest of our lives.
What is so wonderful now is that women, with the support of eachother, are getting to embrace all their facets — the warrior, the tigress, the nymph, the intellectual, the mother, the creatix and much much more.
I think it is role models like Oprah, Michelle and Beyoncé who have a certain ease in their feminine power that can only encourage and inspire us to step more and more into our own power.
What are your thoughts about feminine power? Who are some of your role models?
Tabby Biddle, M.S. Ed. is a writer and editor specializing in helping women entrepreneurs and emerging authors get their message out. Additionally she is the founder of Lotus Blossom Style, a yoga lifestyle company created to support women in their personal transformation. She lives in Santa Monica, CA.