I recently watched a documentary called the Red Pill. It was about men’s rights activists. The documentary posed some interesting questions about how we perceived people’s roles based on their gender. I can’t say that I am much of an activist. There is so much emotion going on in the different activist groups and a lot of it can be perceived as anger. I can scarcely contain my own emotions at times, let alone an entire movement. But I certainly like to learn from other’s opinions and the documentary made me think about things from an angle that I had never thought of before.
It made me wonder how many of our roles that have been passed down through generations serve us and which once need a revamp. And when we revamp them, are we willing to deal with the consequences of the changes that they bring?
I believe women have a reputation for multitasking and I have to admit that as an author, mom and trainer, the demands of all the stakeholders can make me feel overwhelmed. I turned to a course of dealing with being overwhelmed and found that by creating blocks of time where I focus on only one thing in that time is helpful. It is a matter of managing distractions. Maybe that is why in medieval times in some kingdoms, soldiers could not marry as women were seen as a bit of a distraction. In fact, Friar Watt in my series is one of those men who married in secret because of this rule. This was in the days when he was a military man and not a friar. Then there is Beatrice who broke a norm of women not being in the military, as her father trained her to be a warrior and she, in turn, trains women to protect themselves.
I believe that whatever role you have adopted; it is important to celebrate what you bring to that role and while we can learn from others, we still have to live in a way that celebrates our uniqueness.
