“Your Eye Too Big” and other stuff my Mom was right about
As a modern man raised by women, I’m proud to be a mixed race leader that bears witness to intersectional feminism on the daily.
Together we can be transformational in our shared goal to achieve equity on International Women’s Day. We have to shine a positive light.
Men, Women and Non-binary.
Being American for the first half of my career as a commercial writer in the 90s, Oprah introduced my Mom and I to what it meant to have a mentor-mother-sister-friend. From there? Missy Elliot, Daria and VH1 Divas furthered music as a unifying force that would shape the rest of my life.
From this axis, we’re supposed to be U-N-I-T-Y (big up to the OG Queen Latifah). The way we brief our creative output, the dynamics that are considered when new teams/tribes are being formed, and perhaps most critically — the lens we see the world with.
I feel like the more I see, the more I go back to the chant in that song. It’s a mantra that has decades of meaning. U.N.I.T.Y. (1993) has a sample from a 1973 song entitled ‘Message from The Inner City’ by The Crusaders! Reach back twenty years further in the 50s, when my Mother was just a year old, and that’s when Maya Angelou (Oprah’s mentor-mother-sister-friend) started performing in San Fran. There’s this infinite loop of cosmic feminine energy in my personal history.
And so here we are at nearly 2020. Is our vision, as leaders, clear and purposeful yet? My two big bosses, at the global and market level, are brilliant women. The senior management team at Isobar Canada is currently 70% female-identifying. Our work family is built to challenge conventions, recognize parity and investigate positive shifts to be inclusive. I’ve seen it at its best more often than not.
The 50s also brought the Mad Men era. 70+ years later, it should make you mad. It should make you mad that the legacy of advertising/media un-shaped our perception of Womyn. It makes me mad.
Where something uncomfortable is said (or implied), or there’s a wince of emotion from a teammate, your silence does nothing. Desmond Tutu famously said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
The ideas and messages we send, whether 1:1 or en masse, can be revolutionary. Our work matters, and our choices matter even more as an exponent.
The only thing I’ve ever known is the strength of women. I’ve seen it, I’ve felt it and it’s what keeps my eyes open. So, so grateful.
Today, we celebrate you.
Tomorrow, more.
