Hillary and High School

A recent blog article in the esteemed Huffington Post brought this to mind.  Dr. Peggy Drexler tried to guess whether Hillary Clinton had been popular in high school, on the premise that if so, she would be more likely to succeed in leadership.

AARGH.  Forget the fact that in my high school, the popular girls were the first to marry, first to divorce, first to remarry, first to re-divorce, first to marry for a third time, etc.  Forget the fact that many of the popular young women stars of today – Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato – state that they were outcasts, even bullied in high school.

My concern is that dragging the mindset of middle school and high school years into the arena of powerful world politics is just another subtle putdown of women.  In my book, Independence Ring, I state that women exemplify power and men exemplify love and humility.  The roles have been switched to the great detriment of all.  

In middle and high school, powerful young women try to dumb and power themselves down to be less powerful than their boyfriends.  This is a steep downwards slope, as females are the gender that naturally expresses power.  I suspect that the entire rigid hierarchy, mean girls and bullying phenomena that we see in high schools stems from young women not allowing their power to grow and flourish.  They are purposely limiting their power levels to look attractive, focus on clothes, to see and be seen.  The power within them is there, but its natural outlets are being blocked. Repressed power takes the form of pettiness, anger and jealousy.  

Until I read Peggy’s article, I had not thought about high school for years.  I have some advice.  Women, become powerful. No one on the planet cares if you were a dork, dweeb or head cheerleader once you leave your hometown.  There are vast horizons to explore and your great potential to fulfill.