Another Paige in a Book

Have you heard of Ban Bossy? It’s the new initiative from Lean In and the Girl Scouts that’s trying to ban “bossy” and similar words that are used to bring down girls that are ambitious, take risks, and speak up. By changing the way we treat girls who lead, hopefully our generation will soon see more women in leadership roles. 

Managers of venues at LeakyCons have condescendingly called me “hon” (and instantly regretted it, because I don’t put up with that BS. Steph Dornhelm, Maureen johnson and Matt Maggiacomo know the stories).

It has been assumed with every A/V company except the one that now has our business forever, that we simply have no idea what we’re talking about with regard to sound and production, because we are female.

I have literally had a security manager turn from discussing an issue with me to the man to my right, who was my bodyguard (see: stalking) and in no way authorized to speak on behalf of the conference, and whom he has never met before that moment - but he was male, I was female, and clearly he was the worthy recipient of information, right? I had to jump in front of the security manager’s face and remind him that *I* was his client and my femaleness was not a factor.

In short, I’ve heard ALL the code words for “you are a female in business and I can’t accept that, so I will assign negative behaviors to you where I would celebrate them in a man.”