The Age of Difficult Women

I would rather be a Greta than a Taylor on any given day...holding on to ropes on bobbing ships rather than a microphone on a stage.

Give me a green frog hat instead of a barely-there, sequined garment that puts my arse cheeks on display.

Ah, to be that woman! The difficult one that rocks boats, not rocks.

It is so easy to be considered difficult. As women, the more we speak with conviction, the more we stand in our truth, the more "difficult" we are perceived to be. Yet, perhaps the real problem is not that women are too difficult, but that we have not been difficult enough.

For too long, women have poured their energy into making life smoother for others. We have bent and softened, adapted and diminished, ensuring the comfort of men, families, and workplaces that rarely gave the same in return. We were told our flexibility was a strength, and sometimes it was. But too often, it became a trap. The same pressure applies to our sexuality and the objectification of women; we are reared on the idea that image and body consciousness are valuable traits of a "successful" woman. Puh!

That era is ending. The world does not need more women who are palatable, pliable, and patient. It needs women who are untethered, unafraid, and unwilling to shrink themselves any longer.

Look around: the men we’ve “allowed” to lead have shown us what they are made of. Too many of them have been corrupt, power-hungry, greedy, and narcissistic. And the women who operated within these domains, are taking their cues from them, and would eventually fold. Their governance has left us with collapsing democracies, poisoned environments, and societies built on exploitation. And when the earth groans and justice falters, who takes to the streets? Who protests, who organizes, who is willing to be arrested for the audacity of demanding something better?

This is the domain of women, young and old, rich and poor. We lead this struggle, alongside evolved men - not neanderthals.

This is not new. History is rich with women who were branded difficult because they refused to comply. Jane was called difficult when she insisted that animals are not specimens but beings with emotions and lives of their own. Vandana is called difficult for protecting seeds and soil from the grip of corporations. Greta is called difficult for scolding leaders who smile for cameras while the planet burns. These women are not the Taylors of the world; they are torch bearers for change, and essential role models for our youth.

The mantle of difficult is ours to claim. To be difficult is to be daring. To be difficult is to be determined. To be difficult is to say, "Enough. The world will not go on like this."

This is the new age of women: kickass, fearless, and ready to lead. Not in the old way, not through greed or domination, but with truth, care, imagination, and a refusal to accept anything less than justice. The world has already had its fill of leaders who confuse arrogance with strength. The next chapter must be written by those who know that strength also looks like empathy, vision, and persistence.

We are not here to be small. We are not here to make life easier for those who thrive on our silence. We are here to be difficult, to dismantle what is broken, and to build what is needed.

The age of difficult women has come.

You decide: will you be TaylorMade to fit the vision of The Man, or will you be Difficult, Dissentient, and Daring?