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Rachel Maria Taylor's avatar

A beautiful sharing, thanks Val. I’ve been on my own journey with the balance of softness and strength, not that I perceive them as binaries; as you’ve pointed out wonderfully, softness can be strength, so then we must unpack our (mostly masculine) depictions and expectations of how “strength” manifests. Someone of the boomer gen – white, male – “explained” to me recently that, as sad as it was, “women just lack the grit that’s needed in business”. Initially in shock and lacking an adequate response, I’ve since thought a lot about the deeply engrained notions of “strength” and “leadership” that persist, and how it undermines everything from politics to business to home life. To compete in a patriarchal system, women learned to exhibit strength in a very particular way, only perhaps this isn’t aligned with the multiple ways we – all people – hold and exercise strength, and pertinently, the diverse and many roles that are needed for our societies and communities to thrive. Anyway, this is to say, I’m very excited to read your newsletters to come, to peer into how you unpack this complex topic in an undoubtedly liberating way ✨✨

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Marloes's avatar

Mooi Valerie!! Zachte kracht 🙏🏻

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