Ban Bossy, a Fight for Equality or Victimization

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The Ban Bossy campaign in theory is a great stride for equality, but what I have come to realize after researching Sandberg’s standpoint is that there are other aspects of feminism which this campaign may be overstepping. This being said, I do not agree that bossy is going to halt a woman’s or a young girl’s qualities of leadership and assertiveness; it may just quell a situation in which one individual is asserting their own beliefs and opinions on others in a dominant way. My challenge to Sandberg’s campaign is my disagreement that the word bossy is not as spiteful and upsetting as it as being portrayed, and that drawing attention to this word may be causing more problems than it is fixing.
To fully understand this dispute it is helpful to see Ban Bossy’s argument firsthand and this argument is as follows:

1. Women ought to have equal treatment/opportunities
2. Females who assert themselves and assume leadership roles are labeled bossy.
3. Bossy is a term used most often to describe a female
4. Bossy is demeaning and bars women from fulfilling their true leadership potential.
5. Therefore, we ought to ban the word bossy to allow women to achieve their true potential
This argument is valid but not even close to being sound. Yes I agree that if these premises were true that we would need to seriously contemplate banning this word for the sake of women everywhere. The fact is that these are not sound premises and that is where we run into problems.
Clearly premise one is undeniably true, premises two and three are also true to an extent. I say to an extant due to premise two. This is because bossy describes someone who is forcing rules, opinions, or actions onto someone else. A loose interpretation of the word could determine t...

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...women-in-leadership/2014/mar/17/sheryl-sandbergs-ban-bossy-campaign-shows-we-still-dont-think-of-women-as-leaders>.
Robyn Urback. “Ban bossy campaign aims to outlaw debilitating word, but women don’t need the protection." National Post Full Comment Robyn Urback Ban bossy campaign aims to outlaw debilitating word but women dont need theprotection Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .
Friedman, Ann. "The Problem With Sheryl Sandberg's 'Ban Bossy' Campaign." The Cut. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .
Sandberg, Sheryl. "Ban Bossy. Encourage Girls to Lead." Ban Bossy. Encourage Girls to
Lead. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. <http://banbossy.com/#>.

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