This is from an email that a sent to a dear colleague of mine at Builder.ai.
I have not really thought seriously about feminism until meeting you. I just dismissed it as a political movement having to do with women’s rights.
But it is much more than that, isn’t it?
I think it has to do with power. The statement that men like power is true. I have experienced it. As a young man, I wanted to conquer things, to own things. Yes, to make a dent in the Universe, but I had to OWN things. To bend things to my own will.
I think I have outgrown that. I think that is probably an evolved trait (to want to own/conquer things), which somehow helped with reproduction. Thus, the gene that caused that was carried on.
Nowadays I channel my liking of power into creating things (programming is the ultimate open canvas), sports (experiencing the full power one’s body is exhilarating), driving a powerful car hard (oh, yeah, and I’m getting a motorbike), and teaching people things that I have learned.
As I have been observing you lately, what you do, how you lead, and how you stated that you “lead without authority”, I realise I am doing that too now. Leading, but without power. I teach, I inform, I influence, I lead by example. I realise that this is how it should be done.
I think this is the essence of feminism.
To Cara, –Istvan