Personal development | The School of Visibility

The Visibility Compendium, May 2019

This month at the School of Visibility we focused on speaking up around controversial topics. We traversed racism, ageism, abortion, disruption of dominant narratives, and taking insufficient and/or too much responsibility in a world of blame and outrage.

Below is where you can scroll through everything we shared and catch up on all the goodness. So grab a cup of tea and let’s get into it!

FROM THE BLOG

I can’t say that, it’s too controversial!
[Topics: leadership | feminism | visibility]
‘To begin, it’s important to remember this about controversial topics; everything that’s really important in the world is controversial in some way.

Think about a few controversial moments in history:

The Suffragettes were ridiculed for being so ‘brazen’ as to presume women would have something valuable to contribute to the political arena.

The second wave of feminists were considered to be destroying families and stealing men’s jobs for

… [Read More...]

What does responsibility have to do with it?

In today’s Tuesday chat I speak about taking responsibility as the antidote to a world that’s almost exclusively focused on expressing blame and outrage.

I speak both about the ways that people in positions of privilege are refusing to take responsibility and the ways people who are not in positions of privilege are expected to take on too much responsibility. (NB: The internet connection cut out toward the end. So expect an abrupt halt to the conversation.)

Once you’ve watched the video, here are some guiding questions to consider;

Where am I not taking responsibility for the privileges I experience in society?
Where am I taking on too much responsibility on behalf of others experiencing privilege?

Question 1: Where am I not taking responsibility for the privileges I experience in society?

If you’ve ever found yourself being yelled at by a person who experiences less privilege than you, this is … [Read More...]

I can’t say that! It’s too controversial

One of the most common things women say about why they’re not speaking up on a topic they’re passionate about is; it’s too controversial. ‘People will be upset, challenged, they won’t understand me’ are some of the ways it’s expressed. So for the next couple of months, we’re running a mini series, where we’ll be diving deep into the topic of controversial visibility.

To begin, it’s important to remember this about controversial topics; everything that’s really important in the world is controversial in some way.

Think about a few controversial moments in history:

The Suffragettes were ridiculed for being so ‘brazen’ as to presume women would have something valuable to contribute to the political arena.
The second wave of feminists were considered to be destroying families and stealing men’s jobs for promoting a woman’s right to work.
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for speaking up against racial injustice.
Oprah’s comment about

… [Read More...]

What would your business look like if…

What would your business look like if it fully embraced the values and energy of the feminine? That’s the topic du jour in this audio recording.

Here’s a snapshot of what you’ll find;

The invitation is to drop stereotypical, very limited understandings of gender (based on societal roles we’ve been playing for centuries), and come into a new way of thinking and being in the world. The businesses that understand this and that harness the power of the authentic masculine and feminine will be the ones that shine in the 21st century.

To get there you have to first understand that we come from a space of judging the feminine.

The consequence of being in the perverted masculine model we’ve been operating under has been an obsession with the mind, with push, and force and making it happen and success at all costs. There’s been a dehumanising of those of … [Read More...]

What is patriarchal conditioning?

This is all about patriarchal conditioning and how it might be affecting you as a woman, particularly with regard to speaking up and being seen and heard in the world. NB: The topic of patriarchal conditioning could be a whole book or PhD in and of itself so consider this just a short introduction.

To begin to understand patriarchal conditioning, it’s easiest to think about social conditioning and the ways you’re affected by the society you live in.

Start with the community you grew up in. It had a set of rules and expectations about how you behave, show up for one another, who gets a say, who doesn’t, who’s valued and who’s not. Most children absorb all of that without anyone critiquing it for them, which means they simply take on those ideas as ‘normal’ and assume that’s just the way life is.

If you don’t ever take the … [Read More...]