{"id":394,"date":"2015-04-19T13:28:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-19T20:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amberbird.com\/blog\/?p=394"},"modified":"2016-05-17T18:30:25","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T01:30:25","slug":"not-ashamed-awesome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amberbird.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/19\/not-ashamed-awesome\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Ashamed: Awesome"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you haven’t already, please read the introduction post<\/a>. That will give you context for this page.<\/p>\n

\n

This is the only edit I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made to the list since I initially posted it. (And I just decided to do it 8 April, 2015, which is when I wrote the first draft of this.) When I first posted the Not Ashamed list on Facebook, and again when I posted it as a web page at the start of this series, my amazingstrongamazonwarrior and awesome herself friend Anne sent me a comment that she thought my list should also include \u00e2\u20ac\u0153awesome.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Both times, I noted that it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fit because the list was specifically about labels that could be or could have been applied to me that people thought I ought to be ashamed of. And who would ever suggest someone feel ashamed of being awesome?<\/p>\n

But then, in a lot of different ways the week leading up to writing this, I was reminded that, in fact, this label too could be included on the list. Oh, humans…<\/p>\n

In a different post, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll talk about my self esteem, which is one side of this label. Because, in fact, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t disagree with Anne. I do rather consider myself awesome. Maybe not everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cup of tea, and certainly a strong cup of tea. But, by my tastes and measures, awesome. Today, I want to talk about why I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here to declare that I am awesome and that I am not ashamed of that.<\/p>\n

I want to further clarify that my only experiences and observations have come as a biological female in English-speaking Western cultures. I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen it in other contexts, but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean this doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t apply to biological males or to people in other cultures and countries. Though I really hope it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t….<\/p>\n

To be clear, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not talking here about bragging or about otherwise making it clear that you think your awesome traits make you better than other people (where \u00e2\u20ac\u0153better\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means \u00e2\u20ac\u0153of greater intrinsic value,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153more capable in a particular way,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because it is just a fact that not everyone is the same amount of good at everything as everyone else). That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not something I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m condoning. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a big believer that we are all of equal and great intrinsic worth.<\/p>\n

Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little choose your own adventure with which most females will be familiar and that demonstrates the sort of situation about which I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m writing.<\/p>\n

Someone approaches a female to offer her a compliment (this someone can be male or female, a stranger or a friend). It might be about her brawn, her brains, her beauty, her talents, her skills, or any other thing about her that might be praiseworthy. At this point, she has a few options for response, but most of those options lead to the same result.<\/p>\n

If she wants to stay within acceptable social behaviours, she will do one of the following:<\/p>\n