Settle for More
After reading the book, I could not stop thinking. I admire so many aspects of Ms. Kelly's life, particularly her equal commitment to her career and to her family. The Kelly family's blunt, yet tactful, honesty mimics how I try to work through my life and relationships, for I pride myself in sometimes brutal honesty. Ms. Kelly's rhetorical skills as a lawyer and journalist demonstrate her consistent work ethic and, when coupled with her intelligence, make her a formidable presence in the work force. If I were the same age and in the same field as Ms. Kelly, I believe we would work well together.
Some aspects about her book perturbed me. She often proclaimed the importance of hard work, emphasizing her commitment to success through her undeniable desire to win. Disguised as a quintessential achievement of the American Dream, Ms. Kelly fully believes in the power of self-made success. Although I believe myself to be equally devoted to hard work, I simply cannot share in the belief that hard work alone is the key to lifetime success, for I know many people who struggle their whole lives to make ends meet, working just as hard as anyone else. This conundrum forced me to ask the question, does hard work really work? I am still pondering the answer to this.
Ms. Kelly herself does not identify as a feminist, but relates to many of the ideals. I understand her hesitancy to use the word feminism, as many people believe it to be alienating and narrow-minded in scope. However, I often am reminded of JK Rowling's famous words, "Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself." Ms. Kelly is far more competitive with women than her counterpart, Sheryl Sandberg, and this kind of tension between women in the work force can only end in detriment to women themselves. One aspect of this quasi-feminism-not-called-feminism that really disturbed me occurred in Ms. Kelly's experiences with sexual harassment. As a journalist and a news anchor, she experienced significant harassment from Roger Ailes, the CEO of Fox News, and Donald Trump.
Amidst these experiences, Ms. Kelly remained silent for a significant amount of time to save her career and her character. I admire her patience and her self-restraint during these trying experiences, and her lack of retaliation proved much on her part. Despite this, I fear that her silence merely extended the lines of harassment. Many cases of harassment could have been prevented had she, and other women, spoken out earlier. (Roger Ailes recently resigned from Fox after these allegations began to emerge.)
Perhaps my disagreements with Ms. Kelly arise from our generational and personal differences. I simply do not possess the desire to win as she does, and I am certainly the furthest thing from patient and self-restraining. Ask any of my friends; I am quick to point out injustice, and I will argue over just about anything, mostly good-naturedly of course. While I admire Megyn Kelly's distinct prevention of relativism (the idea that everyone is different and that's ok), I simply believe there is more to life than the fact that some people will end up on top due to a certain combination of factors.
The meaning of truth, success, and hard work in the 21st century is far more fluid than in the past, and thus, I believe that there must be a greater sense of community. When the focus is moved from success and winning to love and community, everyone benefits, rather than the unilateral benefit of an elite group. This thinking does not promote a world of participation trophies, but a world where trophies are no longer the mark of human dignity. For my Theological Inquiry class last semester, I wrote a 17 page paper regarding how to approach differences and promote an inclusive, caring world, especially within the academic, religious, and spiritual realms. If I had to sum up my knowledge gained from the class, it would come down to my concluding sentence of the paper, one I would like to say to Ms. Kelly if I ever received the chance.
Comments
Post a Comment