Opening night responses to Atlas Shrugged Part 1 showed an appreciative audience to a complex and mentally stimulating cinematic presentation.
Dagny Taggart (played by Taylor Schilling) a powerful young CEO of family owned Train Corporation, gives a strong and compelling performance as a young female executive who finds herself at the top of a floundering corporation.
Through the past few years, we have seen an emerging theme across the span of ages which begs the question; ‘Are women leaders the glamorous, cold, heartless, unlovable, power driven bitches of the big screen or are real life female leaders actually creating an entirely new archetype in world formally reserved for (men only)?’ Are the women leaders of today’s confused corporate environment creating an entirely new role model for young women coming up through the ranks?
The Dagny Taggart character is a young woman, mid-late 20’s in the role of CEO sharing the role with her unwise, politically motivated, uncouth brother. Dagny’s youthful age represents a female historically considered the ‘maidens role’. The archetype ‘maiden’ is regarded as naturally beautiful, innocent and pure.
Although Dagny is a beautiful, young, female leader, she is branded as cold and unfeeling. Hollywood does portray her as amazingly attractive having youth, beauty and power. Her character is appealing to the audience.
In the recent Sandra Bullock film The Proposal, she plays Margaret Tate, the executive editor in chief of a book publishing company. She is extremely attractive, powerful, unmarried and disliked by her subordinates because she is considered pushy and cold. The archetypal role for this age group has been recognized as the mature nurturer or mother.
Finally in the Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Steep gives an unforgettable performance in the role of ruthless, cynical Miranda Priestly, New York City’s biggest magazine editor. Historically, she would be the archetypal role of crone, yet in this film she is mother to two twin daughters. Though beautiful, she is unreachable and her husband finds it intolerable to live in the shadows of his wife’s outrageous success and finally divorces her towards the end of the film.
Are real women actually playing out these Hollywood fabrications? Yeah or Nay? The emerging role of female leadership leaves many confused. Do women and men know how to be with each other in the new rapidly changing leadership roles? If women model themselves after men previously in the positions they now hold, do they, by their very nature of emulating the male role lose all sense of grace and beauty in exchange for some form of respect and potency?
Can a woman remain beautiful from the inside out and wield the strength and power to drive the engines of a corporation to success? The answers are emerging as we two step through the confusing dance of new gender behaviors. Women leaders find themselves trying on power and strength as they had in a previous era tried on a Mink coat or Easter bonnet.
A significant under current in corporations is the transformation of female leadership roles. How inwardly beautiful or outwardly effective women are in the materializing female leadership positions of our corporate environment will through this era be permanently changed. Though the emerging archetype has not yet been officially defined and established, like a swinging pendulum we are finding new fodder for growth and conversation in the age of equality.
Rev Julie Renee is the NAPW’s Woman of the Year, Speaker, Author, Master Healer. To contact Rev. Julie Renee for your next speaking event please call: 877-477-5521
Related Articles can be found on her blog www.BlogJulieRenee.com She can be heard on air, 9am PST Thursday mornings www.BlogtalkRadio.com/MiraculousLivingToday. contact website www.Julierenee.com and her Blog www.BlogJulieRenee.com
Related supports available on www.Julierenee.com
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