Forget Lazy Girl and Snail Girl - let's hear it for Butterfly Woman
Pamela Anderson is inspiring for more than her no make-up look
At Paris Fashion Week 2023, one moment dominated headlines: Pamela Anderson went make-up free.
Of course, the headlines had gasps, shock, horror. But also joy! delight! That a woman could and would do this.
It’s not the first time I’ve looked at Pamela Anderson and thought ‘You are really just becoming the most brilliant version of yourself’. From her Netflix doc to her home renovation show, she is blooming. She is soaring.
She’s a Butterfly Woman.
There are quite a few trends lately for going slow, for being a ‘lazy girl’, a ‘snail girl’, even for creating ‘girl dinner’ (where you don’t try) and ‘girl maths’.
Lols to a certain point. But also demeaning. Why are women put into these clichés where we have to be lazy, go slow, not try? Where, in order to prove ourselves, we have to show we’re ‘less than’ and cut corners?
The narrative is flipped when it comes to women in their 40s and 50s: We’re blooming. We’ve spent decades in our chrysalis, working on ourselves, thinking things through, curating and growing and now - now we blossom. Now we thrive. Now we spread our wings and say ‘this is what I am, how I look, what I do’ and we don’t care who doesn’t like it, we just spread our wings and say ‘look! See me! see me as I am!”
For me, a Butterfly Career is about seeing how far we can now fly. Now our wings are ready, they’re beautiful, unapologetically gorgeous, where do we fly to?
Is it a new career, a new project, is it about just enjoying the job we’re in without feeling the pressure to be promoted, or to pivot?
Looking back at the work and jobs I’ve done until this point, it’s really rewarding to see them as a chrysalis phase - as a whole load of forming what was to become who I am today.
As butterflies, we’re not a finished product. But we are ready to be out there - we are feeling bold and beautiful enough.
We still need to fuel ourselves, keep moving, keep dreaming. But at the same time as shining and owning it. No waiting, no laziness, no taking it slow. Pushing forward - soaring.