Super(wo)man

Aunt Ariane helping Eléa realize her career goals

Well........we were hoping Supreme Court justice.  Or chair of the Anthropology Department at Harvard.  Even good ol' doctor or lawyer would have been fine.  But no, our little girl has expressed her aspirations early, and in no uncertain terms: she wants to be Superwoman when she grows up!

Now, some might say, "That's great.  She's challenging received gender roles."  But is she?  She might just be shoring up the notion that to deserve the prefix "super" one must develop hypertonic pectoral muscles, run around chasing victims of systemic discrimination, eschew any sort of teamwork (thereby lending weight to Margret Thatcher's position on the "issue" of society), and wear a bunch of funny-colored spandex.  I tried to corner her about the matter this afternoon, to see what her real intentions are: are you going to transform our conceptions of "super" and "man," thereby propelling humanity into that trans-cultural realm beyond the known?  Or are you simply going to insert a "wo" between "super" and "man"?  She looked at me, turning the matter over in her mind, then promptly spat up all over me.  If I knew anything about the art of divination I might have inspected her drool more carefully.  Maybe I'll suggest law school to her when she's in a better mood.