Yesterday we had a very exciting improv theater workshop with my dear IVYs. The topic was "status", and it pisses me off 😄!
Really, it still bothers me since yesterday. I dug deeper than I had imagined. At check-in, I could already feel the anger rising inside me. I know this anger, I always want to dig to its origin. To know where it comes from. This anger is still there this morning, and I'm now putting it on paper.
We sat in a circle. By saying that "status" means nothing to me, I was already proud to stand out of the rest of us. Aha... The others continued to check in, telling me what status meant to them. My anger raged: how did I end up here? Expensive watches, really? What kind of experience is this? I knew it wouldn't bother me this much if I didn't care. So what's really there inside me?..
"What you reject is not available to you". Whatever, let's see. Then there were some improv exercises where we were allowed to slip into different status roles and feel what it does to us. What it does to relationships. I relaxed and realized that I mainly criticize myself for either not being good enough for my roles or playing them badly. The others felt so comfortable with the "status" issue, talking about "I am queen of my world".
Until once in an exercise I fully overwhelmed and dominated someone with my movements and my look. Obviously I can do so much, but it's still not enough. Thank you, mom. It was uncomfortable to see myself suppressing my "status". It was nice to be among women in that moment, among these great inspiring sisters who are so different. Catching up, hugging warmly.
There has been a lot of talk about the status of women in a male-dominated world (and businesswomen in male-dominated industries). How men still show their status by putting their documents on top of other people's documents. Or getting very close to another seated person's private zone with their crotch. Seriously, guys? If that symbolizes someone's status, then that person belongs in the zoo for me. So they can pee on their territory for all I care. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that kind of behavior (anymore). Buehhh 🤢...
For me, status means being free. I am in Germany, free. As a woman, I was not born in Afghanistan and not in Palestine. I am in Germany, white. I can pay my rent in Bonn Südstadt. I am privileged. My "status" makes me responsible for those who have a different "status". Because "status" is always at the expense of others. In nature, in the food chain, there is no "status". We die and are decomposed by fungi. A lion decomposes much faster than a 500-year-old tree. I prefer to be the tree, then I can experience more and have more insights.
I blame status games for the imbalance that humanity has caused on our planet. For enslavement and colonization. For the destructive economy that we are now allowed to enjoy and should please fix very soon. So get rid of it.
What does status mean to you? Do you also feel sickness or do you have a watch collection?
Kommentare