Well where do I begin? My blog
has been inspired by the 3rd and 4th season of the Celebrity
Apprentice. I like the whole concept of combining the corporate world,
celebrity status and philanthropist work all done with a bit of swagger. What could be better than watching a group of
people trying to compete with each other and all for a good cause? Lately I
have found myself with more disturbing questions than answers. I feel like I am
being forced to make introspection and I cannot keep quiet about this. You see
I am a feminist, independent and I believe that all things being equally woman
can achieve what man have achieved and even exceed. To add to it we can do it
in stilettos, lipsticks and nature kids in the same breath. Even thou a lot have been done for the
equality of woman in and outside the corporate environment in the past decades,
I cannot help but feel like we still have a long way to go.
Let me take you through my
observation about Donald Trump’s celebrity Apprentice. He gets a number of celebrities
and divides them into two groups and they are given a project or task, they
agree on a project manager, do the work, and a winning concept is chosen and
the losing team meets Mr Trump in the boardroom were someone will be fired. I
have watched season 3 of the show and I am currently watching season 4. I am
going to be honest with you guys, when I watch shows like this; I always
support the women’s team. I do not even
hide it, the feminist in me just says I believe in you and you can do it. In
the two seasons I must say I have been disappointed. (Let me confess I have
cheated already, because of the women’s behaviour in the last two episode I
have already consulted “Uncle Google” on how it all kind of plays out in the
end.)
Last season I watched as the
woman’s team tear each other down in the boardroom, in full view of the other
team who seem to enjoy watching the boardroom cat fights. All that Donald Trump
has to do is just ask one provoking question and the women will just pour their
hearts out, living cracks in the team that cannot be repaired. I could also not
help but to watch how the men’s team always hold back about talking negative
about each other when it is not called for, they focus on the person’s performance
on the given task than being personal. I watched in agony as the woman’s team
loses episode after episode or at each other’s throat until Donald Trump
reshuffles the team. At the end I was sad when Holly Robinson Peete was not
crowned the 3rd Celebrity Apprentice, even though she was my favourite,
not only because she is a woman, but I really respected her passion and fire
for the charity she was raising funds for. (You can read more by visiting http://www.hollyrod.org/)
I was so excited when MNET moved
the 4th Celebrity Apprentice to prime time and I must say I have
been watching religiously, cheering the women’s team with so much enthusiasm, I
mean with the likes of Star Jones, La Toya Jackson, NeNe Leakes, Dionne Warwick
and Lisa Rinna; it surely makes for interesting viewing. The team were doing so
well and wining most of the tasks. I am surely enjoying the drama but hoping
this time the women would have learned from the previous season and not lose
focus. Sadly it is like the women have taken from where the women’s team from
the previous season has left off. The infighting, the cat fights that goes from
the boardroom to their lounge( even after winning a task) and carries over to
their next task. You have members taking things personally and calling each
other names after a boardroom session with Donald Trump and his team. Donald
Trump continues to ask probing question and one of the women never disappoints,
one of them will surely start talking like a broken record without thinking
about the consequences and how it affects their overall survival and strength
of their team. It is as if the women’s team care more about their emotions and
nursing them, than the overall point, which is supposed to be about beating the
other team while winning money for their charities.
Do not get me wrong I have also
noticed men gang up on one of their team members Gary Buses , but they were
all in solidarity, and it was about trying to get rid of the weak link in the team and they
succeeded. They all agreed that he was distractive and his lack of focus and
concentration made him a liability to the team.On the other hand the women takes
it personally when a team member does not agree with them; they go on to call
each other names like manipulative,
evil, fake, phoney, pretentious, licking ass and conniving. To me when words
like that are used over and over I automatically associate them with character
assassination. When words like that are used to
describe a team member they create a barrier and block your ability to hear each
other’s ideas and make good judgement that could benefit the team. It becomes
about proving the point and they miss the point at the end.
I have watched over and over as women’s team
fail over and over to put their differences aside and focus on the goal which
is winning the task and watch the men’s team as they face Donald Trump, from the comfort of the lounge over a
glass of wine. I feel like following the
show has held a mirror in my face and forced a reflection in my face, and sort
of shed the light to why it is hard for us as women with all the rights and
laws that are supposed to work for us are still finding it hard to make
progress as teams or individuals in our personal and professional lives. I am forced to acknowledge that the pull me
down syndrome is not a myth but a reality, as long as we do not know how to turn one of
our biggest character, which is being emotional into a strength, use it for our
good not tearing each other down.
I mean let us face it, this is
not just a challenge in the boardroom, and the toxic rivalry can still be found
in our personal lives. Take the
following scenarios for instance, it is “normal” and justifiable for a woman to
go out with a man with kids from a previous relationship and the woman goes out
of their way to make sure that the man has no relationship with his kids or
takes care of them, a woman will go out with a married man knowing very well
that it will tear the wife apart when she finds out but justifies it in her
heart, even take it further goes and falls pregnant and go out of her way to make
sure that the wife finds out and make sure she is torments her about it.
Let us face it we have guts and when
our minds are made up we do not fight fair. I guess if we invested and
channelled the energy positively a lot of corporation, partnerships, and
empires would have been thriving. I am of the view that woman who seeks to be
equal with man lack ambition (Marilyn Monroe), but when you empower a woman you
empower a family, a village and the whole nation. I think we need to make
changes to get ahead in life and business and the largest room in the world is
the room for improvement. I hope I have learned my lesson and I can go out and make the necessary changes in my own life .
